It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year~
This Last year's Christmas rocked for the following reasons (in reverse order):
5) Assembling Christmas Trees with mah little girl
4) Practical household items as presents (my dishwashing detergent supply was replenished - whoo! \o/)
3) Chocolate and Sweets/Treats as presents
2) Lots of FOOD!!
1) Filo Family Christmas Parties
And this last year's Christmas celebration was doubly more enjoyable because for once almost everyone was present - minus all the AU-expat relos currently living in London.
Still, even without them there was a pretty large gathering of extended families.
Because we were able to come home on Christmas Eve from the in-law's house this last year, I decided to make an effort to contribute to the feast and made some Mexican Beef Salad and Maja Blanca.
Having very little in common with the rest of my family and somewhat socially awkward when left on my own, I'm usually a wall flower at these gatherings. But I enjoy being in the company of everyone else and listening in on the "olds" crazy stories and jokes.
This last year's family Christmas party was the first for Ninjaspawn. At 10 months, she's still too young to really appreciate what's going on and she bawled her eyes out at anyone who tried to carry her (besides me, chuuchuu and my parents). But next year I'm hoping she gets to play more with her second cousins and interact with her uncles and aunts without turning on the waterworks.
I manged to rope chuuchuu into being Santa, but there were so many presents to distribute that half the crowd got bored and went to eat some more.
5) Assembling Christmas Trees with mah little girl
4) Practical household items as presents (my dishwashing detergent supply was replenished - whoo! \o/)
3) Chocolate and Sweets/Treats as presents
2) Lots of FOOD!!
1) Filo Family Christmas Parties
And this last year's Christmas celebration was doubly more enjoyable because for once almost everyone was present - minus all the AU-expat relos currently living in London.
Still, even without them there was a pretty large gathering of extended families.
Because we were able to come home on Christmas Eve from the in-law's house this last year, I decided to make an effort to contribute to the feast and made some Mexican Beef Salad and Maja Blanca.
Having very little in common with the rest of my family and somewhat socially awkward when left on my own, I'm usually a wall flower at these gatherings. But I enjoy being in the company of everyone else and listening in on the "olds" crazy stories and jokes.
This last year's family Christmas party was the first for Ninjaspawn. At 10 months, she's still too young to really appreciate what's going on and she bawled her eyes out at anyone who tried to carry her (besides me, chuuchuu and my parents). But next year I'm hoping she gets to play more with her second cousins and interact with her uncles and aunts without turning on the waterworks.
I manged to rope chuuchuu into being Santa, but there were so many presents to distribute that half the crowd got bored and went to eat some more.