Our First Christmas Without Them.

The boys were so excited about Christmas which was nice because it would've been easy for me to just not worry about Christmas at all this year.   We would usually wake up at home and open up presents before heading out to my Mum and Dad's at lunch time, but this year I didn't want to wake up on our own, so we headed to my Mum and Dad's to stay on Christmas Eve.

The boys were so excited because my brother Chrish has got three months long service leave from work, and has come home for three months (minus a month or so when he will be travelling to the USA - so jealous - wish I was going with him!).

The beautiful Cupcake Fairy - Nic gave the boys some bags of reindeer food to put out which they were excited about.   The reindeers obviously weren't that hungry though as they didn't eat very much of it.  Harri was surprised to see it on the lawn on Boxing Day still (and Mum was silly enough to think that the reindeers and the wind would actually get rid of it).

Kobe was excited to give Santa some milk and cookies and the boys thought it was funny that Santa had left some cookie crumbs near the back door the next morning. 

I was surprised that Harri didn't wake up till 6.30 am on Christmas (supposedly Jay had woken up about 3.30 am and had snuck down to get his presents from Santa because I told him he could if he woke up early, and then went back to sleep).  By 7 am the boys couldn't wait anymore and decided it was time to wake up Kobe so we could go downstairs to open up presents.

Jay had been talking about getting a Wii U for months as he knew it was coming out and had read lots about it on the internet.   I couldn't justify spending that much money on a new console when we already had the old Wii, but when Jay said he would save up his pocket money and birthday money to put towards it, I knew he would appreciate it a lot more.  He was excited to finally get it on Christmas morning.   

Mum made us a beautiful cooked breakfast and we had to drag the boys away from the Wii U to come and eat with us. 

For lunch we headed out to my brother Eden and his wife Steph's house.  Chrish drove with us and we kept stopping along the way to take photos.

My lovely sister in laws Steph and Becky both organised Christmas lunch for us all and gave out a few assignments of what to bring, but did most of it themselves.  I felt bad that I wasn't doing my fair share but they were so lovely in making Christmas as easy as possible for me this year.   We decided a few months ago to make it as simple as possible and had a lovely BBQ with salads, prawns and ham.

Steph's sister Scarlet and her husband Jony joined us and it was so lovely to have them with us.

I felt really sad all morning and just really wanted the day to be over with, but it got easier as the day went on.  After lunch the kids started to have fun with the water guns and playing in the sprinkler.

Eden then pulled out a huge roll of black plastic and got a slip 'n' slide happening in the back yard. The kids thought it was the best thing ever and even some of the adults joined in on the fun.

It looked like so much fun, so I ended up getting my bathers on and having a turn too.  I wasn't quite as graceful as the kids but it was lots of fun! It was much more fun having the boys pull us.

We then all headed to the beach to meet up with lots of my cousins and Uncle and Aunties.  We didn't get down there until around 5.30 pm but it was such a beautiful day still. Everyone had lots of fun playing cricket, swimming, chatting and playing frisbee.

Everyone had a laugh about Dad and Uncle Tom dressing the same. They are obviously brothers!

My sister Nicki and her husband Alex and the kids flew into Hobart that morning, and arrived at the beach later in the evening. It was lovely to see them and we all then headed back to Eden and Steph's for dessert and for the kids to swap presents.  We decided that each child just buys for one of their cousins and it's nice because it makes things a lot simpler and easier for everyone. 

Becky had borrowed some cool ice cream makers from her work and everyone had fun rolling them back and forth to each other, to make ice cream.
What started out as a really sad day, turned out to be a nice day in the end. I was so glad that it turned out to be the year when all of my brothers were home for Christmas because every second year we have a quiet Christmas where it's just Mum and Dad and us and the Watson family.  It was nice to have everyone together this year (except of course Aaron and Noah).  It was also nice to do something different to what we would other years and I loved going to the beach and seeing other families that I love on Christmas Day too.

Past posts about Christmas Day are here (our first Christmas without Noah), 2010, 2009, 2008, and 2007.