Bit late in posting this, but since I put up my New Years post, I thought I'd do my xmas one whilst I was at it. This year xmas is huge for us. The entire family is back from overseas with the addition of a new family member as well! This is why I went a bit nuts with the shopping this year. We totalled 91 presents beating last years 72 presents!
As as we had a few of the young ones with us this year, I decided to play up the whole Santa thing and went all out. After spending a few days revving the kids up on Santa, I went and printed out some Santa gift wrapping paper and a letter from Santa using Santa's own letter head:
Each present had a personalised letter with comments such as "Do not chuck anymore tantrums otherwise Santa will put you on the BAD LIST next year" to "Sorry I couldn't visit you earlier, but you did not have a chimney in your house".
The presents all wrapped upThe young ones even went and wrapped a present for Santa and made a card for him ontop of laying out the cookies and milk as well as a bowl of cherries.
After the kids all fell asleep, I snuck into the living room (Where all the kids were having a slumber party) and took all the presents, tipped out the milk, took bites out of the cookies and left some cherry seeds behind. Then I left a note from Santa as well as the presents.
7am I was woken by the screams of "SANTA CAME!! SANTA CAME!!!". My niece, came up to me when I walked out and said that I was Santa because the gift wrapping paper was printed out! This is when I play my dumb look and pretend to go back to sleep. Damn that girl is smart!
We had to wait around until about 11am before it was time to open the presents. This took us over 1.5hrs with the amount of presents we had. I basically sat at the tree and randomly picked a present. All the presents were opened one at a time:
We had to wait around until about 11am before it was time to open the presents. This took us over 1.5hrs with the amount of presents we had. I basically sat at the tree and randomly picked a present. All the presents were opened one at a time:
Santa's present
Wearing their presents
One of the best presents of the day was actually given from a very close family friend. Her mother passed away a few months ago, and we treated her like our 3rd Grandmother. She treated my father better than her own son and if it wasn't for her, we wouldn't be living in Australia today. She found out my sister in law was pregnant but didn't live to see the baby. The present below was a little gold bangle that belonged to her when she was a baby girl. Instead of passing it to her daughter, she left it for my brother's first child. This brought tears to all of our eyes, in particular my sister in law and mother. I've made it very clear to my brother it is his responsibility to keep it within the family.
The family heirloom
Ashley the lucky girl (in the dress I bought!)After all the presents were opened, the kids went off to play with their new toys whilst the adults prepared the xmas lunch.
My 4 bean and corn salad
Ham and pineapple skewers
Jellyfish salad
Turkey
Ham and Smoked Salmon cold platter
Verjuice vinaigrette for the smoked salmon
Chinese crunchy noodle salad
Hokkien fried noodles
Gluten and egg free fried rice for Jess (That's duck egg you see)
For everyone else - The orange dots you see is egg roe
BBQ TIME!!
Grilling the Nem Nuong
Table shot
Table shot #2
Jelly Belly for DIY dessertWe also had a sago and taro coconut soup and a watermelon and grass jelly dessert. But by that time I felt more stuffed than a Turkey that I just laid down on the couch and tried to pass out. That is until we turned the karaoke machine on which continued for a good 5 hours!!!
We had so much food left over we ended up eating the same things again for dinner, and again for breakfast. After dinner when the other guests had gone home, we decided to sit around the livingroom playing chinese whispers. This was a complete disaster. Phrases went from "Jonathan has smelly armpits" and came out as "King Oyster". Like WTF?
The problem was my dad's english isn't good. My nephews and neice's chinese is just as bad. Meanwhile, my sister was busy having a laughing fit EVERY TIME it was her turn. Probably why we ended up with a "Uncle's milk smells like a pig". Oh so wrong.......by oh so like my family!!
I don't know when our next all family reunion is going to be, but I hope it'll be soon. We should always cherish occasions like this when we have a chance.
We had so much food left over we ended up eating the same things again for dinner, and again for breakfast. After dinner when the other guests had gone home, we decided to sit around the livingroom playing chinese whispers. This was a complete disaster. Phrases went from "Jonathan has smelly armpits" and came out as "King Oyster". Like WTF?
The problem was my dad's english isn't good. My nephews and neice's chinese is just as bad. Meanwhile, my sister was busy having a laughing fit EVERY TIME it was her turn. Probably why we ended up with a "Uncle's milk smells like a pig". Oh so wrong.......by oh so like my family!!
I don't know when our next all family reunion is going to be, but I hope it'll be soon. We should always cherish occasions like this when we have a chance.
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