Christmas Day 2009

As usual, we had a wonderful Christmas Day. This year it was Mum who woke us up at 6.15am (she is 72 and really loves the whole gift giving deal). As is tradition, the five of us sat on our bed while the kids went through their Santa Sacks. They don't look in them; they just put their hand in and pull out whatever they can find. It's a happy way to start the day.

In other years, after the sack openings we have gone and done our outside jobs and done any last minute cooking that needs doing. This year we came straight out to the tree and exchanged gifts. There's plenty of laughs to be had here as well and as Gibbo says every year, we all did very well. Megan gave Gibbo a "small boys" protector for his cricket matches; he was a bit stunned when he opened it. I got some lovely gifts as I always do.

I put the chicken wings on to cook while I went and fed my chooks. Drew and I peeled the eggs for MaMa's very tasty Stuffed Eggs and I made the "stuffing" with a little bit of this and a little bit of that and a taste and a bit more of this and that. Next it was the caramel sauce for the sticky date puddings and then that was the end of the cooking.

Peter arrived about 10am, in true Brewer style - with a book under his arm. Only he (and I) would take a book to such an occasion. Mate arrived around 11am and we prepared lunch. Megan set the table using the decorations she had chosen a couple of weeks ago.

We had roast pork, roast chicken, ham, mini quiches, honey soy chicken wings, prawn salad, pasta salad, beetroot and onion, Mum's special salad dressing and stuffed eggs followed by individual sticky date puddings with caramel sauce sprinkled with pecan nuts, ice-cream and custard. Everyone ate too much.

I wore the new earrings and scarf that Drew gave me.

After lunch we sat down to watch a movie except Mate, who went for a walk around the garden. I went out to him and we sat talking at the table for a while; then I took him around to see the chooks and then we sat talking at the computer while I looked something up for him. He left not long after that, back home.

Peter left about 4 o'clock; Gibbo went for a run around the feedlot then did some work on his chook pen, Mum watched tv, the kids worked on their rubiks cubes as the three of us also watched Ice Age 3.

Later, Drew and I went out and marked out the framework for my permaculture garden. Mum came and helped. We marked out the perimeter plus the 6 chook station sites and the pond site in the middle too. I'm slowly progressing with it. There'll be lots of scraps for the chook station over the next six days.

Gibbo loaded songs onto his new ipod; the rest of us watched a Greenday concert/cleaned up/read/watched the other tv. I fell asleep on the couch, reading the Tramping in New Zealand book that Meg gave me. It's very motivating. Milford Sound, here I come.

Goodnight from here; it's 11.57pm so Christmas is almost gone for another year; Merry Christmas if you're just waking up to it.