December 25th

CHRISTMAS!

The kids graciously let us sleep in until 6am on the dot. Last year Stephen and I had to go and wake up Sophie and Felix, but kids never sleep in when you want them to.

Opening stockings with Goblyn.






Sweet, goofy kids with their Minecraft Creeper necklaces.






Robyn got an Australian Christmas book from Santa.




Judy got a new bag.




And Leah got a stash of honeycomb.




Up next: opening the iPad Minis. I'm not sure where we go from here as parents. I guess we'll have to buy them all Audis next Christmas.






After thoroughly spoiling our offspring, we headed down to Perth to the rellies' house for Christmas lunch and swimming.






Dean provided the festivities with Skittles vodka.




Wearing our Christmas cracker hats.






Secret Santa! We ended up with a sweet emu mug.




Dayna (who is gorgeous) with Auntie Judy's lemon curd pie (which is also gorgeous).






Dana and Auntie Diane!




Stephen and Jemma. We all sort of fight over getting attention from her.




Mean Tim and his brother, Jeremy, with Jeremy's baby boy, Austin. Austin is probably the most laid back baby ever born.




After dinner, we drove down to the beach for a bit. Unfortunately the Gorder Santa photos are on their camera.
The four of us (NEVER happens, so hopefully my mom will be pleased).








A group of dorks.






Getting Bryan off the beach basically involves threats and bribes. And by the time that you've rounded him up, Stephen has wandered off. It's like herding cats.




Sweet! All caught up. Today (Boxing Day) has been quiet. We've gone swimming at the next door neighbor's house, and tonight the whole Robertson/Feldhusen crew is heading up for dinner. I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone again.

(OMG, those lines through the photos is going to make me nuts.)

December 24th

Christmas Eve!!

I did a dreadful job of taking photos today, but I know that Gorder has some great ones. We went to City Beach for the day, and let the kids (including Bryan) have a blast with the boogie boards. We basically had to drag Sophie and Bryan out of there, whining the whole way (well, Sophie wasn't...).

He's an engineer, which means that when he goes to the beach, he builds a cover for his feet and a beer holder.






It was a windy, but really gorgeous day.




Back up to Kalamunda with some really tired kids. Once we got them into bed, we wrapped as fast as we could, and were asleep just after 11pm (which I think is the latest that we've managed to stay up on the whole trip).


Matt Mittens got into all kinds of trouble on Christmas Eve. While wrapping this present for Felix, he apparently had some sort of huge mishap.




And pre-Christmas morning chaos with a big green line through it. Let's just pretend that it makes the photo more festive.

December 23rd

Once again, I'm days behind. My dad has given me a gentle nudge to get caught up, so I'm going to try. Falling behind is too easy when there's so much hanging out and doing nothing to be accomplished.

On Sunday, Leah and I went into the Kalamunda shops to do some last minute Christmas shopping, and ended up having a nice, relaxing lunch at the Zig Zag cafe. Bryan and Stephen were in charge of wrangling the kids, and it was nice to have a bit of quiet time.
I love kangaroo paws.




Once home, we asked Uncle Ken to please take the guys out to the pub for a well-earned break (and to get them totally out of our hair). Leah and I loaded up the kids and took them to Dawson's nursery, which was a favorite from our last trip. We needed to pick up a few gifts for Auntie Judy, and it's a great place for the kids to play and have ice cream while the adults have Devonshire tea.
Unfortunately Leah is terrible at eating scones, and refused jam and then barely scraped the cream on. I had finally had enough of this foolishness, and taught her the proper way to enjoy food.






Back up to the house in the late afternoon, because the rellies were arriving for dinner. We were all really excited, because a) we got to have paella for dinner and b) we were going to the airport afterwards to meet the cousins.

Wee beasts with their dinner.




Our amazing meal (mine is missing chicken legs and mussels).








And since we're going for the gold in terms of eating, why not add dessert to it? Judy believes in keeping a healthy selection of ice cream bars around.




Leah is flat out obsessive about honeycomb. This is a vanilla ice cream, dipped in chocolate, and then dipped in honeycomb.




Leah is also really enjoying the regional wine.




And finally, to the airport to greet the cousins. You can't hear the noise that accompanied this scene, but just imagine 150 kids trying to talk over each other, and you'll have an idea.




(And again, I apologize for the weird lines through the photos. I can't tell if it's a Blogspot thing or a Photobucket thing, but I just can't get around to re-uploading. Too many naps and hours on the patio to get through, you know.)

December 22nd

I'm being terribly lazy about the blog this time around. My apologies. Have been way too busy taking naps and hanging out and having a glass of wine at night to keep up.

On Saturday, Stephen started out the day strong. He woke up early, had some coffee and breakfast, and then went for a marathon nap while sitting on the patio. He's lucky that the kids didn't decorate him for Christmas.




After he got his beauty rest, we headed down into Perth to meet up with a fellow Thunder fan. That was really fun, especially getting to deliver a shirt sent from another OKC guy. Unfortunately I'm an idiot and forgot to take photos. You'll just have to trust me that he's a lovely person and that we ate some good pizza.

Then on to King's Park to let the kids frolic for a while. I didn't take a lot of photos, because we're going back for a picnic at some point. The kids (including Bryan) had a great time.












We zoomed back up the hill to get ready for Dean, Mio, baby Jemma, Steve, and Kerri's arrival. Tonight's dinner: grilled salmon.






Leah is quickly becoming the favorite of Uncle Ken's. Bah.




He still loves me too. Negative attention is still attention, so just pretend Bryan isn't there.




Sophie wants to move here to live with Kerri. (Those who read the blog last time may recognize the dress that Sophie lives in. Her cousins Declan and Paddy gave it to her for Christmas in 2010, and it's her favorite thing of all time.)






Mio, Robyn, and Jemma. OMG, Jemma is so cute that we all fall over each other to get her to pay attention to us.






Sunset!




And conference of the dorks.




King of the dorks.




And the whole crew, minus Felix and Kerri (who was taking the photo).