Christmas #2 (The real one, 25/12/06)
Woke up at the crack of dawn to the sound of pouring rain. Not unlike today.
It had been raining all night, much needed rain once again arriving at an inconvenient time. But welcome nonetheless.
Christmas day in Melbourne was seriously freezing. Bear in mind it is the middle of summer. Often it is over 30c on Christmas day. This year it was approximately 10c. And raining/hailing all day. I have never seen so much hail! It was almost like a white christmas! In fact, it did snow on the mountains. Snow at Christmastime - that's unheard of in Australia! Except maybe in Tasmania. It's always cold there.
We got up early - Grandma and Papa were due at 7am for present opening. You would think us girls were four and eight years old, not twenty-four and twenty-eight!!
Grandma and Papa were uncharacteristically late but it was quite nice just the four of us having tea and toast in our dressing gowns.
They finally arrived and we opened a stupid amount of presents. I got some wonderful gifts, including a Shure Beta 87A microphone from Adam. This came with a backstory. He had had to speak to Hayley to find out which model of mic to get, he'd remembered me saying she had a particular mic which was more suited to girls' voices. Then he'd had it delivered all the way from Brisbane to my parents' house, but it had been delivered to the wrong house and they were still trying to sort it out at 6pm on the Friday before Christmas. Somehow, they got it there on time!
I was completely spoilt, with a whole stack of other cool stuff including a cute top from Sash, some red low top Chuck Taylors from mum & dad, Radio City: the history of RRR and Ice Age 2 & Scrubs series 4 DVDs from grandma & auntie Wilma, a radio station from S (well not exactly, more like a donation towards women's radio in Bandeh Aceh via Oxfam Unwrapped) and bits and pieces for the house etc from Santa. Yes, mum still does Santa presents.
Sash, Adam and I gave mum and dad tickets to A Day On The Green with Crosby Still and Nash. I knew they would love this. Mum was so excited!! They had been planning to go but not bought tickets yet.
Lunch was very enjoyable. I know that sounds cliche but it was! It was a good group with not too many kids (nine year old twin boys and a few teenagers). All our remaining grandparents were there for the first time in years. Everyone got along pretty well and no-one tried to kill anyone. Mum & Dad's house looked absolutely beautiful and we just kept being amazed as the hail came down. Everyone was impressed by the deck which is underway on the back of the house. The deck will bigger than my whole house. Seriously. It will be a huge outdoor living space for them to entertain on, leading down to the pool. It really is their dream house, slowly taking shape as they can afford to add bits and pieces. Quite magnificent.
I played Pictionary Junior with Jack which was hysterical. We made up our own rules which he proceeded to break whenever it suited him. He was a better drawer than me. When he had to draw "father", instead of trying to draw his dad like most kids would do, he made his Catholic mother proud by drawing a priest in full regalia complete with challis. Definitely better than I could have done!
Later Louise, his mum, joined in, and it was Jack's turn to draw. He drew someone with a cross on their chest (like I said the rules were relaxed) and it seemed to have breasts so I guessed a nun. No. Sister? Nurse? No. Hmmm... what could it be. Jack drew the arms up in the air with two round things in the hands. I thought maybe it was a prisoner chained to the wall. No.
Time up. "Who is it, Jack?"
"A doctor!!!!" he exclaimed, frustrated.
"What are those things in his hands?"
"The defibrillators, of course!"
This from a 9 year old.
It was a shame Adam couldn't be there. I know he's not big on Christmas, but it would have been great for him to see my face when I opened the microphone, plus I had an exciting gift for him. And the parcel that I'd sent express post to ensure he'd have something to open on Christmas day had been delivered to a post office that was not near his house. Bloody Australia Post!! And it was such a nice day, I would have like to share it with him. Bloody contract work. Bloody Brisbane.
After everyone had gone home and it was just the four of us left, I put on Ice Age 2. Mum hates cartoons and was not impressed, but even she laughed at the antics of the little squirrel thing. He's SO cute, I love him!!! He reminds me of Chester. Not very bright but immensely cute.
What a lovely Christmas. The next day we would drive to Castelmaine to do it all again...
It had been raining all night, much needed rain once again arriving at an inconvenient time. But welcome nonetheless.
Christmas day in Melbourne was seriously freezing. Bear in mind it is the middle of summer. Often it is over 30c on Christmas day. This year it was approximately 10c. And raining/hailing all day. I have never seen so much hail! It was almost like a white christmas! In fact, it did snow on the mountains. Snow at Christmastime - that's unheard of in Australia! Except maybe in Tasmania. It's always cold there.
We got up early - Grandma and Papa were due at 7am for present opening. You would think us girls were four and eight years old, not twenty-four and twenty-eight!!
Grandma and Papa were uncharacteristically late but it was quite nice just the four of us having tea and toast in our dressing gowns.
They finally arrived and we opened a stupid amount of presents. I got some wonderful gifts, including a Shure Beta 87A microphone from Adam. This came with a backstory. He had had to speak to Hayley to find out which model of mic to get, he'd remembered me saying she had a particular mic which was more suited to girls' voices. Then he'd had it delivered all the way from Brisbane to my parents' house, but it had been delivered to the wrong house and they were still trying to sort it out at 6pm on the Friday before Christmas. Somehow, they got it there on time!
I was completely spoilt, with a whole stack of other cool stuff including a cute top from Sash, some red low top Chuck Taylors from mum & dad, Radio City: the history of RRR and Ice Age 2 & Scrubs series 4 DVDs from grandma & auntie Wilma, a radio station from S (well not exactly, more like a donation towards women's radio in Bandeh Aceh via Oxfam Unwrapped) and bits and pieces for the house etc from Santa. Yes, mum still does Santa presents.
Sash, Adam and I gave mum and dad tickets to A Day On The Green with Crosby Still and Nash. I knew they would love this. Mum was so excited!! They had been planning to go but not bought tickets yet.
Lunch was very enjoyable. I know that sounds cliche but it was! It was a good group with not too many kids (nine year old twin boys and a few teenagers). All our remaining grandparents were there for the first time in years. Everyone got along pretty well and no-one tried to kill anyone. Mum & Dad's house looked absolutely beautiful and we just kept being amazed as the hail came down. Everyone was impressed by the deck which is underway on the back of the house. The deck will bigger than my whole house. Seriously. It will be a huge outdoor living space for them to entertain on, leading down to the pool. It really is their dream house, slowly taking shape as they can afford to add bits and pieces. Quite magnificent.
I played Pictionary Junior with Jack which was hysterical. We made up our own rules which he proceeded to break whenever it suited him. He was a better drawer than me. When he had to draw "father", instead of trying to draw his dad like most kids would do, he made his Catholic mother proud by drawing a priest in full regalia complete with challis. Definitely better than I could have done!
Later Louise, his mum, joined in, and it was Jack's turn to draw. He drew someone with a cross on their chest (like I said the rules were relaxed) and it seemed to have breasts so I guessed a nun. No. Sister? Nurse? No. Hmmm... what could it be. Jack drew the arms up in the air with two round things in the hands. I thought maybe it was a prisoner chained to the wall. No.
Time up. "Who is it, Jack?"
"A doctor!!!!" he exclaimed, frustrated.
"What are those things in his hands?"
"The defibrillators, of course!"
This from a 9 year old.
It was a shame Adam couldn't be there. I know he's not big on Christmas, but it would have been great for him to see my face when I opened the microphone, plus I had an exciting gift for him. And the parcel that I'd sent express post to ensure he'd have something to open on Christmas day had been delivered to a post office that was not near his house. Bloody Australia Post!! And it was such a nice day, I would have like to share it with him. Bloody contract work. Bloody Brisbane.
After everyone had gone home and it was just the four of us left, I put on Ice Age 2. Mum hates cartoons and was not impressed, but even she laughed at the antics of the little squirrel thing. He's SO cute, I love him!!! He reminds me of Chester. Not very bright but immensely cute.
What a lovely Christmas. The next day we would drive to Castelmaine to do it all again...
posted by Aussie Rock Chick at 6:18 AM
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