Christmas: a bit late......

We had a fantastic Christmas last year, but it was really busy, so I feel inspired to write about it, but am only getting around to it now. It was Harry's 1st Christmas and our first one in Perth. My sister Sue, Pete, Cal, Lucy and Zoe came over from Dubai and my Mum and Dad and sister Caz came from Victoria.  It was such a special time and my boys really loved seeing their cousins, Aunties and Grandparents.  The weather was gorgeous, so although there was always a low level of chaos, we enjoyed barbeques, picnics, Christmas lunch and present opening and a couple of glasses of wine.  My sister has been in Dubai now for five years, so our get-togethers are always too brief but they have come home each year which means my boys have established a great relationship with her kids.  Tom and Angus have memories of their visits and look forward to seeing them each time it happens.  That said, Sue's kids are absolute gems which makes it very easy.  I'm sure they could think of much better things to do other than hang out with a 6 and 4 year old, but they play Lego, Nerf guns, chasey and jumping on the trampoline.  They read stories and listen to my kids 'news', they are wonderful and my boys Adore them.  Some things we did while they were all here were go to the Revolving Restaurant 'C' in Perth with Sue, Caz, Mum and of course Harry, for lunch, which was very fancy and a very memorable view.  We celebrated Cal's 14th birthday on Christmas Eve with a picnic in Kings Park which was just fantastic (see photo above - the Pyramid of Cousins) and then Cal got to choose his dinner of choice: KFC. No joke!  The rest of us had seafood and salad.  Tom thought KFC was the best thing ever (it was the first time he had it) and he still talks about it!  Poor deprived child.
Caz going for runs with Reggie each morning.  Reggie loved it, Caz loved it and it gave me a break from the dog walking.  Win-win-win!
Christmas day with all its craziness and fun and food.  This was the epitome of the visit.  If I had woken on Christmas morning to just us, it would have been just another quiet Sunday.  We didn't have a lot of friends at that stage and with such a young babe, making Christmas special would have been difficult.  Having the business of 'all hands on deck' made it feel real and wonderful.  I just want to make sure I remember it because I was definitely in the midst of the 'baby fog' and you forget so much that goes on in those first few months.  I was really lucky that all my family made an effort to come here. Fortunately Perth really did turn it on, so I think they were pretty happy to come and visit us too....I hope. 
Sue and Pete went and stayed in Cottesloe for a couple of nights and we went down and watched the sun set on the beach and relaxed together.  Sue discovering Claremont shopping centre - her little piece of Perth shopping heaven.
So that was 10 days over Christmas 2011 in a nutshell.  So much has happened since then and none of it been blogged about but it's good to remember the extra special times.