Monday 27 December 2010

Celebrating Christmas 2010 on Planet Baby

Hello, lovely Planetarians, I trust you’ve all enjoyed the festive season with your nearest and dearest. Tell me – are you as pooped as I am?! Our Christmas was celebrated in usual Planet Baby style – full to the brim! After attending the 5 pm children’s service at St David’s Cathedral with my immediate family (13 in all including 5 under 6) on Christmas Eve, the pixies left their empty stockings hung hopefully from the mantelpiece and a plate of goodies for Father Christmas and his reindeers (carrots, mince pies, shortbread, chocolates and milk).  
They went to sleep beautifully (an entirely rare occurrence), leaving Mr PB and I to conduct the Great Wrapping until 2 am. Only to be woken at 7 am by the poking of the eager pixies, keen to commence the Great Unwrapping!

We all raced out to the tree, festooned with the pixies’ handmade decorations and surrounded by brightly wrapped presents.

The pixies’ painted wrapping paper made star turns, hiding a puzzle.
And a flower press.

This wrapping was the most prized by Mr PB.
Some *old school* presents were welcomed by the pixies like this Etch-a-sketch.
And this butterfly net. It’s such an odd feeling to be giving the pixies presents we played with as children. But fun, too. Some toys are just classics.
After a quick trip to Mr PB’s parents for a Christmas drink of *something sparkling* and another present exchange, we hot-footed it to my parents’ house for a family lunch with 15 people. It was a joint effort - Mr PB had made the pork and chicken terrine (yum!), my brother-in-law had cooked the turkey and stuffing, my mum the boiled potatoes, carrots, peas, chicken, ham, fruit mince pies and Christmas cake, my cousin had iced the cake and made rum balls and chocolate fudge and my aunt had made the Christmas pudding and a pavlova topped with raspberries from her garden. What a feast!

Here we all are (I’m taking the photo), resplendent in the obligatory paper hats from our Christmas crackers.
This is the cousins’ table. India is wearing the Christmas fairy outfit my Mum gave her.

Here’s the cake. I think my cousin made a sterling effort. It took her seven hours to ice. Really.
Here’s a close-up of one side for the cake decorators amongst you. The jolly old man’s just so lifelike, don’t you think?

And here’s the other side. Look at the hundreds, if not thousands, of individual dobs of icing. Just amazing.

Then more presents were exchanged, to much merriment and exclamation. The pick of the crop was this divine smocked frock my Mum’s friend had made for India from the finest, softest cotton with a pretty sash tied in a bow at the back.

Here’s a close-up for the clever smockers amongst you.

At about 3 pm, we *pulled up stumps* (one for the cricket fans out there!) as Sam was exhausted and headed home. The loveliest moment of the day then followed. When asked what one thing they would remember this Christmas for, both older pixies, completely unprompted, chorused “Spending time with our family. We love our cousins!” And that, for us, was pure gold. Out of the mouths of babes indeed – they’d worked out you can get presents any old time but having your family all together like that is rare. And to be treasured. God bless their little cotton socks!

I’d love to hear how you all celebrated Christmas. Were you flying solo or sharing it with family and friends? Was anyone working? And did anyone get caught out by the snow in the northern hemisphere? Or the floods in Queensland? This morning Mount Wellington (which wraps around Hobart) had a light dusting of snow! In the height of summer. Craziness. The Boxing Day Ashes cricket Test is on, Tasmanian raspberries are in season and it’s daylight savings time – it’s time for summer to get organised down here!
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20 comments:

  1. So so sweet Jane...from the homemade wrapping and gift giving to your beautifully crowned family to that grogeous smocked dress. It sounds like you had a wonderful Christmas, so happy for you all!!

    Best wishes to you and your family for a wonderful New Year...I can't wait to read all about it! So glad we met Jane, I have really enjoyed our friendship...

    From your Fairy Blogmother in chilly England :)

    Jeanne xx

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  2. darling jane....
    love it all....the handmade bits
    the excited kids
    the dress!!!
    hope you had a wonderful day sweetie...

    melissa xxx

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  3. Love the smocked dress - wow, a piece of artwork. And that cake!! Is she a professional? Yummm, I love cake ;)
    XOL

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  4. Looks a simply lovely day Jane - we missed the family this year (and the snow on the mountain - yikes!!) but had a great day with friends and loving the peace and quiet of an Auckland holiday. A x

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  5. Love that santa cake! Too funny - my kiddos would love it :-)
    And that dress - I'll have to put up a photo of the one Meerkat wore for my family xmas lunch a couple of weeks ago (I love old fashioned dresses on little girls).
    Am loving the 'simple' toys too - great for imagination.
    Looks like you had a wonderful day (am jealous of your 7am start though!)
    xxxCate

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  6. Jane, looks like you enjoyed a beautiful Christmas. It's lovely when the kids realise the most important part is being with family and loved ones. Enjoy the remainder of the season!
    Fiona.

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  7. It all looks gorgeous Jane.
    I love the fact that you have chosen to wrap in the kids paintings and the simplicity of the lovely presents. Girl after my own heart.
    Still cold here in Hobart. What is going on with summer?
    We enjoyed our Christmas day at our little house down here by the beach, with extended family.
    My kids also think the best thing is getting together with their six cousins.
    This year we had a new addition with my Sister's 8 month old baby girl, which was just divine.
    I also love that our kids appreciate the small things.
    I loved my Mum's home made plum pudding, complete with home made brandy sauce. To die for!!
    Oh yes and Tassie raspberries are my favourite.
    Enjoy this holiday time with your beautiful family.

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  8. What a busy day! The cake looks amazing but that pretty dress is amazing! What stunning work! Hope you've been able to relax over te last couple of days x

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  9. Merry Christmas to you and your lovely PB family Jane! The dress is so very beautiful along with the other festive images. Butterfly net made me smile too - we've just located my butterfly net, nature viewer and bug catcher at nanna and poppa's - Lily and Dan have been catching anything that moves in their garden ...probably a bit un-PC these days :)

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  10. BEAUTIFUL! Love the dress!

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  11. It sounds like a gorgeous day Jane. I am so glad it went so well for you all...Now you can relax and enjoy summer.

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  12. What a fabulous day Jane, gorgeous wrapping, beautiful dress and a stunning cake. Christmas was at our home for both families, long day. Enjoy your week.x

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  13. so love the family pictures and that cake - WOW! very talented and the kids would have just loved it :)so glad you had an awesome Christmas!

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  14. Thanks, my lovely friends. No, Laura, my cousin only does this as a hobby. I told her she should do it professionally - I know people in Sydney would pay about $200 for a cake like that! And she did it for us *gratis*.

    Kat, it sounds like we are living parallel lives in old Hobart Town! We should get organised and meet in the New Year. What do you think?

    Yes, Sarah, and the punchline - she only charged my Mum $20 for it! 'Just to cover the cost of the fabric' she said. Can you believe it?!

    Ah, Paula, we're adopting the 'catch and release' method with any butterflies captured! J x

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  15. Ah Jane, a classic PB post. I love that photo of your family - just gorgeous. And I'm very impressed with the cake and the smocked dress - they're both quite amazing. I hope you have the chance to have a nice relaxing week - and if today was anything to go by, hopefully summer is about to arrive!

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  16. Your Christmas does sound like pure gold Jane. We spent it with friends and family -there were 23 of us!! As you can imagine it was very busy, tiring and just a little noisy! Then on boxing day we visited the other family members who didn't make it the day before and had another full day. So 'pooped' is exactly how I'm feeling too! Will hopefully have some energy to blog soon. x

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  17. it all looks perfect! apparently, according to retro daddy my family doesn't embrace the paper hat from the crackers but I wore mine for lunch and so did the kids!

    love the cake, oh my such talent and wow the dress is amazing. I would love to learn smocking because a dress like that is so perfect and classic. what a lucky little india to get that lovely dress....I must look into getting some for my girls as don't think I could make something that pretty

    Corrie:)

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  18. That cake is amazing!!! 7 hours is a looong time. I cant believe the snow in the middle of summer, not for this Qld girl lol It did turn out to be a nice day though!

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  19. India's dress is divine! I can remember wearing something very similar when I was her age! Love the cake, it looks like a fabulous Christmas. xx

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  20. Ah, ladies, you're right - my cousin is seriously talented. I think she should give up her day job. I'll have to do a post on the Sesame Street cupcakes she did for Sam's 1st birthday - just breathtaking.

    Corrie, we've been doing the silly hats ritual for all my life. It wouldn't be Christmas without them! And yes, I'd love to learn smocking, too, but I think we would need to have a *little* more time to ourselves first!

    Emma, she is now wearing the smocked dresses my grandmother made for me nearly 40 years ago which really makes me smile. J x

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Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts, you gorgeous soul. You've just made my day! J x

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