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!