And that was christmas!

 Ready for the Christmas Eve festivities.

 Our local Christmas Carols - Miss Moo Moo singing this year - a cheese platter with friends - happy, big kids - great fireworks!

A new book on Christmas morning - thanks Santa.

The cubbie got a touch of tinsel.

I love my carved wooden Santa's dotted around the house.

 This year even my bedroom looked Christmasey.

 Wrapped.

Flowers - an early unexpected Christmas gift. The scent was amazing.

A Christmas pageant at Grandma's church.

Some wine for Christmas.

Family memories of Christmases past, hang on our tree.

Christmas morning - breakfast.

 Chokos from our garden - mangoes from the side of the road - green and red.

 A Christmas Street Party in a local town - with friends - the yummiest Vietnamese salad ever.

 Reindeer Poo and Rudolph Noses - every Christmas!

 Christmas morning - long after my 4:50 am wake up call (thanks Spunky Monkey) and just minutes before the frenzy of paper ripping began.

It's been a busy couple of weeks, but oh, so very fun. Today we have enjoyed a quiet day at home and it has been wonderful. Soon there will be more socializing to do, but for now... these next couple of days, we are taking it slow.

The weather has been dictating our rhythm, it is hot, exhaustingly so. We have moved from eating to reading to resting to reading to 'screen time' to eating to resting. I picked up the broom and lazily swept, just the kitchen. I filled the washing machine ready for another load... tomorrow. I cleaned and tidied three shelves in the pantry, but have left the other two for another day. Mr Moo has started sanding back our 'new' craft cupboard, he has gone back to it three times, stopping when the heat gets too much.

Leftovers for dinner, surely one of the best things about Christmas and an early night tonight.

Oh my, the hours we have been keeping, I think the word 'bedtime' disappeared with November. As a result, we are currently living with some very tired children, and I am not loving it. Lots of tears and yelling and general bad attitude. Hopefully a good nights sleep will begin to remedy that.

Here's to the return of peace and joy, after the busy Christmas period.