Christmas

For Christmas, we did what we usually do: after breakfast (banana pancakes with maple syrup) we headed to my parents' place for presents with christmas cake, mince pies, nuts, ginger and champagne (juice for the kids).


Lunch was with Graham's aunt and uncle and their family. Louka fell asleep on the way there and only woke up after lunch when gifts were given to the children ― Louka and her second cousin Amber. Louka received a hobby-horse reindeer, a scrapbook kit and a set of 12 pattern-cutting scissors. They were a great hit.

Then back to my parents' for dinner. Louka wanted to "help" everyone pull their crackers.


The flaming of the pudding caused ooohs and aaahs.



After dinner, we had a "sleepover", which Louka had been looking forward to for weeks. And she slept well.

Christmas Eve Eve

Is there a name for the day before Christmas Eve? Today we went into town to visit the children's Christmas area at Myer, as we've done in previous years. This year, though, it was very busy, probably because it was so close to Christmas, so we had to queue for some time. There were materials to write and post letters to Santa when we were getting close, and Louka was reasonably patient. She enjoyed the train again.

Then we went on to the museum. Louka stated that her favourite part of the museum is the shop.

Oh Christmas tree

We put up the tree a few days early this year, partly because my mum is incapacitated by an operation on her knee yesterday. Like last year, Louka did a lot of it, and it looks very festive.

Photo with Santa

Today we went to visit Daddy for lunch. Our local fish-n-chip shop had a blow-up Santa at the entrance, so I took a photo of Louka with him.


I'm certainly not lining up for an hour for an expensive photo with Santa in one of the shopping centres or department stores. Quite apart from Louka possibly not being prepared to sit on his lap anyway.

Christmas is coming

The traditional mothers group Christmas party was today.

Louka had made some banana muffins yesterday, and this morning before breakfast she made cream cheese frosting and decorated the muffins with banana chips, glacé cherries and hundreds and thousands. She did a good job.


The party was at a local park. As usual, Santa turned up with a sack of presents: there were quite a lot of children to get presents this year, and according to Santa they had all been good. (Instead of a Kris Kringle, we all just bought our own kids' presents this time, as it has been getting hard to know what to get for others.)


Louka got a story-book and a drawing book. The drawing book was a big hit: when I got her markers out to let her try it out, all the other girls wanted a go.