Christmas

Well, it's done for another year, and I am going to add to this with some photo posts showing what we did and what we ATE! Starting from our family dinner out on Thursday night, to our family dinner in tonight, I'm counting a five day Christmas, and now we have four days of frantic cleaning ahead of us before another several days of New Year holiday!

The fridge is still full of leftovers, and turkey soup and turkey quiche (with the secret ingredient of leftover cauliflower and cheese) are on the menu for tomorrow, and there's still one serving of pavlova left, hiding in the back of the fridge for me to sneak when no-one's watching, plus a bit more brandy trifle and a WHOLE chocolate flan! I cooked so much!!!

Thursday we went out for yakitori, Friday was the Big Shopping Day, I visited six shops in three hours and spent 25,000 including a few presents, but mostly food from four different shops! Friday night we ate fish and chips while I cooked desserts, then I made the curry on Saturday morning. Saturday afternoon we went to a birthday party for Maguno Leon at their new place on the side of Mt Hachiman. Raul said it would be a barbecue, and I didn't quite believe him, but sure enough, there he was, barbecuing away in one of the three small snowfalls we had over the 24-25th.

We came home by 4pm to meet up with Dad, and we gave the kids our present from us - boots, jacket and pyjamas, so they could dress up to enjoy a drive-in movie! We were home by 7:30, and took Dad on a Christmas lights tour before returning home for his curry and sashimi birthday party.

Christmas morning started off with Santa presents, followed by cocoa pops, loads of cooking, a ham and eggs brunch and a Christmas party just after skyping with family back home for a present-opening session and enjoying a chocolate Japanese Christmas cake with Jiichan and Baachan. All the guests had left by 7pm, leaving just the family to exchange gifts, more about that later...

Boxing Day we went to Beppu to Julia and Rory's house for leftovers' lunch, and today I actually had a lesson! A private class at home, so we gave her Christmas cake and played Christmas games on the ipad. I finished the day with a HUGE glass of red wine in a very hot bath, followed by a mop-up family meal of leftovers. Now it's 11pm and the kids are in bed with their Papa, after the big girls watched a movie while Erica played with her new Zuzu pets. I don't think I've even seen a more perfect match of toy and developmental level! She adores them!! Thank you Aunty Becky for the cute new pet!!