/karen/

A full day of eating

Saturday, 30 December, 2006

So Christmas Eve we drove out to Bob and Brig's for the Christmas Eve extended family get-together. There was much eating and playing (and breaking) of Christmas cracker toys (they always have the best cracker toys!). Then we opened presents (Secret Santa this year) and had the traditional wrapping paper fight.

Ben and I drove home and I kept working on Lizz's present (which was a pair of opera gloves). I was up to the fingers of the left glove and thought it wouldn't take long to finish them off. So I settled down with The West Wing Season 6 while Ben went to bed. Unfortunately it took a lot longer than I thought and I still wasn't finished at 4 am when Ben got up to persuade me to go to sleep.

So Christmas Day we woke later than intended and were late to get to Tim and Ros's for breakfast. I finally managed to take pictures of all the presents I wrapped at their place:

(The last three were taken later when I finished the opera gloves and found another present I had forgotten to give to Ros. I'm always doing that: I buy things for people during the year and then forget to give them to them when the time comes. Cathy says she writes it in a little book to keep track which I thought was a good idea but instead of a book, I'm going to use Google Calendar as I've now made a calendar for birthdays and anniversaries. In 2007, I thought I'd try living without a diary and relying entirely on Google Calendar. The advantage is that both Ben and I know what's going on and I can make multiple calendars. Plus other people have already made some of the calendars that I need—like NSW School Term dates and 3rd Year Moore College dates.)

Tim and Ros had prepared a very yummy feast of fruit and pancakes:

The pancakes came with maple syrup (but not authentic Canadian maple syrup which is the best kind in the world—the Beilharzes still rave about the stuff we brought back for them last year) and ice cream. Yum yum!

Then we opened presents, German-style. (Well, Cathy says it's a German tradition.) That's when you open them one at a time while everyone watches. We each gave out our presents in turn, starting with Lizz and finishing with Hans and Cathy. All the kids gave Hans and Cathy a hamper full of fair trade goodies. We gave Tim The Raconteurs' Broken Boy Soldier (which he had never heard of but now says he likes). We gave Tim and Ros Max Brenner Suckaos (which they had never heard of but they gave it a try and now say they like them). We also gave Ros a Phillip Pullman book. And Lizz got a hair tie that I had bought in Bowral last January, She Will Have Her Way and the opera gloves (which I finished making by the end of the day. I gave them to her on Thursday and forgot to photograph them).

Then it was onto my mum and Peter's place for Christmas lunch. Once again Peter had outdone himself.

After lunch, we opened presents.

(Note the stockings on the doorknob. Those are the stockings that my brother and I used to have back in Canada. I also have a Hello Kitty Christmas stocking.)

We gave Peter and my brother very nice shirts from Crazy Horse. We had already given my mum her Christmas present back in August (it was a hypoallergenic blanket from Holy Sheet and I gave it to her early because she was going to San Francisco and it would be useful for her to take with her as she's allergic to wool and so can't use any of the blankets in hotels. But then it turned out she didn't go). But I had also made my mum a lime green/gold scarf/shawl (which I also forgot to photograph). And I forgot about my Aunty Mary again.

I have just discovered knitting with beads. Oh my, oh my!!! The most recent issue of Knitty has a pattern for these awesome beaded napkin rings and Lincraft has this free craft booklet with instructions for how to make a bracelet by knitting with beads. I thought I'd give it a try but as I didn't have any beading wire, I used plastic string and made this for my mum:

I'll make better ones one day.

We had Christmas pudding, custard and ice cream for dessert and watched the first half of No Direction Home which Peter had given to my mum. I'm such an ignoramus—I didn't realise that Bob Dylan wrote “Blowin' in the Wind”. My mum likes Joan Baez so when we finished watching, she put on one of her CDs for us to listen to.

Then it was on to my dad's house for dinner. We met my brother just walking out the door on his way to a gathering with friends. Inside there were all these strange people I had never met before who turned out to be the sons and daughters of factory workers in China that my dad has dealings with. My stepsister and her family were also there—Rachel, Peter, Tiffany and Oscar. Peter had brought his Wii. Ben had a go at playing tennis.

Then I had a go, against my step-neice, Tiffany. She absolutely killed me and she's only seven. She changed the game after that to these kid's games. We played one which I think was called “Cow Run”—there were two girls on the backs of two cows (we each controlled one) and we held the Wii horizontal and titled it forward to go faster, lifted it to jump over things, and raced along the track, knocking over scarecrows.

Dinner was a lot of seafood—oysters (which I unfortunately missed because I was playing with the Wii), salmon, prawns—noodle salad and a green salad. Dessert was various cakes and pastries. Afterwards, Ben and I watched The Simpsons on the giant TV (using closed captions) with Tiffany asking me, “What happened now? Why'd he do that?” (which amused me because it's the most English I've ever heard her speak and she normally never speaks to me because I can't speak Chinese). We also discovered that Spicks and Specks was screening on ABC 2. We also tried to watch The Panel Christmas Wrap (because of Bobby Flynn) but the captions couldn't keep up with what they were saying. We watched the rest of it when we got home anyway.

Twitter

Blinks:

Blog archives: ----------- May, 2012 April, 2012 March, 2012 February, 2012 January, 2012 November, 2011 September, 2011 June, 2011 April, 2011 March, 2011 February, 2011 January, 2011 December, 2010 November, 2010 October, 2010 September, 2010 August, 2010 July, 2010 June, 2010 April, 2010 March, 2010 February, 2010 January, 2010 November, 2009 October, 2009 September, 2009 August, 2009 July, 2009 June, 2009 May, 2009 April, 2009 March, 2009 February, 2009 January, 2009 December, 2008 November, 2008 October, 2008 September, 2008 August, 2008 July, 2008 June, 2008 May, 2008 April, 2008 March, 2008 February, 2008 January, 2008 December, 2007 November, 2007 October, 2007 September, 2007 August, 2007 July, 2007 June, 2007 May, 2007 April, 2007 March, 2007 February, 2007 January, 2007 December, 2006 November, 2006 October, 2006 September, 2006 August, 2006 July, 2006 June, 2006 May, 2006 April, 2006 March, 2006 February, 2006 January, 2006 December, 2005 November, 2005 October, 2005 September, 2005 August, 2005 July, 2005 June, 2005 May, 2005 April, 2005 March, 2005 February, 2005 January, 2005 December, 2004 November, 2004 October, 2004 September, 2004 August, 2004 July, 2004 June, 2004 May, 2004 April, 2004 March, 2004 February, 2004 January, 2004 December, 2003 November, 2003 October, 2003 September, 2003 August, 2003 July, 2003 June, 2003 May, 2003 April, 2003 March, 2003 February, 2003 January, 2003 December, 2002 November, 2002 October, 2002 September, 2002 August, 2002 July, 2002 June, 2002 May, 2002 April, 2002 March, 2002 February, 2002 January, 2002 ----------- Amusement Anime Canada/USA 2005 Comics/graphic novels Craft Depression Depression Talk 2006 Divorce Dreams and nightmares Forgiveness Gender Hong Kong 2007 Links Love and relationships Melbourne 2005 Melbourne 2006 Money Moore College MTS Notices Photoblog Pregnancy, birth and parenting Quotes Reading Recipes Reflections Scribbles St George Girls High Story of my life Talks The Arts Victoria 2008 Web geekery Writing ----------- Current archives: ----------- September, 2010 August, 2010 July, 2010 June, 2010 May, 2010 April, 2010 March, 2010 February, 2010 January, 2010 December, 2009 November, 2009 October, 2009 September, 2009 August, 2009 July, 2009 June, 2009 May, 2009 April, 2009 March, 2009 February, 2009 January, 2009 December, 2008 November, 2008 October, 2008 September, 2008 August, 2008 July, 2008 June, 2008 May, 2008 April, 2008 March, 2008 February, 2008 January, 2008 December, 2007 November, 2007 October, 2007 September, 2007 August, 2007 July, 2007 June, 2007 May, 2007 April, 2007 March, 2007 February, 2007 January, 2007 December, 2006 November, 2006 October, 2006 September, 2006 August, 2006 July, 2006 June, 2006 May, 2006 April, 2006 March, 2006 February, 2006 January, 2006 December, 2005 November, 2005 October, 2005 September, 2005 August, 2005 July, 2005 June, 2005 May, 2005 April, 2005 March, 2005 February, 2005 January, 2005 December, 2004 November, 2004 October, 2004 September, 2004 August, 2004 July, 2004 June, 2004 May, 2004 April, 2004 March, 2004 February, 2004 January, 2004 December, 2003 November, 2003 October, 2003 September, 2003 August, 2003 July, 2003 June, 2003 May, 2003 April, 2003 March, 2003 February, 2003 January, 2003 December, 2002 ----------- Bible Books Concerts Exhibitions Graphic novels, comics, manga Movies Music Musicals Series Talks and lectures ----------- Twitter archives: ----------- May, 2012 April, 2012 March, 2012 February, 2012 January, 2012 December, 2011 November, 2011 October, 2011 September, 2011 August, 2011 July, 2011 June, 2011 May, 2011 April, 2011 March, 2011 February, 2011 January, 2011 December, 2010 November, 2010 October, 2010 September, 2010 August, 2010 July, 2010 June, 2010 May, 2010 April, 2010 March, 2010 February, 2010 January, 2010 December, 2009 November, 2009 October, 2009 September, 2009 August, 2009 July, 2009 June, 2009 May, 2009 April, 2009 March, 2009 February, 2009 January, 2009

More /Karen/ ----------- Blog About me Testimony Favourites Wishlist Contact me ----------- Writing ----------- Articles Mixed Poetry Prose

Hippocampus Extensions H/E Ben Shots fired Sermons

Feeds

• Full posts
• Full posts and del.icio.us feed
• Excerpts only
• del.icio.us feed only
• All comments

Social media

• Flickr
• Goodreads
• Last FM
• LibraryThing
• Listal
• Pinterest
• Ravelry
• This Is My Jam
• Twitter