I felt fairly organised in November but after Thanksgiving it seemed as though time sped up and it was the 1st December and Pete and I realised we needed to get a tree. We have a tradition of always having a real tree if we are going to be home for Christmas. Nothing beats a real pine tree. I grew up having a real tree pretty much every year. We were lucky enough to live right amongst Pine plantations when we lived in Weegena, in Northern Tasmania. I remember going to find stray pine trees and dad, then later on, Simeon would cut it down, put it in the back of the ute and we'd get rocks in a bucket of water and maneuver the tree until it held steady. I adore Christmas and was keen to get the house decorated and get into the spirit of the season.
We ended up visiting this lovely tree farm fairly close to our house.
Will was so excited to select a tree. They didn't have any 7 foot trees though, so the workers went out to cut a few down.
While we waited I took some photos of the boys. Henry had a great time being with his daddy and Will discovered a cubby house and made some fast friends to play with.
We got back quite late so decorated it a day or two later. Will was right into it and of course Henry would just take the baubles straight off the tree as soon as Will would get them on.
I lost a lot of my excitement in December. I don't know what happened but I felt quite flat and really unmotivated. I usually love wrapping presents and going out and giving gifts and doing service but I just couldn't get into the swing of things as much as I would normally. I'm sure that I was thinking of Dad and missing him as it's our first Christmas without him.
On Christmas Eve morning Will asked me if we could make cookies for Santa. I hadn't mentioned anything like this at all even though I kept thinking about it...So it was good to get a bit of motivation from him. We made a huge batch of my go to choc chip cookies and delivered a few that afternoon. Will and Henry spent most of the day with Grandma which was so good. I was able to rush around doing some last minute errands and preparing the house for the family coming for dinner on Christmas Day.
Will loved hanging the stockings on Christmas Eve.
It was lovely to read some Christmas stories with him and watch a little video of the Nativity as well. Just as I was putting the kids to bed I started getting gripey gut pains and soon after was in a bad way. I spent most of the night with all the symptoms of food poisoning. I knew immediately that the only thing I ate differently to anyone was prawns. I'd made myself some cold rolls and ate them when the kids were with Grandma. I was a mess and felt revolting on Christmas morning. I dragged myself out of bed at 7:45am when the kids woke up so I could see them look at their stockings. Will was so excited and just content to play with his stocking goodies and didn't even ask to open gifts. I went back to bed as I was just so sick. I rarely get sick and can usually grin and bear most things but I just had to lie down. It was awful lying in bed hearing the kids playing on Christmas morning and wishing I could just be out there amongst it. I had a little rest and got up again so we could do presents with the boys. They were excited. Henry loved the paper, boxes and the most simple present of a beach bucket and spade.
I felt terrible that Sue had to do most of the cooking and preparation. She had been looking to having the year off as we'd offered to host and do a lot of the cooking etc. Pete helped her out while Bill entertained the kids.
We didn't get many photos at all as I was so out of it so I'm glad we got a couple with Pete's Grandma Jessie. She had a fall a few weeks earlier after blacking out. She broke her wrist from the fall and has had to go to respite for awhile until she can use her arm properly. We were glad she was up to coming out. She was looking very frail. She will be 92 this month!
Henry was winning hearts as usual. The cheeky little guy was trying to get into Grandma's yummy homemade shortbread.
It took a couple of days for me to feel better and poor Pete ended up sick Christmas night so the whole Christmas period was a bit of a write off for us. I felt like we needed a do over! The kids had a fantastic Christmas and for Pete and I...it was at least memorable ;-)
We had some friends over on New Years Day for a BBQ and that at least felt a bit festive and it was nice to enjoy entertaining friends again.
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