More than a Month to Christmas
Christmas wasn't reserved for just one day or even the weekend. Thanks to work I've been in the festive spirit for months. I've thoroughly enjoyed marching with toy soldiers, sneaking with elves and flitting with fairies. Click here for a video sneak peek of the silly season.
December 18
The Forever New crew and I had our annual Christmas catch up at Steph's place. She had prepared a gorgeous festive table.
Simone assisted.
Lisa arranged prosciutto while Simone snacked on pretzels. Her hard work was already done.
We all contributed to an antipasto spread.
Dani couldn't attend, but (L-R) Simone, me, Dee, Steph and Lisa were all there.
Conversations moved between Dee's engagement, vacations, super, old FN days, feminism and dabbing. We're still not sure of this phenomenon's origin or why it's so popular.
After hours talking at our annual Christmas catch up we parted until our next gathering.
Christmas Eve
'Twas the night before Christmas and I finally put up the tree.
Special thanks to whoever posted a photo of a Tsum Tsum filled Christmas tree on Facebook. And also to my American friend Paige for providing all of my Tsum Tsums.
Christmas Day
I received a calendar from mum just like Santa used to bring. They even have the same handwriting.
We Skyped my sister and brother-in-law Alicia and Carlos. They were thrilled with their new Minion friends.
Two children they live with joined the Skype session. It wasn't Christmas Day yet in New York, but Agata was already engrossed in the spirit of stuffing your face. Fadei wished us a "Merry, Merry, Merry, Merry Christmas."
With all that holiday cheer we were sure to have an amazing day.
Mum and I took some photos in front of our tree ahead of picking up Grandpa.
Rudolph joined the festivities.
We made our way to Criniti's in Castle Towers where you can find free parking!
Eating here is a bit of a Christmas tradition partly because it's one of the only places open, but mainly because the food is delicious and not too overpriced, especially when you consider the portions.
Service on this visit left a little to be desired, but the food appeared quickly. The lamb salad was quite tasty. Perhaps the amount of rocket could've been reduced.
Grandpa ate the creamy garlic prawns.
He even gave me one, so it really felt like Christmas. I can't recall a Christmas Day when I didn't have at least one prawn.
Mum and Grandpa washed their meals down with pineapple juice, while I drank pineapple juice of the adult variety - a piña coco zaza. Basically just a piña colada served in a fun vessel.
We finished our meals by sharing the salted caramel waffles.
I definitely recommend this dish. Even mum, who claims she isn't a waffle person, went to town.
We discovered a tree slightly bigger than the one at home, so took a few family photos.
Back at Grandpa's we exchanged gifts to open after we parted.
Once home I changed into my pyjamas and just before I was about to remove my make-up there was a knock at the door. I informed mum of surprise visitors and ran upstairs to change. It was our old neighbours who I hadn't seen in over four years - Oma and Uncle Tony.
They were visiting from the Central Coast. We were to have lunch with them tomorrow. They couldn't find our phone number, but knew our address, so they dropped in for a couple of hours.
Boxing Day
Mum drove Grandpa and I to lunch.
Despite the expression on my face, the drive through Castlereagh was quite lovely.
We arrived at the Richmond Golf Club to eat lunch with the surprise visitors from yesterday and one of their friends.
Golf and cricket are my two least favourite sports, but their presence didn't ruin my meal.
The Club has a 10 for $10 lunch menu. I selected the crumbed calamari.
It was quite good, but I would've preferred a lighter crumb.
At lunch I was reminded of the importance of a sense of humour with Uncle Tony's jokes like, "I found $20!!... But it was mine that I dropped."
We captured a few more snaps before we separated and the Christmas festivities concluded.
Criniti's
Richmond Golf Club
