Boy, it's not even 10am and I am exhausted already. We always have our traditional Burn family Christmas on Christmas Eve - works great for the in-laws (which is me). It was a stinking hot day yesterday - 35 degrees (C) by 8am and I think it got up to a maximum of about 38 or 40. Argh. We were madly trying to clean up the place as well as keep the kids cool. I was going to go to the Markets (at Flemington) to buy some nice fruit but my Ma said to go early. Seeing as I didn't get to sleep until after 2am the night before (wrapping presents) I changed my mind and decided not to go. Instead I just went to the local shop. Mama went early (8:30am) and she said it was a mad house. Cars everywhere, people everywhere, huge queues. I was a bit concerned because I needed to get stuff for dinner! Well, lo and behold, by the time I got going (after midday) the place wasn't that crowded at all! Plenty of parking, no queues. Amazing. I guess everyone had the same idea as Mama - go early to avoid the crowds! d'oh!
Inspired by Karen, I decided that we would make our own labels for presents. No time to make Christmas cards (no, I haven't even written them, let alone send them out... It's always so busy leading up to Christmas that I usually only get time after the event. I've sort of decided that this will be my usual modus operandi from now on!). We spent a happy couple of hours cutting, pasting and drawing. Dante was great! He was the "Assistant Vice-Principal In Charge Of Stickers" and did a really good job. He got a bit bored by the end but that was quite understandable. We were all a bit sick of it, I think. After all, there were over 60 of them to do!
Anyway, thankfully it cooled down in the afternoon. Incredibly, actually. It was 38 degrees at 3:30pm... by 4:30pm it was a pleasant 27 or so - fantastic! Lucky for us, too, since we were having a big roast for dinner and noone feels like eating when it's stinking hot. Dan's mother (with a bit of help from everyone, esp. Paul) cooked up a feast of roast chicken with orange gravy, roast potatoes, mushrooms, pumpkin, tomatoes, Yorkshire pudding (I made that!), and a really yummy beetroot and watercress salad. Yum! Grandma is a fantastic cook. Dessert was equally good - creme caramel, plus gelato, jelly, rockmelon and chocolate profiteroles.
Then of course there were the presents. The Burn family Christmas is always plentiful, not just in food. We spent the several hours going through and opening presents. Even though there were only 7 of us, the amount of gifts was tantamount to 20 people! Of course the kids faired extremely well. Dante's first present was a "Jedi Accessory Pack" which contained a cloak, light sabre, belt and hair piece. He could have not received any more presents for the rest of the night, he was so happy with it!
The poor kids got to bed very late - Dante was even asking to go to bed! I was up 'til 2am again, cleaning up. Hence my tiredness this morning. Over all, though, a fun time was had by all last night.
Today is my family's Christmas gathering - 19 of us this year. It will be chaotic and loud, but that's the way it's meant to be, right? I have a feeling it will be much bigger than previous years. There are three new kids (well, Abi was 9 days old last year) and the others are older. Should be fun!
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