It's Christmas!

WOW!  What a couple of days it has been.  The joy of the first Christmas as a little family; the fun of sharing our baby with her adoring extended family; the food and gifts; the meltdowns that inevitably result from babies being passed around at such events!

Let me start by saying that I was incredibly lucky and overjoyed to receive a brand new digital SLR camera from my husband and Tabitha for Christmas - a Canon EOS 550D to be precise.  I am completely in love with it, and it was the perfect gift, since I have a beautiful new 'subject' around me all day and night!  I am going to take a class so that I can learn to use more of its features - so far I have only used the 'Automatic' setting and the HD video.  Regardless, it got plenty of use today - and as a result, I have LOADS of photos to upload to the blog.

So, I am going to spread things out a little, and right now just post about Christmas morning and lunchtime.  Later I will post about dinner and Boxing Day.  Believe it or not, the following contains only a tiny fraction of the photos taken today!

First thing in the morning, my parents, sister and cousin came over to open gifts - 'Santa' had done his drop at our place.  Tabitha quite quickly became overwhelmed and overexcited with all the noise, colour and activity, and only opened three presents before she had to go down for a morning nap!  She received, from her Moosie and Gra (my parents) and auntie Q, a cute little pink Mason Pearson hairbrush; a sturdy little walker wagon with wooden blocks; and a beautiful knitted monkey.

In the end, Tabitha did not open ANY gifts from The Daddy and I, because she was already getting overwhelmed and we decided to put them off until the next morning when she would enjoy them more.

While Tabitha was napping, we all ate croissants with cheese and leftover glazed ham.  Grant and I received from my parents and sister a fantastic wicker picnic basket set, two enormous bags full of delicious goodies from Simon Johnson, including lots of things from one of my favourite lines, Prince Charles' Duchy Originals and some strawberry and elderflower cordial!

I got The Daddy a lovely decanter - the Riedel Amadeo - as well as some other bits and pieces.

Here is Possum, our younger cat (less than a year old), peering up at all the action.  He is a beautiful cat, but stupid as any I've met.

We left at 11am to go to my aunt and uncle's house in Kensington for Christmas lunch - around 25 guests.  When we arrived, The Daddy played around with the new camera and took some photos in the courtyard.  Here is Tabitha in her pretty little Collette Dinnigan lace dress (which was her baptism contingency gown!).  Don't you want to nibble those chubby limbs?!

Here are three generations - my mother, myself and happy Tabitha:

And with my dad:

Tabitha adores her Grandpa Gra - and he her:

Here is our little family:

Simon and Anne, our hosts, are both school teachers, and as such are incredibly organised.  Look at their lovely typed menus:

Here you will notice special mention of my pudding and custard!

Tabitha hanging our with her grandfather:

Simon and Anne have a beautiful garden, in their very limited space.  I am very impressed every time I visit!

Anne put together some beautiful decorations with glassware and tealight candles:

The food all looked - and tasted - incredible.  Well done Simon and Anne!

Tabitha really enjoyed the asparagus with lemon butter and crumb gratin topping:

And of course her bread.  She does love her bread!

The little neighbourhood that Simon and Anne live in is really lovely and tight-knit, with lots of young families.  In fact, a few of the houses in a row have cut holes in their side fences so that the children can run to and fro between the houses as they wish!  So we got to spy on the neighbours' Christmas lunches!  Below you can also see the children eating their lunch in the courtyard.

Here is my beautiful cousin Juliette, who is 17, wearing her Christmas gift from my parents, a silver Eiffel Tower necklace from Tiffany - Juliette's father lives in France, so all things French are very special to her.

It's funny how little girls are often dressed to match on Christmas, right down to their shoes:

Here is my father and The Daddy taking Tabitha on a walk around Kensington for her nap:

After lunch, we were all treated to a string quartet recital by my sister and three cousins.  Here is Q setting up her cello: 

Here are three of the little girls:

Q plays the cello beautifully.  I am very proud!  I took up the cello in high school and have played a little on and off since then.  I have had quite a hiatus over the past couple of years and will be resuming lessons in the new year.  I cannot wait - I played Q's half size cello this morning and thoroughly enjoyed it!

I love Q's little dress.  So cute!  Sequins sewn into scale shapes on a cream tulle dress.

Here is cousin Lissy who also plays the cello - although her real forte is her viola.

After lunch, we had three cakes with fresh berries picked that morning, and flown over in the morning, with my aunt from her biodynamic organic farm home in Tasmania.  We also had pudding and custard!

I love this photo - the girls from my family!

Beautiful photo of Juliette cuddling Tabitha:

Arghhhhh and all day, Tabitha yanking on my hair!  I am considering cutting it all off.  I cut nearly a foot of hair off after our wedding two years ago and it grew back pretty quickly!  I haven't had hair to my shoulders or shorter since I was around 10, so I am quite tempted.  At least it would save the ouchy pulling!

After lunch, we went to visit The Daddy's family in Blackburn.  I will post some photos tomorrow!  Tabitha had a wonderful time visiting with more family, and REALLY enjoyed meeting the happy wriggly doggie Rusty!