Christmasness

Christmas this year was great especially since we could factor in the unusual presence of family!  Chris' family came up from the 23rd-30th and we have a lot of fun with them.  From the moment they got off the plane, we pretty much had then harnessed into some manual labor so they could earn their keep.  I had a piano to move, and I needed them to help.  

First of all, let me get a photo on here of this little BEAUT!  

We have a local classified publication, and I found her advertised for $75!!!  I called the lady and was inquiring about it over the phone as she lived at the beach (about 30 mins from us).  The lady selling the piano was named Greta, and she was adorable.  I asked her to play a few notes just to hear the quality of the sound, and the next thing I know I was practically settling in with a blankie and a hot cup of tea for a musical masterpiece!!  It was funny and endearing.  I pretty much committed to buying it over the phone, and then had the HUGE task of figuring out how the heck we were going to move the thing.  This is where Chris' family came in.  Let me just say that 6 adults later, and everyone using their full strength, it was still bloody hard to move it!!  Nonetheless, we got it home and have already enjoyed many duets and tunes on her.  I have missed having a piano in my life, thanks to my mom who has woken me up to this fact!

Christmas Eve was spent getting things ready for the holiday and in the evening spending time making sugar cookies, and making/decorating our homemade candy houses.  I was going to call them 'gingerbread houses', but that ends up implying that I actually baked gingerbread-and that would be a total lie!  We used the budget/large family approach and built our houses with cookies. 

I think it's clear to see who's is the best here....

Here is a picture of our tree.  I was proud that we finally did a somewhat life sized version of a Christmas tree this year.  Total cost=$34 (including decorations!!).  I also find it weird here that they use evergreen trees since they don't grow them here.

For Christmas meal we went to our friends' Luke and Sarah's, and then everyone came to ours the next day for a BBQ and a swim.  I was pretty bad at taking pictures though:

Usually Christmas crackers have a plastic mustache, or maybe a toy car.  Luke's had an electronic book light?!? 

It was so HOT!  Our crowns were sweating to our heads!!

It was a good holiday, and it was fun to have Chris' family up to Rockhampton!