Xmas 2012 – Beach, Paris and Dawn

Well HELLO there… fancy seeing you here? I know – Christmas has made me a VERY slack blogger, but thought I might make amends by sharing some highlights from our very hectic Yuletide celebrations with you.

Got one of these handy?

(It was the first thing I bought myself when we hit the ‘Medium Size Smoke’ – Bundaberg.  I instagrammed this pic and have FINALLY worked out how to add them into blog posts.   Brace yourself, there will be more!)

The main thing on our agenda on our first day away was CHRISTMAS SHOPPING.  Man I hate shopping.  Well not hate. If there were no other people in the stores, I would be fine.  That whole shoulder-to-shoulder thing with other people… not so keen.  Anyway, I ticked off most of the remaining items for a (combined families) total of 28 adults and 30 children.  I know. Imagine the wrapping.

The main thing for Day 2 however, was celebrating a certain milestone for my sister‘s little girl, Paris.

A big ‘ol THREE years of age.  Although she is so tall she looks four!

The bubbles were a lot of fun (and yes, I admit, I enjoyed them as much as the kids!).

My sister had outdone herself in the kitchen, whipping up some spectacular and delicious cupcakes…

A birthday tower of mouth-watering delights!

Then we organised our temporary accommodation for a Christmas gathering for my extended family.

We stayed here.  We booked late so were relieved to find a place we could all get a room at.  The rooms were lovely …

And the views pretty amazing…

This is from our little balcony, overlooking the Pacific.

The swimming beach was a little further along… I wrapped presents while Mr Incredible took Dash and Violet for a swim. And tarted up the decor a little to add to the festive atmosphere…

I remembered to bring the tip of an old Christmas tree and tinseled it up a little. Then buried it under some pressies!

This was just our offerings – three more families added theirs to the pile and I do believe the tree disappeared completely!

A frenzy of present opening and seafood-imbibing and sipping of beverages was enjoyed into the evening, and included some dancing in the kitchen (with moves led by Violet).

For some reason, I couldn’t sleep in on my first sleep-inable holiday day. Rather annoying. I woke at 4.45am.

And snuck out to the deck to see this…

I love the muted greys of the pre-dawn. (I rarely see it though, being a night owl and generally welded to my bed at this hour).

It always seems so freshly magnificent to me, a sunrise over the ocean.

I even instagrammed it, and don’t know if it wasn’t the best shot of the morn…

So with 300km travelling, one birthday party and one family Christmas event under our belts, we packed up for the next 500km leg of the journey…

Anyone else do road trips this Christmas?