Eve, Of and After

I believe I have said it before. I believe I will say it again.

Life is NEVER boring around here.

Of course, some of the ‘events’ are fairly predictable.

Like the fact that Bay Leaf the cow WILL break into the house yard whenever you need it looking its best and UN-Cow-Paddied.

(NB I am wearing clothing – togs – I think a little mystery goes a long way! Heh.)

I caught her soon after arrival and she pretended she just wanted a scratch. I obliged, of course.

Predictable.

We attempted our annual Christmas Photos With Animals.

Axel, as usual, refused to pose.

Utterly predictable. (This is a GIF – hope your plugin works to get the full effect of the mayhem and madness!)

Other non-traditional Christmas animals also got in on the act…

Violet with Nibbles and Bubbles.

There couldn’t be too much untempered joy, of course. That would not be ‘keeping it real’.

(‘Troubles’ tragically got bitten by a snake about three weeks ago. And within two days of THIS photo being taken, both remaining ducks would also go to Heaven. We suspect a fox got Bubbles – she was found half-eaten.  And then Nibbles just vanished. There have been tears. Many, many tears.  Bloody pets.)

This was pre-feathered tragedy.

Me and my cuties.

This was late Christmas Eve.

Violet’s adorable note to Santa.  She covers the bases, our little hostess with the most-ess.

The scene of calm before the wrapping paper storm!

We made the kids promise NOT to wake us before 6am. Dash broke the rule (he’s allergic to sleeping in!). But we forgave him… because he discovered this!

A teeny tiny, ludicrously long-legged addition to our equine herd… Yvette’s baby girl born at dawn.  More on this duo in the next post… trust me, ‘cute’ doesn’t even BEGIN to describe our new filly!

After this very special start to our Christmas day (possibly less predictable the my other items in this post)… we had our traditional Christmas breakfast…

Cold ham, poached eggs, stewed tomatoes… simple but sensational.

Santa sacks were raided – saddle cloths and horse-related items (Violet), and fishing items (Dash) featured.

And then the food preparations got underway… and table settings were organised by the kids.

Who do a cracking job I have to say!

There were ribs and steaks…

And prawns and salads…

And salads, and salads…

Soooo yum!  Hot weather Christmas food… predictably scrumptious!

This was the smorgasbord and the contenders, saddling up to take it on.  We gave it a red hot go.  I have to admit, we did NOT manage to devour ALL of it.  Fairly flamin’ predictable!

Another tradition we can count on is Dad struggling with the teeny tiny toys hidden in the Christmas crackers. The man has fingers like fat pork sausages…

‘Playing’ ten pin bowls, cracker style!

Hilarious… I believe the ‘bowl’ went missing.

How surprising..

After a swim to work off that ‘first course’ we girded our loins (or bellies) for round two (aka dessert) …

Lots of fruit. Lots of plum pud…

And lots of smiles as we work out how the HECK we are going to fit it all in…

(This is my sister-in-law Curly… she’s very creative and ‘iced’ the pud – looked like a cartoon of a pudding, doncha think?)

There were also little people hanging around the dessert elements of the feast…

Like a moth to the flame.  Nice one, Paris!

And even when we were TOTALLY sure we couldn’t fit ANOTHER bite in… amazing shortbread snowmen biscuits, thanks to Jeanie my ever-loving’ sister.

This was all interspersed with swimming, present opening and naps (well, the adults did anyway).  The kids finished up over-tired, over-fed and over-excited.  All in all, par for the Christmas course.

So, how was yours?  Do you ‘do’ Christmas?  What are your traditions?

🙂