The Christmas It Was

I hope you all had a great Christmas! We are now into recovering mode after a fun filled few days before it starts all over again for New Years.

Our Christmas started on Christmas Eve which was a pretty boring day at home wrapping last minute gifts. In the afternoon we headed to the town pool to have a swim. It has become sort of a tradition, that we go to the pool every Christmas Eve, which I love! For most of the time, we were the only people there so that was a bonus :)

Empty pool

Once home, we put some snaggas on the barbie (Aussie slang guys) and had a nice BBQ dinner outside under our new patio with just our immediate family.

Sisters ♥

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After being woken up very early (5.30am, what?) by one very excited boy, we exchanged presents in our immediate family. 

Santa brought a ping pong table!

I also recieved some other stuff including... Grand Designs Abroad!!! nail polish, make-up, a cute decorating books named The Comforts of Home, some gorgeous navy linen shorts, jewellery by On A Whim Designs, chocolate, handcream, nail files, a very cute shower cap and exfoliating gloves and heat protection spray for hair and an iPod touch with a sweet turquoise-ish cover.

I wasn't expecting much at all, so I was really happy with what I got and oh so thankful. After receiving my iPod tocuh (5G), I've finally got Instagram. :) Now I can see what all the fuss was about! You can follow me @sophietelfer .

I was also excited about the gift giving, especially about the present I got for my mum. I secretly organised a Postrgram poster to gift her with. It was hard to keep the secret from her, but she was really happy when she opened it. We have yet to frame it but when we do I'll definitely show a picture! They say that a photo tells a thousand words. Well, this photo tells a million words and is the perfect way to capture memories all together. If you don't know what on earth, I'm talking about check out the link! As soon as I saw the idea on Fat Mum Slim, I knew I had to get one for her! Which is exactly what I did.

Then, after a yummy cooked breakfast with all the extras we piled into the car for a 3 hour drive to Perth to celebrate with our extended family.

Thankfully we had air con and my iPod touch to keep me company...

Selfies on the car trip!

First we stopped at our cousins house on mums side of the family. There was our aunt, uncle, 3 cousins, nanna, grandad and all of our immediate family. Considering past Christmases with our other two aunties and their families too, this get together was relatively small, but it was just as nice. It will probably be the last time we see our cousins before they move to Rockhampton in January, so it was really nice to be able to celebrate with them. Our cousins gifted us with the game of Taboo. Have you played it? It is so mcuh fun and I can't wait to have a game!

Christmas Tree at the cousins

Little cousins - Hugh, Claudia and Odette

Big cousins - Natasha and Bonnie

We had a nice lunch with turkey and ham and lots of salads. Dessert, as usual, was my favourite part though! Our Aunty Ange had cooked a delicious Christmas Pudding and yummy pavlova. 

I am very disappointed that I forgot a photo because the Christmas crackers were the best part of lunch. The crackers did contain a hat and a joke, but also a whistle. Then everyone lined up in a long line according to the number on their whistle and the conductor (Auntie Ange/Mum) read the music and when you were pointed to, you blew your whistle. All together, it was meant to sound like we were playing a Christmas song! It was very funny :)

It was so very hot (when we got home, we found out that Perth had the hottest Christmas Day of anywhere in the world! wowza!) so we all hung out on the front porch by the water feature turned swimming pool.

My cute little cousin Claudia

Claudia and Hugh cooling off

Out the front

One of my cousins had recieved the game of Hookey as a gift so after her dad had mounted it on the wall, we all had a go to see who could get the highest score. I was terrible. I think our Grandad ended up being the winner will a total of 36.

No post is complete without a random selfie... do you like the colour of my iPod cover as much as I do? Isn't it awesome!

 

After not long at all, it was time to pile back in the car again and head across the city in direction of our other aunt's house, this time to celebrate with dad's side of the family. 

Most of the afternoon was spent lazing around the pool or patio.

Bonnie relaxing

Backyard

Pool beauty

New nail polish

Fun

Chatting and chilling

Pool fun

Dinner was a nice, casual relaxed affair which was the fantastic way to end a great day. We had delicious kebabs, roast lamb, potatoes, sweet potatoes and lots of salads.

The Christmas crackers were again great. But thankfully this time we didn't have to perform! Aunty Wendy (our fantastic host) had made the Christmas crackers by herself so they were customised with things inside that you would personally like! It was such a special idea.

This is what was inside mine...

After such a long but very fun day, I was very tired and impatient to get to bed, but I made sure I stayed up until dessert ... which was trifle, lemon cheesecake and so many other yummy treats! Then finally I went to sleep...

The next day, Boxing Day, was again very hot. We hopped in the pool in the morning but by 9 or 10 am it was much too hot to be out in the sun so we had to move into the shade, but again it was too hot so we relocated indoors. This was when we had the crazy idea of hitting up the Boxing Day sales, just the 4 girls. Dad didn't like the idea but eventually let us go. We've never been in Perth (or an big city) for Christmas, so it was something we didn't want to miss out on. And it was an experience. For sure.

When we rolled up at Garden City, it was impossible to find a parking space. There were lines and lines of cars moving very slowly trying to go anywhere but where they were! After a couple of minutes driving around in circles with no success, we decided to head back home... and get dad to drive us back and drop us off! Which he did, thankfully :)

Then we got to experience the Boxing Day Sales! It wasn't actually that bad, apart from when we wanted to try on some clothes in Myer. The line for the fitting rooms stretched halfway across the store and was moving slower than a snail! After waiting for about 10 minutes, and the only movement in line being when people in front of us got fed up of waiting.

We had a better plan! The fitting rooms over in the children's section were practically empty. Why hadn't we thought of this sooner? The lady let us in and we tried on all our clothes (for me, deciding none were right). It was only later that we found out we weren't the only ones to think of the idea, but ladies weren't allowed into these fitting rooms! She had passed us as kids, even if we were trying on ladies clothes! To make ourselves not feel so bad, we did try on a few kids clothes too...

Boxing Day Sales at Myer

Australia's Biggest Stocktake Sale!

After getting out of the crazyness in Myer, we got something to eat before hitting up Diva and Kikki.K! My favourite shops :) I scored a cute as laptop bag from Kikki.K. After a year without any protection whatsoever for my laptop, I think it was about time.

At Diva, I bought myself a necklace and this watch. Isn't it the best? And it cost $2. Even better. Oh and yes, it does still work! Touch wood.

$2 watch

Dad picked us up from Garden City and we hit the road again. all the way home. It was the end of a fantastic Christmas!

What did you do for Christmas? Did you get anything nice? Or did you get yourself something nice at the Boxing Day Sales?