Merry Christmas to everyone who might possible have stumbled upon these personal pages of mine. Wishing you all the season’s blessings your heart could possible desire!
We were in serious danger of not spending our first Christmas together thanks to the fact that Chantelle is on duty for both the 24th and 25th December, but thanks to some nifty planning and delayed bedtimes, we managed to lure her back to Bellville after her late shift yesterday for our traditional family present opening extravaganza!
And thanks to a slight blunder with booking their honeymoon plane tickets to Mauritius, Riley and Claire were in the neighbourhood too, so we also enticed them back to mom’s place after all their commitments, meaning that by 23:00 last night the whole gang were finally assembled all under one roof. Mom, Pops, Ryan, Claire, Riley, Chantelle and I, all hungry and all eager to see what the others had got for us this merry season (No delusions of Santa Claus for us any more I’m afraid – that’s going to have to wait until one of us produces some grandchildren to make Christmas magical again).
As is the norm, Mom had assembled enough snacks and sweets to feed an army, and with everyone’s help, the dining room table was soon covered in all manner of treats. The unbearable heat and humidity forced the drinks to keep flowing, and pretty soon we were all hunkering down and snacking as if there was no tomorrow. Okay, shame, everyone but mom was actually eating. Looks like she’s picked up that stomach bug that everyone is currently complaining about :(
Our stomachs satisfied, Chantelle bestowed upon Claire her new Santa Claus’ helper hat and Claire got stuck into her traditional duty of handing out all the presents. And with a little creative wrapping and gifts to me from me, it became pretty easy to see that I was the clear winner this season around, amassing a gigantic haul in the end! And not just any haul mind you – This was quality stuff this season, with gifts ranging from figurines and PS2 games to stylish clothes and glass tabletop games. So I certainly can’t complain this year around and it is pretty apparent that I must have been a remarkably good boy ALL year round! ;)
We had to laugh at Claire though, when she finally got to see the gift we bought Riley. Of course he ABSOLUTELY loved it (we knew he would), but Claire is already thinking up ways on how to accidentally toss it out from a seventh floor balcony. Unfortunately we didn’t capture the look of horror on Claire’s face as Riley gleefully tore his massive World of Warcraft Orc Shaman free from its constraints, but be sure that it will be the stuff of legend for quite some time!
I think everyone liked their gifts and I’m glad that Chantelle and I went to so much effort in choosing out really nice gifts this year. Of course, I’m hoping she likes what I got her, but I guess if she doesn’t then there is always the store returns policy you know ;)
And so Part 1 of 2007’s Christmas Celebrations concluded, and now I sit here, feverishly awaiting Part 2 which is going to be a scrumptious lunch with Monty and the gang a little later this afternoon – oh and more presents of course!