I’ll start off by saying that this was probably the most unfestive Christmas season ever. Neither Chantelle nor I could get into the Christmas spirit, and despite having no excuse whatsoever (unlike last year where Jessie in the NICU was a good excuse to be preoccupied), our house was devoid of anything Christmas related whatsoever!
The lead up to Christmas Day was actually pretty productive, in that Jessica was shipped out to Oupa Monty and Ouma Cheryl who had asked for her to stay over a couple of days, freeing me up to get cracking on the multitude of projects that have been piling up in front of me. The fact that Chantelle was also working over this period meant that I could work uninterrupted, so I made the most of the time available to me (seriously, this is not much of a vacation at the moment – if I’m not looking after Jessie, then I’m working! Bloody workaholic I tell you…).
Anyway, Christmas Eve was a loss, with no Jessie and no wifey, I pretty much wiled it away behind the keyboard, stopping for breaks with a bit of X-Men and Wolverine anime for company. On her late return, wifey and I did exchange presents though, with her surprising me with an awesome package containing t-shirts, lindt chocolate, slip slops and the latest hardcover Terry Pratchett, Snuff. This kind of make it extra sucky when she opened up my gift to her, loving the Annique massage voucher contained inside, but a little sad that the electronic kitchen scale I had gotten for her failed to work out of the box! Oh well, back to Game it goes, especially now that I’ve found an even cooler one for her over at Yuppie Chef! :)
Christmas Day itself was all hands on deck (well mine actually as Chantelle was on duty, and would only be coming home for her lunch time split). This meant getting all the prep done for the big Christmas lunch we were hosting, featuring an array of beef fillet, roast chicken, potatoes, butternut fritters, spicy cheese bread, spanspek and baby peas. Pudding was left in the capable hands of Cheryl, so I didn’t have to worry about that for once.
Chantelle arrived home just in time to finish up the cooking for me, just before the Montgomery Clan pulled in, and I have to say, I was absolutely thrilled to have my little nibble monster back. Seriously, it was like she had grown at least 20 centimetres since I’d seen her last! :P
Presents were exchanged, the wine and champagne cracked open, and soon everyone was in a pretty festive mood as we got the final preparations for lunch in place, cranked the air conditioner and fan up to full, sat down, said a toast, broke open the Christmas crackers and then tucked in to what really was an excellent Christmas lunch!
The overwhelming heat of the day and the richness of the food in our bellies meant a bit of a wait until pudding, but pudding we did eventually have, before Chantelle had to up and return to work, followed by the Montgomery Clan shortly after.
In other words, another successful, warm Summer’s Christmas Celebrations officially over! :)
(The photo gallery of the lunch can be viewed here)