Well, another Christmas has come and gone... I hope everyone had a happy and healthy time enjoying family and friends and food and each other... whatever it is you do to celebrate! :) We spend Eve with Flex's family and the Day with mine.

It was nice this year as being on the brink of 8 months preggo everyone kept telling me 'not to worry' so I did not have much to do... we personally decided not to put up our tree this year as the thought of organizing a baby's room - moving stuff from all our closets to the new utility shelves AND dealing with storing decorations seemed overwhelming. We did however have some bits on the shelves and stockings on the mantle.

We had a lovely meal with the in laws on the Eve - steaks, salads, platanos and other yummy foods. We got some lovely gifts from all the family and our first official holiday gifts for Teeny Fleener!

Then home to enjoy our gift exchange, done in the Eve as the Day is so busy... I had dutifully stuck to our agreement of a low gift budget due to a troubling financial year and impending birth... so Alex got a Star Trek (original series) phaser and com unit in one - working sound and lights and some socks and his favourite body shop soaps... I got a new notebook - yes the computer kind, some new earrings and a stainless steel kitchen sink... now racked with guilt I quickly pointed out that I was carrying his child and the next generation of his family name... all is well in the gift exchange world!

I got up on the Day and went to church with my mother as this is the most important gift I can ever give her. Home and finished up preparing the feast veggies - sister, Mum, niece and I split up the meal preparations every year - and we headed over to Sister's house for time with her and BIL and 3 nieces and one great-nephew... It was a lovely day - Flex and BIL spent most of it doing various sports on the WII and the ladies chatted and ate... lots of yummys... oldest niece made a fab starter of green salad with english prawn cocktail or American prawn cocktail or smoked salmon... next up turkey, ham, roast potatoes (we Brits LOVE our roasties), chipolatas (sausages wrapped in bacon and roasted), mashed sweet potatoes - no cinnamon or fluff, steamed green beans, carrots and cauliflower cheese... Then we had christmas pud with fresh cream, fruit or Tiramisu... of course my beloved sister (aka Human rubbish bin - seriously) had some of each!

We got some lovely gifts and had fun watching great-nephew (22 months) tear paper off his... can't believe we will have a child this time next year - although too young to enjoy any of the festitivies - it will be fun for us! :)

Then home and Flex played online games while I watched crap telly - then over to the annual Crimbo party at our good friends - the 'other' preggo couple... brave of them to have people over and such a late night as I was TOTALLY done in by 12.30 a.m. Was lovely to catch up with friends from all over the country/continent and all years from our school... and a fun surprise visit from one giant canadian who moved away 2 years ago... funny how as we get nearer the end there seems to be lots of bump rubbing from various parties - although I don't mind that like others... the party was lots of fun - thanks to B&J and I LOVE your baby room!

The rest of the weekend was spent touring Home Demon, cough Depot, and clearing out cupboards, moving items to storage boxes and shelves and FINALLY getting all my cds off Teeny's floor and getting the book shelves and some things set up in there... PHEW weight off... we also managed to squeeze in time to use Flex's annual gift cert from my Mum to go to Bangkok for dinner on Saturday with our good Argentinean friend we had not seen in a while...

Have a fun week and enjoy your New Year's Eve... will be a strange one to not be with all my friends in a smoky bar - but will herald the start of an amazing and insane new year for us! Stay Safe....