All is calm, all is bright

We had a lovely Christmas. I hope you did too.

I let a few things go this year. While I love the Christmas festivities, I find it can get a bit crazy. This year I decided to be more intentional and choosy in the lead up to Christmas and I think our family was a lot better for it. We did not go to our community Christmas carols this year because we had been at a Christmas Party all day. We had a lovely day but we were tired, I had a headache, our kiddos were squabbling so we just let it go. There were a number of things I just let go. And our Christmas was just as wonderful as every other year. We had parties and friends over, work luncheons and school wrap ups. And on Christmas Eve we wandered the streets of our neighbourhood and enjoyed 'the lights'. I did not put pressure on myself to make gifts this year although I did make one. I avoided town and I did most of our shopping online or at markets. I supported makers and small business as much as possible.

We enjoyed Christmas lunch with my family and hosted dinner for the Mr's family. There were cocktails and prawns. Salads and cold meats. Frozen pudding and trifle and chocolate log and pavlova! There were water bombs and pool shenanigans! It was a very good day!

Once again, we gifted our children 'something you want, something you need, something to wear and something to read'. We began this traditon five years ago now and it has been a wonderful thing. The children love it! Each gift is labelled-want, need, wear, read and they love trying to guess what might be inside. It makes for more thoughtful gift giving, I think and eliminates a lot of plastic fantastic. We have a large extended family so they receive many gifts by the end of the day. They also received a gift from Santa-this year, a trampoline.

So, a little bit of our Christmas in snaps! I hope yours was just as wonderful!