Joy To The World

As we celebrate the birth of Christ our Saviour, it is with joy that we remember how great the grace and the love of God is. We are grateful for the blessing of having family and friends to share this important day with. And what a wonderful Christmas day we've had again.

It is always a special moment to see your children's faces light up when they are finally allowed to open ALL those presents under the our ever-slowly wilting tree which we didn't think would survive until Christmas day thanks to 3 days of non-watering...Oops. Blame it on Farmville...

The children didn't care. They still tore open their presents with gusto. They are very fortunate children to have so many loving and caring family and friends who gave thoughtful and wonderful gifts. The only one who really couldn't care less about the presents was Jonah, he was too busy trying to get at the banana that the reindeers didn't eat. I was really excited about my new kindle! But perhaps the more gratifying present had to be one from Jonah. The one who only points and grunts decided to give his parents an early Christmas present yesterday by walking three steps! I am still in disbelief today.

After getting the children dressed for the day, I thought I'd take the opportunity to take a nice photo of all three before any food stains took hold of their party gear. Between the non-stop fidgeting of all three (in particular Jonah) and my slow camera, I was unable to get even one good photo. I have attached the only one where you can see the faces of all three, where they are all vaguely smiling, where none of their faces are completely blurred by movement and which doesn't have some part of their head chopped off the picture.

After the Christmas service, we headed to the Swissotel for Christmas Day lunch with Malcolm's parents and grandfather. After initial confusions, we were pleasantly surprised to discover that we had been allocated the only private room in the restaurant! It had a little alcove for the children to play in and a superb view of the St. Mary's Cathedral. Unfortunately, by this stage, we had no idea in which of the gazillion bags our camera was in, so you'll have to wait until we pilfer Mal's dad photos.

It was a feast and a half. The food was superb, topped off by an exquisite and fantastic array of desserts. The creme brulee was phenomenal, as was the creme caramel and the beautiful chocolate fountain. With an endless supply of coca=cola, how could one complain!?!?! We rolled out two and half hours later for Cabarita to exchange more presents. By the end of this, we had more presents that we could poke a stick at.

We hurried off for Pymble for the final meal of the day with Brian, Asha and Michael. Wagyu beef, lamb cutlets, prawn skewers and macadamia ice-cream capped off a wonderful day of feasting. Elliot really enjoyed playing with the nerf gun Brian bought him. Brian enjoyed it even more, having bought himself three. It wasn't long before the only ones shooting each other around the house were Malcolm, Michael and Brian.

We finally reached home after a long and delightful day. Mal is still preparing for tomorrow's festivities while I ponder how I will find a home for the 4 big boxes of presents that we have...

I hope that your day has been as wonderful and joyous as ours. May your Christmas sparkle with moments of love, laughter and goodwill, and may your eyes, mind and heart be filled with the true spirit of Christmas - JESUS . Wishing you a Merry Christmas from the Albany Family.