So many Christmases have gone by since my childhood.  Christmas was always celebrated with a huge extended family with traditions that changed and adapted with each generation.   What never changed was the Toast to Absent Friends and Family.   Celebrating Christmas today with the ‘absent’ family that we always toasted was very special indeed.   On only three other occasions have I celebrated with them before.  When the cousins were 3 6 and 9 they sailed from Sydney to Cape Town so their Mom could finally introduce them to their South African family and they stayed for 3 months over the summer season.   Wayne returned when he was 21 and had Christmas with us and then Earl and I came over 15 years ago.   The family of course has grown – there are wives and children now and what a pleasure it has been to meet and celebrate with them all.

We started our day with present opening at Grandma’s house.  Tea and Mince Pies were served and at midday we went to the RSL Club for our Christmas dinner.  It was wonderful – I’ve never eaten seafood for Christmas lunch before.  An array of fresh oysters, mussels, prawns, calamari etc. was on offer as well as a variety of roasts and other hot food.   And the desserts were to die for.   We could just help ourselves to as much or as little as we wanted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The bad news is – Earl had a bit of a reaction to something he ate – he was the only one so far – hopefully nobody else is affected. I am happy to say that he is fine now!

Merry Christmas everybody!