And so another Christmas Day is over......

 Merry ChristMAX

 

 

 Tiger was clearly chuffed with the hat!

 Jinx however was NOT wearing it!

After a lovely day yesterday of over indulgence today being Boxing Day means it's pyjama day. Incidentally it was our 10th Christmas in New Zealand yesterday. Today mostly we'll be watching Christmas movies all day, I recorded a fair few so plenty to choose from. No cooking is required as we've got leftovers for the next week at least :D We have a bit of a tradition in our house, Christmas eve dinner is Joe special glazed ham, potatoes(fresh dug from the garden) and green beans(ours weren't quite ready). For Christmas Morning breakfast we have ham, pork pie, from the farmers market made by an English fella. You can't get a decent pork pie here, so we were very happy that we were able to find them, with that we usually have boiled eggs but some days you can't face the battle of peeling the shells off!! So I did poached eggs. That hearty breakfast sets us up for the day.

    

Once we cleared away we moved upstairs and opened our presents, we don't go mad these days compared to Christmases past. It's not what's under the tree it's who's around it that's important. We got Michael a shirt, some denim shorts and worksocks. Natasha is at her family's so she will have hers when she gets back, They also have two joint presents also waiting for her return. I bought Joe a dartboard and he got me Annabel Langbeins through the seasons cookbook. Michael got me some solar garden lights and the latest and final Pink Floyd CD, he got Joe a new set of darts and a car wash kit. The dogs got a bone each from Michael and we got them chew toys, Astrixs chew toy lasted all of five minutes!! lol

 The toy, sold as a Dog chew toy! It got chewed alright!

Once that was out of the way it was time to head to the beach, it was Astrix's first trip to the beach and ours since losing Clyde. Astrix was great and loved it and although I felt sad not having Clyde there I managed not to blub. I had shed a few tears in the morning thinking of my friend Sharon who had passed away suddenly this year. It made me sad knowing how much she loved this time of year and especially New Year and that her family were spending the first Christmas without her. It just further reinforced my belief in who's around the tree that matters.
Lots of people at the beach and we met up with Sue and TOF and their dogs, it was great fun..

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back home to prepare dinner, have a drink in the spa and then we ate our Christmas feast, and it was a feast, at about 6pm....

 

Michael went into a food coma not long afterwards and we could have joined him but wandered over to Glen and Kaths, our neighbours for a couple of hours. When we got back Michael was stirring... kind of! We had a cuppa and put on David Walliams Gangster Granny movie, it was totally daft but ya watch daft films this time of year dontcha. Michael made his way home after that, Joe brought us up a nightcap, a drambuie for him and a baileys for me. We supped those listening to my Motown Christmas cd as the Christmas lights twinkled on the tree. A perfect end to a perfect day, I hope your day was just as perfect.
If you want to see ALL of the photos then you can see then here on Facebook

...and finally, I was so glad we bumped into the Clarkes as I had been planning this photo all 

morning!

MERRY TITSMAS!