Saturday, December 24th, 2005

Got up and helped clean then went to work on the last painting. This took me the better part of the day. At some point, Sea got our phone (bought Friday) working with our Vonage. To test it out, I called Mom and we had a nice talk. I told her I'd call her again on Christmas morning (there.) Paul and Jasper had just arrived at that point to pick something up. Went out to pick something up, including wrapping paper, then came home and did most of my wrapping. I continued working on the painting, and eventually Joan arrived. The plan was for her to spend the night, and possibly the next night. It took me a while, but I finished the paintings, wrapped them and visited with Joan for a while.

After a time, dinner was ready. It was very light - smoked salmon with capers on iceberg lettuce, avacado with dressing, turkish bread, then prawns grilled on the bbq. In between Mort got a few fresh prawn and it was hilarious to watch him go crazy over them. We had baked peaches with cream for dessert and polished off a bottle of a New Zealand white called Stoneleigh.

Christmas tree with some of the presents.

Christmas Eve table setting with the first course.

Mort devouring his prawns.

Joan went to bed shortly after dinner and Gabrielle went off to finish wrapping then bed. I ended up watching a movie since I wasn't all that tired, and Sea & Euan stayed up late having a wine-fuelled father/son discussion. When the movie ended, we all went off to bed.

Upon returning, I decided to paint for a while though that was hard because of the wind. The rest of the afternoon and evening were pretty uneventful though we ate some cheese and chocolates and I went to bed with a bad headache. I couldn't get to sleep and worked on the travelogue until about 1:30 in the morning.

Go to Christmas Day in Australia »