A belated Christmas check in with you all. I hope you had a sane day/s with your family. If not, I hope you were safe and warm and fed and at peace. I fear more and more people don’t have “somewhere to go” during the holidays. I hope if you weren’t with family, you got a smile from someone.

Our family’s Christmas venue changes each year – and that’s ok. What ties us to the years before is what we do on the day.  We make sure we do the little things each year to celebrate the season and the beginning of a new year.

It’s a simple as:-

• a tupperware server full of nibbles – chocolate scorched almonds, choccie peanuts, jubes, rumballs, cashews, macadamia nuts. And it magically refills overnight to be full again for the feet up tradition of watching the Boxing Day test and the start of the Sydney to Hobart yacht race
• a bowl of mock chicken dip (my Nanna’s recipe and made by mum)
• a tray full of mangoes – eaten over the sink or in a bowl with ice-cream
• copious cups of coffee and tea and a good chat over each one
• cold roast chicken and ham off the bone with salads galore for lunch, dinner, lunch, dinner…you get the idea!
• christmas cake or pudding with custard – although no-one ever has the room
• short walks in the heat to stretch the legs and amuse the dog
• a christmas tree with gifts under it and cards amongst the branches
• at least one gag gift – this year I got an M&M dispenser….”You get in the bowl!” Ha.
• no twitter/facebook/texting – but lots of calls

And the best Christmas gift of all – a cracking storm that dumped enough rain to fill the tanks and back up the down pipes.

Here’s cheers to you and yours.