Christmas Celebrations & a Happy New Year

On the 22nd I picked up my husband at the airport from his flight from Sydney and took some photos of the beautiful Christmas decorations at Terminal 1.

Christmas tree, Christmas kangaroos

I unfortunately hadn't been feeling too "Christmasee" and I left the planning too late, so by the time I invited the usual friends over for Christmas Eve dinner or Christmas Day lunch, most of them already had plans, which meant that we were down to 8 people instead of the usual 20 plus!

We still stick to the European tradition of celebrating Christmas Eve with a big dinner, but due to fact that there wouldn't be many attending this year, my daughter in law offered to host Christmas Eve at their place and I would host Christmas Day.  
It would also be easier for them with their baby, so he could just go to sleep at his normal time and not have his routine disrupted.  
Although we thought that at 13 months Joshua would make a fuss over the opening of the presents he didn't bat an eyelid and paid no attention to the gifts. Maybe next year ...

Everyone attending brought along some food for the events, and as usual we had far too much food. The usual Christmas ham and a Portuguese dish of Cod fish with cream sauce were served.
Luckily this year it wasn't extremely hot, but we need to start changing our food options to go with the warm weather instead of slaving for a few hours in front of hot pots and ovens.

 Cod Fish w/cream sauce, King Cake, dessert table Christmas day, Dessert table Christmas Eve, Ham

After leaving my son's house at close to 11pm I still took photos of a decorated house next to his that had plenty of people driving by the whole night. Apparently it was awarded the 4th prize in their suburb. The other house at the bottom of the photo is on the street behind us.

When we arrived home we opened our presents, had a digestive tea and went to bed.

On Christmas Day we had arranged lunch to be ready by 1pm. It was mostly left-overs from the evening's dinner and I just made a Passion-fruit Mousse that would be refreshing for dessert.

Illuminated Houses

One of the couples that attended both events offered us breakfast at their house on the 26th, or Boxing Day. They have a dream house facing a small offshoot of the Canning river.
They had invited some of their friends, and after eating bacon, eggs, beans, fried tomato and toast we lazed around their little jetty feeding the ducks.

Feeding the ducks at my friend's house

On Wednesday 27th I had to work my usual afternoon shift at the Medical clinic, but it was very quiet. Because most of the Doctors have actually taken a few days off, there's just one Doctor which means my two colleagues were quite happy to work without me, which means I only go back to work on Tuesday the 2nd of January.  Yippee!!  


On Thursday 28th, our friends with the house by the river invited their daughter and partner, my husband and I and our son and daughter in law for a Barbecue lunch. We took chicken to grill, they supplied steaks and sausage and my daughter in law brought dessert.
They have a heated pool, but it was a bit windy and I decided not to join my son, daughter in law and grandson in the pool.

View of the pool area and river below

Once again after lunch we sat by the jetty feeding the ducks and this time 8 black swans also came around. It's lovely to see the comings and going of the ducks, the swans and other assorted birds that pop around to be fed.  Of course as in nature, the weaker seem to be driven away by the stronger ones.

Our friend buys special food for the ducks/swans and feeds them regularly at 6am and 6pm, but on a day like today, he just calls them and they seem to know his voice and what's coming of course and we could see them just swimming down the river towards his house.
It was certainly a beautiful and very relaxing day.

Bottom left - a strange bird that looked like a mix of a turkey and goose

Feeding the black swans, a swan up close

Next event will be New Year's Eve at the Portuguese Club, with a dinner and dance.
It's nothing fancy food wise, nor music wise, but I do enjoy dancing and don't really like staying in on this specific day, so I make the best of whatever is on offer.

I hope you all had a Wonderful Christmas and wish you a wonderful end of the year and the best for 2018, with lots of health and happiness.

See you again on Monday the 1st of January for Monday Murals.

As from February 2018 I'll be taking over
the "Monday Murals" meme from Oakland Daily Photo.