The year ended on a high with this year being our “on” Christmas with all the family and something I look forward to very much. Its noisy and chaotic and typically ‘us’ and getting more so with the addition of 4 kids under 5 in the mix but something I wouldn’t miss for quids! It takes a lot of planning and shopping and cooking and bed making but hopefully is something we will all remember in the years to come when we won’t have the room to host everyone for three or four days at a time and it becomes more of a day event. It was especially lovely and important for the little cousins to spend some time together as they rarely if ever see each other in between due to the Tassie situation. They all command adult fares now on the plane and that makes it quite expensive as well as the logistics of work (and from this year) school dates needing to be factored in. I can hardly believe Myla is off to school, even though in Tassie they only do a 5 day fortnight for the first year. She already has her uniform and her school bag and she is VERY excited – sleeping in her sports gear the first night she had it!! I just know it will be a blink of an eye before they are all at school so these times with them as toddlers is extra precious.

They arrived on Christmas Eve with so much excitement for Santa and all the fun things that go with his arrival. We had a Xmas cookie decorating session in the afternoon which went down a treat – the little ones more keen on eating them than decorating them but the older two filled every tiny space on their cookies with icing. I was thrilled to read them ‘The Night Before Xmas’ and after a few Xmas songs around the Christmas tree we tucked them into bed with high hopes that the big guy in red was going to visit and fill their stockings! We were then free to have our grown up Xmas dinner in the dining room – one of the few times per year that it is used for it’s original purpose! We always have our hot meal on Xmas Eve and it gives me much pleasure to decorate the room and use all our nice china and glasses.

We awoke to excited squeals as they discovered the bulging stockings at the bottom of their beds and ripped the paper off to divulge the little gifts inside. The big day was off and running and we basically never drew breath for the rest of the day!! Food was prepared (special thanks to my ham chef) and margheritas were whipped up (thanks to my barman) presents were exchanged, Uncle Tom read books and inserted batteries into what seemed like nearly every gift! Sam assembled Lego and robots and Loz and I endured many incarnations of being “made-up” with Myla’s new make up kit (yellow eyeshadow is SO fetching!) Indi had a doll tucked under her arm at all times whilst keeping an eye out for the scary T-Rex that Ollie loved! You get the picture. I was so engrossed I nearly forgot I was meant to be cooking so we had a rather late lunch and after a boisterous pool session the kids were asleep early and we all collapsed and had an early night after all the excitement!

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Boxing Day was more relaxed and we had the obligatory biennial Cameron Family Cricket Match – Bailey as per usual was by far the best fielder! Tom had bought the older kids a fishing rod each for Xmas and the menfolk decided to take them to Shoalhaven Heads river to show them how it’s done. They all had a lovely time and Cooper caught his very first fish. From that moment on he and Myla really bonded over their grown up adventure!

The day was going well until I had a labrador inflicted knee injury where I genuinely thought I’d torn my ligament and when I was just starting to be able to put some weight on it a few days later I made a stupid decision to show Myla my handstand ability which sadly after years of being able to walk on my hands as a youngster was completely inept and I collapsed due to my lack of upper body strength and tore my ankle ligament too!! Great start to 2024 but also a wake up call for me to start a strengthening program….use it or lose it as they say!!

Everyone left on the 27th except the two little girls who we were minding while Mum and Dad went to a wedding up the coast. We had such fun with them – they love being our chicken helpers and collecting the eggs and adore doing craft so it was easy to keep them entertained. We took them into Berry for a special morning tea of scones and jam and milkshakes which they LOVED! Wearing their matching dresses that I bought them in Greece and wearing some of my necklaces (which they had trialled on the ever patient Bailey) they attracted quite a few comments from our fellow diners – very sweet! A trip to the amazing toyshop in Berry had them buying stick on earrings, bubbles and stick on nails which provided an afternoon’s entertainment (we are still finding little rainbow and unicorn nails 4 weeks later) and a visit to the Fairy Tree always goes down a treat. They had a wonderful time playing with their new dance ribbons from Santa and insisted on showing Pap as he was watching the cricket – very relaxing!!

It seemed pretty quiet when we were just down to 4 adults and 2 kids and the rest of the holiday was spent doing the simple things that make kids happy. On their last day the boys played golf and us girls ventured to Huskisson for a fish and chips lunch followed by caramel milkshakes – does life get any better? A lot of kisses, waving and honking of horns as they set off the next morning on their road trip back to Geelong to catch the ferry back to Tassie and we weren’t too sad as we already have our flights booked for April to visit them in Hobart!

It was a great way to finish off what had been a good year for us. The retired one has met a great bunch of blokes who he enjoys golfing with and who share the same weird sense of humour as him and it has really helped him settle into enjoying retirement instead of being a bit lost. You can live in the nicest place in the world but you always need some friends to share things with or it is just an empty shell. Let’s see what 2024 has to offer – so far it has given us a lot of rain followed by a lot of sunshine and you never know which one you’re going to get. As a result the garden has gone into overdrive and we are gradually trying to rein it into submission but we are mostly failing! We refuse to be ruled by the proliferation of weeds and overactive grass runners that thread their way through everything and just do a bit every day whilst trying not to feel overwhelmed although if I won the lottery tomorrow the first thing I would do is employ a gardener for all the yukky jobs and I would just enjoy my flowers!! So let’s go 2024 – do your best and let’s remember that there are always beautiful simple things that can give us pleasure no matter what….