Yes it's true, we had some overseas visitors for Christmas this year as a cunning plan came through and barring a couple of rainy days, even the weather behaved (just about!).
Plenty of wine, water, tea & shockingly coffee was consumed by all. Trips to our favorite restaurants were almost all accomplished and most surprisingly of all I didn't screw up the Christmas dinner! Hoorah!
Much to Jessica's (I thought they were coming tomorrow) and Ryan's surprise - he even let out a little "Yay!" when he saw them in the car when we collected him on his last day at school, a pleasant journey over was greeted by crappy rain and of course rush-hour traffic. Hannah seemed nonplussed by the new arrivals, but swiftly warmed her vocal chords and realized here was more people to terrorize.
Biggest shock was the fact that the friendliest cat was Poof! Usually he'd stay away for virtually the whole trip but he was swiftly on the scene and the sofa demanding belly rubs. Highlight of the cats entertainment was our nutter kitten who's developed a fascination with Ice Cubes... fishing them out of the sink and now fully associating the sound of the freezer sliding open, she bounds up to the door in expectation of...... a treat....? Not sure quite how she sees it, maybe it's a play toy, but she's happy until it inevitably melts or vanishes under a cabinet.
Entertainment was in sparing supply, Jessica had a Christmas gathering at the weekend so people could enjoy
We also played Uno and as witnessed by the photo above there was some ganging up on certain people, that's the thanks I get for the copious food & drink I prepared. You can take your Plus 4 and definitely not triple down on it. And you cheat too. Bastards. Cheating Bastards. Especially the little boy!
In other news, Jessica decided to take us all to the mall, we left her with Hannah to have a "little trim, tidy up" and came back to an almost scalped girl.... if I'd have pulled that stunt with Ryan I'd have not been around to type this! Double standards ahoy! To be fair it's now a nice bob and was only about 6-8 inches lopped off, maybe I'm just clueless due to the lack of hair I possess, but it did seem a lot!
Onto Christmas, and Ryan did brilliantly, seemingly impressed by how Santa knew to get him everything he wanted, which included a Switch which he's sort of played sporadically..... time will tell if the pull of the Legos is too much. He did say he wanted a Bugatti Chiron, but even in Lego form it's a little too much for his wallet! His other popular toy was a "Really Rad Robot" (I think) which sent Hannah into hysterics when it proclaimed "YOU"RE A DIRTY MYRUS" obviously we think it's VIRUS, but Ryan & Hannah are adamant.
Meanwhile Hannah, fresh from quoting Anglo-Saxon terms of endearment (times like this I play the Aussie Card, to little or no avail, sadly) was very pleased with her Elsa doll, she also inflicted Frozen, The Incredibles 2 and Big Hero 6 on our guests. She loves her light up Paw Patrol bedtime toy and enjoyed rummaging in her stockings while bossing everyone about, she did very well for clothes and other things too.
Jessica's gift was to set up a photo shoot for kids & grandparents and she doubled down on that by insisting the kids develop pneumonia - December, early afternoon, windy.... chilly. Kids, to quote Phil Collins - No Jacket Required. Poor call Mom!
Right we're into 2019, no resolutions because you know you'll be let down.
Enjoy 2019!
J, J R& H.
