An AWFUL lot of socialising! We decided to host Christmas here in our lovely Launceston house, for Tassie friends who would otherwise be on their own – most of our friends here are also not originally FROM here, so we ended up with a good batch on Christmas Day, which was just lovely. I made one meat and one vegetarian lasagne, and with the marvellous contributions by visitors, we merrily ate all day while the kids enjoyed the pool, trampoline and new Chrissy pressies. We put the computers away on Christmas Eve and didn’t get them out until Boxing Day, which was a good move, I think!
Christmas night the big kids and I went with a couple of friends to another family’s property for a fantastic dinner and good company – husband stayed home after overindulging in desserts during the day and to put the little boys to bed early (Master Three was particularly in need of the sleep rather than social life!), but we enjoyed ourselves nonetheless.
Since Christmas we’ve had several play days, including a birthday party Miss Eight attended on Boxing Day, and chauffeuring children to various locations as well as receiving them here. On the weekend, Tansy, Finchy and the girls stayed over Saturday night and most of Sunday, when we were joined by the extended Flinthart clan for lunch and the afternoon – there are drawbacks to having creative friends, and the inspiration for new projects is one of them! We sent the Flinthart home with a story idea to write and I came away with even more things to do!
New Year’s Eve we again hosted a fairly impromptu get together with two other families – this time I said I wasn’t cooking but I ended up deciding my pizzas were nicer than Dominos so while we chatted and imbibed around the kitchen island I made and cooked several which were eaten with gusto by adults and kids alike, so I’ll call that a win. Given we had celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary at lunchtime with a meal at Hogs Breath (new to Launceston!), a lighter evening meal went down well. Oh, and it was certainly nice to relax with friends and watch the kids run riot, as Master Three had a spill off the trampoline (not jumping, but trying to drop the ladder off so the baby wouldn’t hurt himself climbing up!) and we spent a couple of hours in the morning at the Emergency room – a minorish break in the arm, requiring a half cast for a week. The resilience of youth is amazing, as he was literally bouncing after a meal and a nap!
We’re now awaiting the arrival of Helen, Stewart and J, for an overnight (and several day delayed, so we’re very excited!) visit, which will be followed on Friday by a catch up with mainlander Dr Slatter who is travelling about, and no doubt the next couple of weeks will continue to be hectic with child-wrangling in multiple forms. Gotta love a social school holidays!
Tagged: christmas, friends, kids, new year, socialising
