This was a lovely year of celebration leading up to Christmas and a beautiful traditional Ryan family day, all facilitated by mum's huge efforts. It was inclusive of naps for all and much reading and laying as the weather was unexpectedly rainy and grey and other adventuring was put on hold. Next year is the much anticipated 'Ryan Family Cruise' - where we have all opted for a no present Christmas and to instead enjoy the cruise as our gift. The kids are on board and excited with the plan. With that in mind, knowing Christmas will look different next year, I threw myself into all the Christmasy things I love with the plan to have a little breather from those next year too. It made for an epic and beautiful Christmas season.
December was gingerbread making. Lots of it and lots of eating it. The kids and I made batches for teachers, friends and neighbours and had our own gingerbread man and women decorating and of course eating. I do love gingerbread. The kids wrote our cards and delivered gifts. We decorated our tree which I think gets more beautiful every year. It's a joy to bring out all of our sentimental ornaments I've collected over the years and reminisce on all those special times and places.
We had some lovely Christmas events dotted through December. I took Finley, Harper and Lily to my work Christmas lunch which was so lovely. They even got to take some Christmas pictures with the school lamb. Lily had her end of year concert at preschool and Primrose and Quill had their Christmas night at school, singing songs they had prepared and even ending the night with fireworks. I travelled to Canberra for Levi's work Christmas party and had a lovely little getaway in Canberra seeing old friends and getting dolled up for the party. We had a great night.
We had a mini little Christmas before Christmas for the kids and they got to open most of their Christmas presents. The highlights were their new personalised water bottles, Quill's bobble head, Lily's western outfit, Primrose's books and Finley's rashie. They also started the morning with a mango each and strawberry croissants and thought they were in heaven. Later in the day we shared a beautiful afternoon with our friends and neighbours Liz, Dwayne, Sunday, Blue and Wild. This year they have been incredibly generous having us over and feeding us the best food we may have ever eaten. We wanted to return the favour so I set about creating some traditional North American dishes I've learned over the years. We had a turkey, apple and cranberry stuffing bake, sweet potato pecan bake, fresh, hot bread rolls and a pearl cous cous salad. It was delicious. The kids decorated their own gingerbread man and we had a beautiful swim and kayak in the dam. We also gifted them the Jade and Levi prank blanket which was as hilarious as always and goes down as one of the best reactions yet.
We travelled to Sydney on Christmas Eve set for actual Christmas. The Tate and Hanna Ryan's were there and these is nothing the kids love more than cousin time. It was lovely to be home and enjoy all the things mum does to make Christmas special, mangoes, chocolate in the morning and the most beautiful lamb and salads for Christmas lunch. The cousins have their own special stocking opening ritual Christmas morning and are very good at letting us sleep in til a reasonable hour. The kids received their main gift Christmas morning. Finley got his long awaited music player and headphones, Primrose more books and a special craft to do with grandma, Quill got a roping set and Lily a carousel music player. Dad and Finley also got some Pilbara hats ready for our WA trip in July. Even Arty for some treats. We played a hilarious and ill fated secret santa and spent the rest of the day eating, resting and talking.
We had another lovely day at Ray and Gemma's for boxing day. The weather was still drizzly, so more of the same. In the afternoon we went to the Stokes Family gathering at Tim and Alison's place in Newtown and that was lovely for us and the kids to connect with Levi's side of the family. Finley stayed on with the Stokes for a week of fun. Quill stayed on with the cousins at Grandma's and Levi and I took the girls home for some nice time with them while the boys were away.
It was a lovely Christmas.
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