Christmas In July 2015

Do you celebrate 'Christmas in July'?

I have a few times, and always enjoy preparing 'extra' gifts for my grandchildren and having a hot family meal at a time when everyone is hungry and not rushing on to another family function.

This year as I prepared for our family's gathering, I also prepared a gift for a 'new' friend through Cheryll's Christmas in July.  This was the parcel that I sent to Jan:

I included a tree wall hanging, a snowman hot water bottle cover, santa and his tired elf mug rugs and some Christmas sweets.  They were wrapped in Christmas paper and bubble wrap, then placed in a mailing bag for their trip to Jan in Victoria.

Yesterday, I got to open my gift from Anna and put her gifts on display as part of out family dinner.  Anna sent me:

A delightful wall hanging saying 'all hearts come home for Christmas' - it greeted my family at the front door yesterday.

A very creative reindeer who held up the decorations and entertained our Santas and snowman.

This lovely hand towel that was very useful in the kitchen.  There were also some decorations and sweets to be enjoyed.  And I'll be drinking the hot chocolate very soon.

Our children brought the afternoon tea and gingerbread houses for the granddaughters to decorate - and what a lovely job they did:

Then we sat down to a Size 50 turkey roast dinner for 13, followed by apple crumble and custard dessert (my family don't like traditional pudding) and to my surprise there were very little leftovers.

And for the grandchildren, this year I made them each a new fleece outfit - coats and pinafores / trousers for the girls and pants, sweater and vest for our grandson.

.....and because I had so much fun making my first water bottle cover, the girls received their own water battle and cover to match their outfits.

Well this Nanna is feeling a bit weary.  Think I will have a restful afternoon before I tackle another busy week.  But I have lots of lovely memories to reminisce over .......