LIAM'S FIRST CHRISTMAS
1999
 

Liam's official Santa portrait

The weather was pretty awful for an Australian Xmas, you wouldn't have known it was summer! As usual for us Christmas was a pretty hectic and crazy time! We left Sydney on Thursday and drove to Canberra. There was almost no traffic on the roads but we did hit a nasty patch of driving rain and mist just past Goulburn which made the drive somewhat stressful. To make matters worse Liam literally screamed for 1/2 hour in the backseat as he had had enough but there was no safe place to stop so we pressed on...

We stayed with Anthony's family in Canberra overnight and spent a restful Xmas Eve pottering around their house. Anthony and I hadn't bought each other anything so we went to the local mall to buy something small. The only shops it had were a small Fosseys and an Amcal chemist but I managed to find something that wasn't too crappy! We had Xmas Eve dinner with my parents and my sister and her boyfriend at my sister's house. Unfortunately my sister's boyfriend could only stay for a few hours as he works on the railway and was called back to work to fix up a train accident at Junee.

We opened our presents and Liam got the idea right away. He was ripping into the paper and then throwing down the present and holding out his hands for the next one - and he's only 5 months old!!! Being the first grandchild he was quite spoiled with pressies.

We had a lovely dinner of seafood and turkey and had a few glasses of some rather nice wine (Mum and Dad live near the Barossa Valley!!) before retiring for the night with Liam in his nice new bed.


Opening presents on Christmas morning

We arose early on Xmas morning and opened a few Santa presents - the best one(in my opinion!) was a month's worth of nappy service! Then we drove back to the Uhlmann's for lunch and more presents. Liam received quite a few more presents and once again got stuck into the unwrapping with much gusto. After a nice traditional lunch and a bit of a rest we packed up the car and headed off to Sydney for Xmas with my extended family.

Four hours later we arrived in Killara at my aunt's house where most of Dad's family were gathered. Dad is one of 7 kids and there are 15 grandchildren (some married) and one greatgrandchild (Liam!) so it's all very busy and noisy. Liam got a bit upset when we did the presents as it was very loud but I gave him a bath and put him down for a sleep and he was fine considering all the travel and excitement.

This year we decided to forgo a sitdown dinner and had finger food instead finished off with mini icecreams which was a pleasant change. We sat around drinking and talking before heading home at midnight. Once home we unpacked the car and dropped into bed exhausted.

 

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