You can probably imagine how surprised Mrs G and I were to wake up in our time on Christmas Day, and even more surprised to be able to have a shower before the kids woke. In the end we had to wake them up - but it didn't take a lot of effort.
LGR was pretty impressed with Santa's efforts. Hayzey didn't care too much - she had found a pre-assembled toy kitched and toy tool bench and was more than happy to play with these.
The present opening started off smoothly but soon the number of presents opened was greater than the number of presents left and the kids wanted to play vs open. So we stopped for some breakfast and then decided to jump in the car and head on up to Nanna's place.
The trip was uneventful and we arrived at about 11:00. Aunt LJ and the cousins were already there, and soon after we arrived the Lithgow contingent and my Nanna arrived. It was straight into some beers, nibbles and a bit of soccer and then time for more presents.
This present opening, as always, was very noisy and very chaotic. Hayzey loved it but LGR had his hands over his ears as often as not and was not impressed with the volume.
Soon enough presents turned into lunch and we all sat down to the traditional Christmas meats and a couple of salads. From there nothing much more happened - just a bunch of talking and eating and general relaxing.
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About midafternoon it was time to depart and head over to Grandma's. We had to detour via Uncle G's work (he's a chef in a very decent restaurant with some fantastic valley views). In short time we'd paid our respects and were at Grandma's. Mrs G started to develop a fantastic case of hayfever and was intermittently amused and frustrated by it.
Uncle G arrived home pretty soon after we all got there and the present opening began again. It was a little less chaotic than earlier in the day and I think LGR appreciated being the centre of attention. As occurred earlier in the day both kids became more interested in playing with their gifts and a break was taken to allow us to have dinner.
As expected the kiddies started to get tired about 18:00 so they were bathed, dessert had and more presents opened.
In the end we didn't leave until about 20:00 or so and managed to detour via a house in Leura which has the most fantastic light display. Hayzey was asleep by this point but LGR was still (just) awake so I got him out of the car to have a good look. He declared the lights to the 'best ever'.
It was on this moment of joy that he was bundled back into the car and we returned home for some very deep sleep.