A week after the wedding and Christmas was there. The time between the 2 events flew by, with Radford, Nicole, Matt and Karina making the most of my parent's hospitality and free bed's in Queenstown to do some sightseeing. They toured around the area, while Aaron and I chilled out and eased back into relaxed kiwi-mode. 3 days later and they were off again having seen Milford Sound, Arrowtown, Queenstown and enjoyed a Serious Fun riversurfing trip (Matt, as soon as you send the photos, we can put them up for the world to laugh at us).

Christmas day started about 9am for us (Mum had already been up for 2 hours preparing the feast) with a Champagne breakfast for those that had stayed the night before (all 12 of them) where we got about a third of the way through the food set out on the table before we were all chocca. Oh well, only 3 hours til the main meal of the day.

Now this is something of a family tradition, the vast array and high quantities of food whenever we congregate, the upside is that no-one needs to cook for the next three days and that we never run out of anything. Christmas dinner was no different, and apart from having to pull us 'kids' away from an intense Monopoly game, went off without a hitch. The aunts, uncles and cousins had arrived by this time, bringing us up to a healthy 19 hungry mouths to feed.

After lunch, back to the Monopoly before the main event of the day - PRESENTS! I think it was safe to say that Aaron and I were both spoiled immensely by everyone, so thank you very much! and it's nice to know that we must've been missed last Christmas, as we had almost a full family turnout.

Dessert about 5pm (couldn't face it any earlier) and once again, we ate about a third, and the alcoholic cheesecake Mum and I made the day before at about 9am in the morning (tastetesting all the way) was definitely a hit. Then outside for some backyard cricket to work off the days ingestion. All and all, a great day and a brilliant chance for me to see all the family.