Crimbo Capers

December 27th, 2005 - 12:24pm

Well, most of the Christmas season is now over for another year, so what did we get up to?

First things first, let’s make with the present list. Since presents were flying thick and fast in some cases, I might have mucked up a few of the people who gave us presents; let me apologise in advance if that’s the case.

I received (in chronological order):

The aforementioned Mario cross stitch from Justine
Half a giftcard from Mum
Nutrimetics moisturiser from Rachel/Ron/Sam/Monique
A JB Hi-Fi gift voucher from Diane (Justine’s mum)
Gummi Bears from Diane (Justine’s mum)
A Johnnie Walker Collection from Justine
A miniature Vorocube sculpture from Justine
A print of a painting of a Japanese mitten from Justine
A lollipop from Justine
An Astro Boy bobble-head statue thing from Justine
The Incredibles from John/Kerryn/James/Sarah
Some made-for-TV DVDs from Justine’s Nana
A box of chocolates from Justine’s Nana
A very nice Lowepro Nova 3 AW camera bag from Dad
A lens cleaning kit from Dad
A bamboo plant from Cheryl
Some Simpsons scotch glasses from Cheryl
A Simpsons Poker Set from Chris/Mel
Half a box of chocolates from Richard/Eleanor/Matthew

Justine received (also in chronological order):

The other half of a giftcard from Mum
Scrapbooking stuff from Hannah
Box of chocolates from Moran/David (Justine’s bosses)
A Japanese tea set from Rachel/Ron/Sam/Monique
Nutrimetics Lip Gloss from Rachel/Ron/Sam/Monique
A big arse round pottery bowl thing from Diane (Justine’s mum)
Lots of scrapbooking stuff from Diane (Justine’s mum)
Big Christmas teatowels from Diane (Justine’s mum)
A Canon IXUS 55 digital camera from Me
1GB SD Card for the camera from Me
Leather case for the camera from Me
Animal Crossing: Wild World for Nintendo DS from Me
A cheap K-Mart dual-suspension mountain bike from Me
Princess Mononoke DVD from John/Kerryn/James/Sarah
Gift card (which turned into The Muppet Show Season 1 DVD a few days later) from John/Kerryn/James/Sarah
Cash from Ian (Kerryn’s dad)
Ovenware and other food related miscellany from Justine’s Nana
Scrapbooking album from Cheryl
Scrapbooking stuff from Cheryl
A big arse bowl thing with rocks and candles from Dad (my Dad, not Justine’s)
Scrapbooking stuff from Chris/Mel
The other half of a box of chocolates from Richard/Eleanor/Matthew

Alright, now that’s out of the way, we’ll have a quick blow-by-blow of the events that transpired over the course of three days.

Christmas Eve

Justine and I made our way to Rachel (Justine’s sister) and Ron’s (Rachel’s husband) for a Christmassy dinner. Justine’s mum made an appearance too, since she was flying out to Brisbane on Christmas Day. We managed to keep their children away from the presents until after dinner, but not long after. We all got our presents and the kids got their huge piles of stuff as well. A few more drinks were had, Justine poked me in the eyeball with a metal rod, we drove around Rowville and looked at some Christmas lights and we made our way home to prepare for

Christmas Day

I was woken by Justine around 7:30 which, considering, meant I still got a lie in on Christmas morning. We unwrapped our presents (well, I mostly did the unwrapping since Justine only got two expensive presents from me while I got a higher number of slightly-less-expensive presents) and then proceeded to eat some pop tarts before getting ready to head to Justine’s Dad’s place for lunch.

Lunch was relatively traditional, we had chicken, roast spuds and gravy in any case, which was all I really need (I had plenty of vegies too, before you start judging). Presents were distributed and then James (Justine’s younger brother) and I played a few rounds of Mario Kart DS, some Nintendogs and then a reasonably long session of PictoChat (a Nintendo DS program that lets you type, write or draw to others) where we drew the many ways in which the other would be killed or maimed.

Later in the afternoon we made our way to Justine’s Nana’s house where we saw Justine’s Nana (obviously!), her aunty Karen and Karen’s partner Roger, as well as seeing Rachel, Ron and their kids again. Yet more distribution of presents occured and we made our way home in time to slump onto the couch.

I made sure I had enough time to have a drink of my Johnnie Walker Blue.

Boxing Day

A decent lie-in followed by a long session of Animal Crossing DS for both Justine and I. We proceeded to see my Dad and Cheryl (as well as Chris and Mel, Tim, Richard and Eleanor and their son Matthew) for a not-quite-traditional-but-still-nice barbecue lunch which we ate outside. Mel had bought her DS but we didn’t bring ours, unfortunately. It seems that Mel had bought the DS after seeing ours (and playing Nintendogs) a few months back. Since there were three people with digital EOS cameras and Justine ready and willing with her new camera, we all went to the park so Matthew could play and we could all be nerds and take photos (and photos of people taking photos of people taking photos).

Richard, Eleanor and Matthew went home and the remainder played a game of Wits End which seemed to go forever. Because we couldn’t be bothered to move, we then played an hour or two (or three?) of poker with my new Simpsons set. Once we whittled the players down to three from seven the remaining three decided to have a hand dealt with not betting to see who would be the “winner”.

Since I won, we decided it would be for the best if I take all the chips home (since they’re mine it was quite convenient). Exhausted, Justine and I went home and slumped straight into bed.

The end, for another year,

Tags: christmas, outing, poker