Christmas Day

In years gone by we have always had friends come on Christmas eve for drinks and nibbles and then viewed "The Star" from our paddock when it was dark. I first saw "The Star" twenty two years ago when we first arrived here. There were no trees on our block except for the ginormous sugar gum on the corner of our block near the gate. So we had a clear view from our bedroom window to the Sellicks Hills. And there, the week before Christmas, I was jolted with this view of a giant Star on those hills. It was magic and most years after that, except for once or twice, the Star appeared just before Christmas. Now of course our trees have grown so much they block the view from the window and we lead our guests out into the paddock to see the magic Star.Last night we only had four of our friends who were able to join us and one couple had not seen this before and were enchanted by the scene.It was a beautiful , clear and calm night which added to the magic of it all. Being in the "third age" we finished the night early.

This morning was lovely and cool and as we were on our own, the first time for years, we opened our present and marveled at my new journal book created for me by a dear friend who lives interstate and is extremely creative. I shall love using it in the New Year. Brian was very pleased with his 18 year old whiskey. I was very touched to get a Christmas message on my mobile from the eldest step grandson, such a pleasure to know he remembers us, the young are notorious now for totally ignoring almost everyone, so it was doubly good.
We left about mid morning to go to my brother and sister in law's place a little way out of Strathalbyn. We always take the shortcut through the Kuitpo forest and we marvelled at all the Christmas bushes flowering in profusion along the way. It is the native Bursaria spinosa and we have two bushes on our place as well but not flowering as prolifically as these.

 To the left is a photo of our little Christmas tree which consists of a couple of Cyprus branches. I keep up with that tradition as my youngest son always brought home a branch from the pine trees when we were at Hughes Park and he used to decorate it right from when he was a little tacker.







Below is the Christmas table my sister in law organized and decorated.

We had a very pleasant day with my brother and sister in law, a lovely lunch and after coffee we went and looked at her bromilliad collection while Brian looked at my brother's blowlamps collection. Took a lot of photos of the plants which are quite beautiful and of course brought one home! They have native rats in their garden and they are a real pest though quite cute looking.They dig underground passages and if you happen to step where they are, the ground collapses and you can have a nasty fall. My brother trapped 70 this season and lets them go in a reserve as you are not allowed to destroy them, being native.
When we came home there were several messages on our answering machine and two people had called in and left greetings and presents for us.
We wound up the day by having a Chivas Regal on the front verandah watching the birds diving into the pond for their evening drink. So another lovely Christmas day ended!!