Christmas recap

Merry Christmas everyone!  I hope Santa rewarded everyone with lots of lovely presents.  He certainly rewarded me - I was spoilt rotten!

It's a family tradition to have a big meal on Christmas Eve so I went all out with a traditional English feast (Mr L is English, as are my ancestors) of roast beef, Yorkshire pudding, and roast potato, pumpkin and onion.  My mum and dad came over and we had a lovely meal together.

Christmas morning was lovely with just Mr L and I.  We exchanged presents before everyone came over - I got tickets to see Two Door Cinema Club at Byron in February and some diamond earrings.  I also got a vintage print apron, some of my favourite lollies and chocolates (Cookies and cream Lindt balls....mmmmm) and some nailpolish (Ulta 3 ones that I don't have! Someone must have been looking through my collection!)

I gave Mr L two canvases of photos from our wedding, vanilla coffee pods for our Nespresso machine, lollies, Black XS cologne by Paco Rabanne (I had been dragging that all around Asia on our honeymoon, trying to keep it a secret!), vanilla and coffee soap (can you see a theme here?), a couple of t-shirts, Seasons 3 and 4 of 30 Rock on DVD, and Season 4 of The IT Crowd on DVD.

Soon, my whole family came over, along with my MIL and FIL and we quickly got around to exchanging presents.

I played Santa.  Notice my new apron.  Notice also the champagne and beer beside me.  Yes, they were both mine.

Dad got wine, wine labels to help keep his wine collection organised, and some new shirts.

Mum got a Tiffany bracelet, Fred M babuska measuring spoons, nail polish, Private Collection perfume, massage soap from Lush, and earrings.

This is mum showing off her Tiffany bracelet to my MIL.  My MIL is showing off her new earrings, courtesy of us.

My sister, K, got a Tiffany necklace, Ralph Lauren polo, nailpolish, and a Masterchef cookbook.  Her partner, T, got a Ralph Lauren polo (so they can be matching - it's a bit of a joke), and the second Masterchef cookbook.  They're both foodies so they loved it.

Here's my sister getting excited when opening her Tiffany necklace (the canvases I bought Mr L are in the background).

Here they are getting excited about their Masterchef books (T, you promised us the "super wanky chocolate cake", Source: K.W, 2010.  I know you both read this).  Notice my dad's face - I don't quite think he knows what the present is!

G and I got Gold Class movie tickets, and a photo ornament for our tree from my mum; a VERY expensive wok and cooking utensil pack from Dad (along with more wine); wine, tequila, books, and tickets to see Top Gear in March from my MIL and FIL (so excited about this!); Baileys and beer from T; and a chocolate fountain and a pizza stone from my sister.  I also got some beauty products, undies and headbands from mum, and a personalised notepad with Mrs Y on it from my sister.

This is me enjoying my Baileys.

This is Mr L enjoying his beer.

This is how I set up our Christmas table:

 I'll post some more photos soon - we cracked out the photo booth after a few copious amounts of drinks so there's a few dodgy ones of my family.

Hope you have a very safe New Years!

Source: news.com.au

Merry Christmas!  Hope you're all up and busily giving lovely presents to your near and dear (and unwrapping them too!) 

I'll be doing a lot of the above.....except our table will have cold food, lots of alcohol, and no one behaving.

Have a safe and happy holiday everyone!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

This angel has been in my husband's family for years...and we got it (we're the favourites!)

Presents!

Poppy helping us wrap some presents.

G's stocking is the one all filled, mine is empty (although apparently I have stuff).  The red one is for our cats - Lilly and Poppy.  We don't buy them stuff...but everyone else does! (Admittedly we buy for the other animals in the family).  Those flowers in the background are also from my wedding bouquet.

Those presents down the front are bones for my sister's dog, Charlie, and my MIL's dogs, Saffy and Merle.

Excuse the no makeup look.  I look about 12 in this photo.

We're having Christmas at our house this year since it's the first as a married couple.  It will be us, my mum and dad, my sister and her partner, and my MIL and FIL.  We're doing a completely cold buffet, with different cold meats, my MIL's amazing salads (seriously, this woman can do things with potatoes and eggs that I've only dreamed about), seafood (including WA lobster - thanks Dad!), and a dessert buffet made by yours truly.  I have a recipe for Christmas pudding that has been in my mum's family for generations.  I'm trying mini ones this year, as well as ice cream puddings (since my MIL is intolerant to gluten), and chocolate self-saucing puddings (just for my sister as it's a family tradition).

I'm hoping we can have it outside under our new gazebo but the Brisbane weather just isn't co-operating!

I'm anal a perfectionist so I like to have things just so.  This year I've decided to have a purple, silver and white theme so I've bought some beautiful purple glasses and a purple tablecloth from Spotlight. 

I also bought a white and silver table runner.

We had lots of white bonfav boxes left so I'm cracking out the lolly bar from the wedding again (with white and purple lollies of course).

We're also cracking out the photo booth so look forward to some crazy photos of both my family, and my in-laws (you saw photos of them from the wedding!)

What are you all doing for Christmas?  How do you celebrate?

Reason #1 why I married my husband....

Image from http://alameda.files.wordpress.com

Conversations of a marriage:

Day: Today
Time: 6:45am

Me: Argggghhhhh, hmmmmph
G: I did promise to get you coffee every morning in our vows.  What kind do you want?
Me: alskdjfasd;lkf (no really, it was like this)
G:  Roma it is.
He goes and makes me a coffee and brings it to me while I'm still sprawled across the bed.
G: I'll just leave you to drink this so you can be pleasant.

How I love this man!

Ps: I don't know how I'll survive without coffee when I get pregnant.  I may have to warn people to stay away until at LEAST 10am.  I can't promise to be pleasant until then.

Wedding photos

The title says it all.....

Getting ready:

My gorgeous sister K buttoning up my dress

My bridesmaids, K and C

My spunky husband in the middle with his groomswoman H and groomsman M (and brother - can't you tell??)

The Ceremony:

  

Our ceremony location - Marcoola beach

A gorgeous photo of my sister walking up the aisle.  Don't let her fool you, she IS crying...

My mum and dad walking me up the aisle.  This is the only photo where it doesn't look like I'm sprinting down the aisle.  I was seriously carrying my parents.  This is the only photo where I'm looking down too, as dad was standing on my train!

He just had something in both eyes apparently....

Love this photo!

My dad doing a reading.  He and my sister were crying, which made me start to cry.

This is what we were doing while dad was reading - a wine ceremony.

I was giggling because G just downed his glass of wine and our guests were asking for some.  I was just worried I would spill it on my dress!

Exchanging of rings

Walking back down the aisle as Mr and Mrs Y

This photo is very much us - me laughing after G has said something dodgy

My sister

How gorgeous are they?  T and K.  She's also the younger sister, but towers over me.

The boys - my sister's partner T, my spunky husband, and C's husband K (who was also our photographer).  What's not to love about this photo???  They're BFFs.

Our bridal party and parents.

R to L: G's brother M, G's cousin H, G's father, G's mother, my mum, my dad, my sister K, and C.  Don't know who those two crazy kids are....

Bridal party.  C and G fighting as usual - they are like brother and sister.  I don't know how anyone gets any work done in that place!

Us with G's Nan, Eileen.  LOVE her to pieces.  She's in her 80s, goes on lots of cruises, drinks chardonnay at every occasion, and her friends call her the "toy boy magnet" (she apparently attracts men in their 60s).

Yes, that's my husband groping K's boyfriend.  Look closely at everyone's faces in this....This should be our Christmas greeting card I think...

 

Location shots (The Boardwalk at Mt Coolum, and Marcoola beach):

 

This is one of my favourites.

Love this one too.  We have the high res version but it's too big to put up here.

This one is also very us.  G is pretending to scowl at me (as he often does) and I was actually trying to bite his nose.  Yeah, we're weird....

The Reception (Spinnaker room at Surfair Resort, Marcoola):

Our table centrepieces - mirrored runner with candles and three vases of hydrangeas, roses, lisianthus and something else (I can't remember the name!)  They had a beautiful fragrance.

Our dinner menu and bonfav - a box to fill at our lolly bar.  Unfortunately our photographer didn't get a photo of this in time....it was emptied within 5 minutes!

This is why......

G's cousins, H and C

Our photobooth.  These are my inlaws.....

Some of my friends, re-enacting our table numbers.  I think R, in the middle, has got my face the best.

G's father's speech - it was hilarious!  We sat on our own bridal table so we could have some time to ourselves.  It worked really well!

Cutting our cake from Poppy Cakes.  The top layer was chocolate and the bottom layer was red velvet, all smothered in vanilla buttercream.  Sooooo good.

My reception shoes.  G also got socks to match.  Awwww.  (How hot were the shoes though??)