A belated Christmas post

Christmas this year, like last year and the year before that, was held at my uncle and aunt's farm in Alexandra which you will be familiar with from my many previous blog posts such as 'Simon and Gracie's wedding'. 
We took off on our road trip in the late afternoon of Christmas Eve and I watched the country sweep past my window as I listened to The Waifs and Bob Marley. As we drew near to the farm Angel began to whimper with excitement which almost brought me to tears as she remembered our Christmas adventure from last year! 
The farm brings instant happiness, passion, calm and peace. I am pretty sure - I decided as we drove down the driveway home today - that it is the most beautiful place on earth, a true paradise. 
The small holiday was a perfect opportunity for me to test out my new camera. Whilst I got many horrible shots as I got used to the weight, backwards layout and simple unfamiliarness of my camera, I got many good ones too. Of course most of them are just happy snaps that mean more to my family and lack that extra attention to detail that I would usual muster up... 

Playing with the dappled sunset light

I left the veggie patch with Milo the cat with juicy stained fingers/paws from all the boysenberries and raspberries we shared

Even though the youngest person at our christmas was 15, we still had to leave out the cookies and milk for Santa...

Shelling prawns

One of the most memorable moments was sharing a late evening hot chocolate with Angel and Lenno on the veranda whilst looking out over the farm with it's whispering winds and sense of pure perfection everywhere you looked... 

Whilst eating our Boxing Day breakfast my aunt gave us a brief history of Alexandra and our family's farm. We got to read newspaper articles and learn about the weddings, births and social scandals that had gone on in the old cottage over 100 years ago and it was fascinating to think of the town all that time ago and it made me want to discover the same past of my own suburb and family... 

My sister and two cousins even went swimming in the icy river...

Lenno was very proud of his efforts!

What we were drinking pretty much summed up what we were doing!

Rescuing Lenno from the current because he refused to save himself without saving his stick first

It was without a doubt the best Christmas yet! There are many stories and details I am forgetting due to this unforgiving January heat but I'm sure I'll add them once a cool change comes through later...
Stay tuned xx