Some Christmas Pics

We had a nice Christmas.  Just the four of us.  Hopefully one year there will be more;-)  I always like to get some sort of Christmas photo of the family.  It`s easier to get cooperation if I keep it simple, unlike some years past.  It`s kind of been a tradition that all the animals get looked after first.  We no longer have a herd of horses or a flock of sheep, but we still have chickens and dogs.  It`s a bit different now that Meredith is living at her own place, but David has been staying with us over the Christmas break between semesters.  So the chickens were looked after while we waited for Meredith to arrive, and then we headed out to the bush to give the dogs their morning walk.  I`d taken a camera, and handed the duty of finding an appropriate placed stump and setting the camera up, to David.  A comment or two was made that it would have been much easier if I had brought the tripod. (note to self...remember that for next year).  So about 12 shots were taken, but there were a few funny ones because we didn`t think the camera was working because there were no lights flashing.  So about shot number three David heads back to check the camera, and then Meredith and I see the lights start to flash, and we have funny looks on our faces.  Anyway, there was a decent shot or two in the bunch. Six out of the seven subjects were cooperating in this one.  It was a mild, mostly sunny Christmas Day.  If we couldn`t have snow, we were happy to settle for dry, mild and sun.  I was somewhat overdressed, but was trying to add a bit of Christmas cheer to the scene.

Just some random shots on the way back.  I think Meredith must have just kicked Jake`s toy.  Larry is in the background climbing over the fence to rescue Luna`s soccer ball from the blackberries.

Watching

More watching.  David trying to get the perfect action shot with his phone.

The old girl, one month short of 16 years.

The younger girl, who is already 8! Where HAS the time gone?

Christmas Dinner.  Turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, roasted potatoes (three kinds) and broccoli, brussel sprouts and cauliflower, gravy. Found some Paleo recipes for the cranberry sauce and stuffing.  They are keepers. Used the fancy china, Larry's mum would have been happy:)  Meredith made a trifle.

A bit of Christmas decorating.

The full moon that night. 15 second exposure, so it looks like daylight almost, but you can see two stars to the right of the moon.

Our Christmas was merry and bright, hope your's was too.

PS  Meredith and David went to visit their Nana  that afternoon.  They took her out for a 'walk' and then said she was quite happy and chatted away back in her room.  They didn't know what she was talking about, and didn't know if she knew it was Christmas Day.  That's okay, I was worried that she would be mad that she wasn't coming to our place this year.  It was out of the question for a multitude of reasons, but it would have been difficult for my mother to understand why.