Christmas in July report

EDITED- commenced this post on Tuesday, and it is now Wednesday evening so 7 days since the last post!!

Once again, another week has disappeared, and it's 6  7 days since I posted. I know that Christmas comes around soon enough each year, but last weekend we celebrated Christmas in July here at Number 8. This retreat is always a much more relaxed weekend, with no pressure to finish projects, and lots of time to chat and share.

The early arrivals helped to decorate the tree, and put up a few decorations......................

......and then it was time to take a seat and get out the sewing, or chat, ......

 I missed lots of photos of things that were being stitched, but here are a few.........

...... and Margaret was not waving at me, but telling me to go away with that camera!

A few bindings and hanging sleeves were stitched..........

....and it was not long after this snap, that the project was thrown across the table!!

Raylene always comes up with good ideas, and here she is organising the "volunteers" to do a left and right game with some mystery parcels, which was a lot of fun.

This is the "obligatory" group photo, taken just before the Christmas dinner, of roast turkey and roast pork with roast vegies and gravy, followed by Christmas pudding. And I have to say this meal is much more enjoyable when it's eaten in the cold of winter, and not on a 40deg temp day in the middle of summer!

In the decoration boxes in the shed I found a LOT of Christmas bonbons left from other years. So we decided that we would share them around, and we found a lot of good jokes in them, while enjoying some Christmas cheer.

This lady was fortunate to find a prize of red lips in her bonbon, and doesn't she look rather regal with that red crown, the ear bling, and the royal wave as well!!

The Christmas retreat would not be complete without a visit from Father Christmas, and here they are waiting in eager anticipation for his arrival, and singing Jingle Bells! And they were probably wondering if they were on his good list, or the naughty one.

He did not disappoint, and duly arrived in his trusty Holden Ute! (He did say that he got a lot of laughs from people when he drove through the main street on his way here.)

Unfortunately he was unable to bring his usual elf helper this year, so I had to stand in for her, and Pauline's hat helped me look the part!!??

Then it was time to open their gifts and see what was in those boxes.

And here is what Santa left on the pergola table before he left, so I guess he did not get any strange looks on the way home!!

All too soon it was the end of another fun weekend, and here are a few having a "post mortem", and a few drinks after the weekend's activities.

In the middle of Santa's visit I received a phone call to tell me that my dad had been taken to hospital, so that did distract me somewhat from the weekend's activities, but thankyou to the girls who all stepped up to help with tasks. Thankfully he is home again, and that I have 3 siblings that live closer to him, and all is well now.

Sunday morning we had a visit from Miss Bridie and her parents, who were in town for the weekend. Raylene helped her with some drawing, and then Miss Bridie helped me play the piano.

This must have been the first time in possibly 5 years that I have actually sat and played the piano and I am way out of practice. I did have piano lessons for 5 years back in my school days, and hated every minute of the practice. My dad said "you will thank me one day". I would love for one of my children to take this piano to their house and have the grandies learn, but they are all reluctant. The piano belonged to my grandmother's mother, (and it is a pianola), so has been in the family for a long time. It does need some work done on it, but is a waste if noone plays it. We will see what happens??

After they left I travelled to Keith, about 1/2 hour up the highway to pick up Mister 8 year old who is spending the week with me. I shall report more of this in the next post. We are having a very busy time, and I have lots to show you.

Time for bed, be back soon,

Blessings, from Jude