Christmas in Wonderland....

This is my favourite photo from Christmas Day 2011. I like it because we're all in it (thanks to some kind folks also enjoying a Christmas Day beach walk) but mostly because you can see we were all pretty darned happy! There's no faking smiles like that! Ahhh, it was indeed a very lovely Christmas. Lets back track a little....

On Christmas eve eve we tested out our very own crab pot and caught our biggest crab yet, a giant and very pretty Red Rock. We cooked him up and with the huge amount of meat made some yummy crab cakes for our Christmas eve lunch. We left the kiddies with Grandad and went down to the dock by ourselves this time which meant I could concentrate on taking a few pics instead of concentrating on preventing my children from going overboard. As we walked onto the dock the sun was just going down and the trees on the hills were literally glowing in the evening light.

While we were tinkering with our bait a huge Sea lion popped up beside us and gave us a funny look. He kept his beady eye on us and popped up again a couple of times as we were pulling in our catch but he was too quick for me and everytime I tried to catch a photo of him he would dive under. This is about the best shot I got....

Even though I didn't get a photo, my little Sea Lion encounter made my day and reminded me yet again about what a special place this is.

Christmas Eve was pretty peaceful, we put out our cookies for Santa and some carrots for the reindeer and yes they were black Bean cookies, I'm sure Santa more than most needs to start thinking more healthily! The kids went to bed with a special story book which played my Dad's voice reading "The Night Before Christmas" and boy did they love it! mostly because they got to press a button on each page and magically make Grandpa Nigel start talking. I have to say I really enjoyed it too, thank you Papa! x

This is the first year that both kids have really known what's going on and that they were going to wake up to presents galore. Their excitement was adorable and most definitely infectious! Even though I didn't have any presents under the tree this year, I couldn't wait until morning! Before I went to bed I skyped my sister, it was their Christmas morning and I was just in time to see my two cutie pie neices open their stockings
 :)

Christmas Morning was a blur of wrapping paper and excited squeals. Within about 2 minutes the place went from serene Martha Stewart Christmas to complete Christmas chaos. While the monkeys played with new toy after new toy we started on our Dinner preparations and had a very lovely day brewing and drinking pot after pot of Mulled wine. Dinner turned out to be the loveliest yet and Neil's steamed lemon pudding was to die for! After stuffing ourselves and having just a little bit more mulled wine, we dragged our happy but full bodies out to the beach. It was clear and cold and there couldn't have been a more perfect way to end our first Christmas in Tofino.

It'll take me about a week to post all the other photos from our Christmas so here's  slideshow for you instead. I hope all your Christmases were as lovely and as full of giggles as ours.
xxx