Christmas Day

It was the night before Christmas when all through the farm not a creature was stirring… well except for the 2,000 sheep, goats, chickens, birds, lizards, even the pigeons were making a racket. So well there was quite a lots of stirring going on, but none so much as the stirring coming from young Jarvis Malin's bed. Earlier in the evening we had put out a beer and some nuts for Santa and a carrot and water for the reindeers. We had decorated the peppermint tree next to the camper with hand painted gum nuts, shells from the beach and other bits and bobs so Santa would know where to come. Everything was set, except now of course Jarvis was way too excited to sleep.

But sleep did come eventually as it always does and so did Christmas morning. Santa had visited the camper, all the goodies left out for him and his reindeer had been devoured and we got to see that look of wonder on Jarvis' face, that is reserved only for kids on Christmas morning. Santa had left a stocking full of all Jarvis' favourite fruit, which Jarvis got stuck into straight away and magically a pile of presents had appeared under the Christmas tree.

With no delay he pounced on the presents. But before we opened the presents from Grandma and Co. we made sure she and Granddad, Auntie Jess and Uncle Scotty joined us on Skype to see Jarvis open his pressies. We also had a Skype session with the Malins in Deni. It was so nice to see so many of our family, even if it was across miles of digital connections.

Presents were of course accompanied by (and followed by) panettone, coffees, hot milo and crepes, which we shared around with some of our neighbouring campers.

We had intended to go to the beach, but it was a bit windy and the likelihood of dragging Jarvis away from his new presents was not all that good. So Rob and Jarvis settled into some serious LEGO construction and Em got into her new book.

Much to Jarvis' delight we made some sushi for lunch. As usual Jarvis kept stealing the ingredients before they actually made it into the rolls. But we still managed to make far too much Sushi and with full bellies decided we needed to do some more resting in preparation for the big Christmas dinner.

The owners of the farm that we are camped on, put on a lamb roast every month or so for all the campers and had planned an especially big feast for Christmas. All the campers also made a dish each and the resulting meal was absolutely fantastic. We all ate by the fire and were entertained by fire dancers, musicians aplenty and the kids ran about with sparkers. We've met some lovely people during our stay here and most of them, like us are hanging around for a few months and are trying not to think too much about the menial work they are doing for below award rates. But knowing we are all in it together and having so many interesting people here from all over the world make the whole experience very enjoyable. The fabulous Christmas dinner was a great way to solidify the friendships and welcome the newcomers.

We took a very sleepy boy back to bed way after his bedtime, all of us smelling like campfire, with full bellies, trailing empty bottles of local wine and happy with the knowledge that this is likely to be a Christmas not soon forgotten.

We hope all of our friends and family had an equally special day. Merry Christmas, happy holidays and all the rest. All our love Emma, Rob and Jarvis xxx