Feliz Navidad. Joyeux Noel. Hristos se rodi. Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas to everyone who celebrates, and to those who don't, I hope you enjoyed a happy holiday regardless!

Last night whilst watching the Carols by Candle light and munching on my lamb lollipops, I turned to The Husband suddenly and started to cry into my dinner. He didn't know what to do, he didn't know what was wrong.

I tried to explain that I was just really sad that I wouldn't be with all of my family for Christmas.

Maybe it was my pregnancy hormones, I'm not sure. I also kept thinking of how good Christmas would be for us next year, so maybe it was a bit of happy tears at the same time. 

My mum is still in Perth, Cat is in Ireland, Liz and the boys are in Adelaide, Lucas is in Afghanistan, Greg is in South Africa and we wouldn't be seeing Joanna. 

I don't remember the last time that we have had Christmas in Melbourne and I didn't see my mum. 

I did get to see Geefa and Joseph though which was good!

It's comforting to know that next year Lucas will be back from Afghanistan and Cathy will have moved back to Australia - I just cannot wait.

I don't know how those who have lost family members feel on Christmas, but I imagine it to be really hard for them. If this is you, I hope you were okay and not lonely today. 

Anyway, on to brighter things.

The Christmas Tree at Dad & Bets house was looking a bit sparse on the bauble front this year.

I'm trying to decide what colour combo to do our tree in next year. I figure for our first real (full sized) tree that we should go traditional, but just what is traditional?

I nominate this as my favorite Christmas Table Setting to date.

This is last years table, and whilst it may be more Christmas-sy, I prefer this years but there is no denying that Bet doesn't mess around when it comes to decor.

See the little dice like things? They are actually vintage scrabble pieces from before they were flat.

The paper that the place cards, which contained lollies, were wrapped in was actually paper found in my Nana and Grandads house, dating back to the late 1950's - pretty awesome to be able to incorporate that with our Christmas Lunch if you ask me!

Don't worry, I've kept mine and wont be throwing it out. 

This bread was the business. It had spinach, thyme, ham and all things nice. 

I know that Bet said the little pots had to be cured (is this the right word? She had to soak them in oil, bake and repeat a few times for them to be suitable to bake the bread in). 

Here you go Joey, stop saying I don't feature you on my blog. It's your time to shine.

Christmas Lunch always includes seafood. If it didn't, perhaps I would not turn up. 

This is just a quarter of the spread. 

After gorging my self on Lobster, Bugs and Prawns I really struggled to eat the hot foods, ham, turkey and the like but did manage to jam some salads in.

I nearly lost my cool yesterday making custard for the trifle I was preparing in honor of my mums absence. I only burnt 4 saucepan loads before mastering it and cursed trifle all the way to the lunch. 

I chose to omit the sherry that my mums recipe calls for but I still think that it tasted pretty good!

My attempt at a love heart made of jelly. Or jello for those of you reading from America.

You know that it is Trifle Season when you grab the last box of Port Wine flavour jelly from Woolworths.

Look, I know that everyone says the alcohol content evaporates during cooking but I chose to not eat the Christmas pudding anyway.

How adorable is Raina just chilling out with her new headphones in?

The adorable noodle box that my gift from Dad & Bet came in. Look how cheap Fords were going for back in the day. 

In case you were wondering what I wore today, wonder no more.

I didn't want to wear my fitted red dress, I need all the room I can get for extra eating so I trekked to the maternity store, Maternity Collective, in GPO and bought another dress from Soon Maternity - the Kara dress.

I am really annoyed though as I paid full price for it, and it is on sale on the Soon Maternity website. 

That is just not right!! What a rookie error. 

Kara Dress - Soon Maternity 

Lovisa Necklace

Witchery Sandals 

Baby Bump at 29 weeks! 

My hair is finally long enough for me to curl at home, hurrah!! I curl it into full on ringlets and then spray and brush out a little. 

As you all know by now, I am not afraid to wardrobe repeat and wore the same outfit on Saturday too. 

This dress is so comfortable. I am just annoyed that I didn't check the website as I knew that the dress that I got for the work party was on sale. gjskergiksh. Does this annoy others too??

Anyway, you will see a lot more of this dress I am sure. 

The Husband and I are not swapping gifts this year, we have enough to buy! He wants to go shopping tomorrow for stuff but I have become funny about crowds and people bumping into me and my belly so maybe I will give it a miss. I don't find the sales to be that good anyway.