Christmas at the beach

We spent Christmas in a beach house with the team from Wheaterville.  We (Em) orgnised this early on in the year, so much self high fiving (me) was taking place in the lead up to our trip.  And it wasn't a disappointment at all.  In fact, it was perfect.  Nothing too fancy, just a nice beach house, with wooden fish and nautical stripes everywhere (just in case you didn't get you were near the beach).  I can't remember ever having done a quintessentially Australian Christmas like this before - walking on the beach in the morning, having a swim, lazing around reading and watching videos, eating massive amounts of food, chatting, and just chilling out.

We were a bit of a comedy of errors between the lot of us, with each of us becoming sick or injured at some stage, with one of us even needing a trip to the hospital with a nasty burn.  My personal affliction was some sort of gastro bug which took hold on boxing day.  I'm not quite ready to admit that any of the food I ate the day before had anything to do with it, although it does seem the most likely conclusion.

This isn't the best picture, but it's the living room and kitchen of the house (stripes! oars!), with Em, Muz, Josie and Jamie (behind Josie in the kitchen) one morning.

 We were within walking distance from the beach (we still drove), and had amazing views:

 This is my first helping of food on Christmas day.  So many pretty colours!

 Christmas eve we had prawns (I abstained - just like I did from the champagne - sigh) and a whole fish cooked on the BBQ.  The prawns looked so pretty...

 And the Christmas feast on the table.  We made (for four people and a baby):
- glazed ham
- turkey breast (stuffed with pork mince and cranberries)
- spiced pears
- cauliflower cheese
- honeyed carrots
- rocket, feta and pomegranate salad

Despite the Kilcare curse that got us all (except Bunny - phew), it was a great trip, and went by way too quickly.  It also reminded us of old times, when we all used to effectively live together in Perth.  And of course, next Christmas there will be another baby and life will just keep marching on.  But for the Christmas that was, it couldn't have been any better (maybe it could have been better without the gastro).