Considering the time since my last post, I thought it might be a good plan to update people on what has been happening.

As I am still sorting things out in my head, things will be in the reverse chronological order.

Christmas Day:

Most of the family on my father's side has left now, but it was good seeing them all, Uncle David, Auntie Audrey and their kids are still here, and they helped us pack up after everyone else had left.

It was good to see all of that side of my family again, when David and Audrey are in the country we see them fairly often, and it is a lot of fun messing around with their children (who are all younger than my youngest brother). I don't know why, but teasing and playing with young children is highly entertaining. They are a lot less trusting than my other young set of cousins however. But I shall discuss them later.

One of the best bits however was talking with Uncle Peter's daughters. There are 4 of them, one (Lauren) a little younger than my oldest brother, a pair of identical twins (Kate and Beth) a little younger than my older brother, and the last one (Grace) who is a little younger than my younger brother.

I tend to see these cousins less than 5 times a year, generally only once or twice, and so I don't know them very well, so most of the time the conversation is about what they, or we have been up to this past year, and most of it is promptly forgotten. And EVERY time I see them, I can never remember which twin is Kate, and which is Beth, one of them has a mole on her lip, but I can never remember which one (Note for me: It is Kate who has the mole on her lip, remember this). But talking with them also always highlights how little I actually know about women, all sorts of bizarre things start coming up, they mentioned shopping, and accessories, and to be honest, I wasn't entirely sure what an accessory was with regard to clothing, getting their meals salad first, and then putting meat on as an afterthought, all sorts of minor and in some cases clichéd things, which were however true and made apparent.

The other thing that was highlighted is the way that generally speaking, me and my brothers are always arguing, generally not seriously, but just a light-hearted, and continuous argument typically is going on, and there are all sorts of games that crop up. Such as asking someone else to take your empty soft drink can to the sink, or clear away your plate. It always seems to amaze us when someone else does, because at home such a request to a sibling is always met with "No, do it yourself you lazy git" or the like.

Christmas breakfast was similarly good, however on my mother's side of the family, I don't have any cousins that are in a similar age group to me. So most of the time, we just played around with Emma and Thomas. Also one of my uncles and his family were away, although that uncle is not universally liked in our household, so he was not missed overmuch. However it was good to talk to my aunts, uncles and grandfather on that side of the family, and hearing them reminisce about times long past, and the like was very interesting and amusing.

And no summary of Christmas based events would be complete without a list of the loot:

• Immediate Family
  • Astroboy (1960s) boxset (well okay, I paid for all bar $25 of it)
    
  • Grave of the Fireflies
    
  • The Iron Tree by Cecilia Dart-Thornton
    
  • The Well of Tears by Cecilia Dart-Thornton
    
  • $200 towards new mobile phone (IOU)
    
  • Mobile phone shaped chocolate
    
  • Small jar of Jelly-belly jelly beans
    
  • Absolute Balderdash (Present to all of us)
• Mum's side
  
  • A fair amount of Hoyts Cinema Cash (To all of us)
    
  • $50
    
  • 6 volumes of manga (One Piece, Naruto, FMP Overload and Fruits Basket) - I suspect this is also my birthday present from AJ
    
  • IOU for $30
• Dad's side
  • 3 t-shirts
    
  • 6 pairs of socks
    
  • $130
    
  • A small box of Favourites
    
  • A bag of chocolate coins
    
• Friends (on Chrismas Eve)
  • A box of chocolates
    
  • IOU for unnamed present (you will get it when it arrives)
  
  
  ( And the rest of December )

Tags: beach, cousins, holidays, lindeman island
Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: Iron Cathedral (e3m8) - http://doom.ocremix.org/ - Prophecy