Christ! mas

So, we're in our new place (see previous entry), and It Was Decided that all possible members of Rach's family would come to our place for christmas.

So, in addition to me, Rach, Barns, Ella and Bethan, we also had: Rhys, Jasmine and Jai; Rach's mum Chris; Braydyn, Krystal, Aimee and Jaxon staying for a few days. This merely meant that all potential bedrooms got used - no-one had to sleep in the lounge, dining room, or a tent. Rach's dad Ian was also here, but stayed elsewhere, then on Boxing Day, Palmerston North invaded, adding Jan, Greta and Paul, Dawn, Wayne, Lucy, Austin and Jack for a grand total of 23 people.

Luckily, we currently have three fridges and two freezers, and the week before saw me buy three extra couches, for a total of 5 couches in the lounge. NOTE: total cost of ALL FIVE couches was less than $100

So, since I've been told asked, here are some photos, some with hilarious captions. Click for big as usual:

Here's Jai being our bum-boy (with his mum and dad):



First thing was to open the stockings/santa sacks. There was some kind of time limit set, where they weren't allowed to start before a certain time, but still quite early as I remember:



Betty did her standard, "Oh, it's JUST what I WANTED!" exclamation for every single present:



Jak-jak was a hilarious guy as usual:



The pile of wrapping paper outgrew this box in about 30 seconds:



Betty - caning it since 2007:



Bet Krystal complains about this photo. Save it! there's worse to come:



Haven't had a chance to use this yet, quite looking forward to giving it a go:



Here you get a good look at one of the Sallies sleigh-couches (Kendyl, this is about one-third of the lounge):



Shiny ball to the right, Brayd's head to the left OR IS IT THE OTHER WAY AROUND?



Try and ignore Rhys's expression and look at how stoked Jai is to get some more bubble mixture:



Before:



After (she hugged the Jenga for a while after that):



Betty got the kitchen that was on her list:



Some of Bear Grylls' tips for eating horrible crap may have come in handy for Ian a bit later on, as I had done baking:



Ella modelling new clothes. I can almost guarantee that hat gets re-used outside the christmas period:



Rach is happy because she knows the kids now have their own area, so we don't have to listen to Elmo (although we probably will because he's quite funny):



Not sure if Jai knew quite what to make of all the insanity:



Krystal kept the gin handily hidden inside a cosmetics box. Wish I'd thought of that:



Jacko got a jigsaw, perfect for hacking up the floor:



Barns has not seen a Clarke christmas before. I think he's OK now:



Betty-bets also got new clothes:



Note the empty wine glass:



He had a big morning, time for a rest:



Time to play with all that new stuff:



A final photo of all the cousins (plus bonus Rhys at no extra cost):



Thanks to everyone for a great time, I'd even consider doing it again. Maybe.