Christmas weekend .......

I had so much to say whilst on holiday and took so many photo's and then when I arrived in South Africa  I could not connect to  my blog.  Hardly anyone uses WiFi, they  work with dongles so I couldn't send out  my posts.  I would still love to share some bits with you so I will try to catch up on Christmas and New Year over the next few days..... 

Christmas was the most amazing day.    45 members of the De Beer clan were together for the first time in  years and years. 

The five remaining De Beer Siblings

The only members of the family that missed the reunion were my three children and their families and their absence was deeply felt, but I think that  they were there in spirit and sharing photos  and messages ensured that they  could keep up with all the celebrations.

The Nieces and Nephews and their Partners

  It is so difficult to get such a large family together for an occasion,  so the fact that we had so many of us together was wonderful.    

Some of the great Nieces and Nephews

 It was such an emotional time for us, having not seen the family for  just over 6 years meant that there were a lot of tears, excitement, hugs an overdose of love and of course food

and food and more food.

 We had a Hog and a Sheep on the spit

Hog on a spit

and salads for Africa (excuse the pun)

Salads and home made breads  - yummy

  Desert was full cream caramel and vanilla ice-cream with chocolate sauce and I made my famous butterscotch and strawberry pavlova!

After all that celebrating and over indulging  Christmas day, we spent boxing day (the 26th December) just relaxing around the pool drinking and eating, some more ....... what can I say?

Eating prawns and dip in the pool

The temperature was 35degrees Celsius with a 100% humidity most of the time so the only way to cool down was to dip in the pool!

Koeksisters - sweet syrupy plated cooked doughy - love them

 The day was finished off with a Braai (barbecue)  there is truly nothing like sitting round a fire and  talking about the day and  the smell of meat cooking on an open fire 

Braaing (barbecue)

Braaied meat and baked potatoes - some more yummy!

Wwhat more could we have asked for, braaied steak and baked potatoes with sour cream and cheese.

A stunning end  to an amazing Christmas weekend

Hugs

Cxxx

Birthday celebrations....

 ....My baby, Tammy, had her 31st birthday on Sunday and my darling Dad will be 79on Wednesday so I arranged  Sunday off work and the man and I drove three hours to get to Tadley, it usually take us one and half hours to do this drive – too much traffic on the M25!  I read somewhere that the M25 is the UK’s largest parking area - and that is what it felt like on Sunday, the agitation at the time it was taking to get to our destination was making me feel ill. We eventually collected my Parents and we met up with Tammy and her family, my son and his family and our dearest friends Belinda and Tony at a brand new Toby’s Carvery for lunch. 

 It was so incredible to have our children and grandchildren and my parents and special friends all round one table, chaotic, but wonderful.  I was aware of all the other poor patrons in the restaurant, but I don’t think we made too much noise, hope not.

It was so chaotic that I only managed a very few and not such good photos of this important event (I had Matthew in my arms most of lunch time and really did not want to give him up to take photos)

We were so excited to share Tammy’s birthday with her.  Tammy, our beautiful girl.

She is our beautiful daughter who is amazing.  She has grown into a woman of note and is an amazing Mother – we are so proud of her. She is such a gentle soul who is so happy with her partner Neil and her twin boys. That is all you want for your children is that they are happy.

My precious Mommy and Jenny holding Matthew - yes I let someone else hold him just for a little while

Belinda and Tony, have been our special loyal  friends for the last 28 years. It was wonderful to have them with us and they got to meet our new daughter-in law to be, Jenny and Tammy’s partner Neil and of course Matthew and Alex.

A lot of the fun of celebrating someone’s birthday is buying the gifts and wrapping them isn’t it? Tammy is collecting beads and charms for her Pandora bracelet so that is what she got from us and her sister sent her some too and I was charged with wrapping.

I always like to put a lot of effort and love into wrapping a gift, if someone is worth it, it is worth doing it with love.

 Tammy is crazy about dragonflies so I decided this year she would get a dragonfly card.

My heart is so full of love for all these special people in my life and the man and I are so, so blessed with our stunning family and friends.  We so wish our much missed Hayley, Em and Livi, who live in the USA, could have been with us.  On occasions like this I miss them even more than I do every single day.

Hugs

C

xxx