All the (Aussie) Laing grandchildren

Ron made all the kids line up in age order.

So, that's Tegan, Catriona, Connor, Jonathan, Thomas, Mitchell, Xanthe, Jessamy and James.

Merry Christmas from Perth

Yesterday (Christmas eve) we had a family barbecue by the river.

We had:
Nana and Pop
Jeff, me, and our kids
Stuart and his kids
Russell with Amanda, and his kids
Tegan with fiancé Todd

And I've tried for photos of everyone. So here goes...

Here's Ron and Elaine (Pop and Nana) enjoying the very convenient seating provided by Russell and Amanda.

In the background, Mitchell and Thomas. Thomas is doing a Rubik's cube. Of course.

Gingerbread Houses, Melbourne style

We make gingerbread houses every Christmas, usually as a fun way to mess around with the cousins. 

Of course, everyone's getting bigger, and this year we weren't even with the cousins. 

But we still made gingerbread houses! 

Here's three made by me, Jonathan and Thomas.

Here's Jonathan working on his. We all worked out that the cool slope-sided pattern was pretty hard to bring together. But we all managed.

And here's a tiny house, with a lego monkey for scale.

In which we seek the Christmas Pelican

There are a lot Christmas traditions around. Some of them, you may not have heard of. The kids found this out today. Did you know that it's a tradition, after Christmas breakfast, to take a nice walk, until you see a pelican? Well, it is. That Christmas we spent in Denver was very tiring, but here in Perth by the river, it's easy!

Here's Jonathan, Jeff, Thomas and Catriona looking for the Christmas pelican.

And there he is! I knew he was real.

Merry Christmas from Perth!

It's Christmas morning, and for the first time, we're in a holiday apartment in Perth. So, we've set up a fabulous christmas breakfast - grilled peaches, bacon, fruit toast, and freshly baked rolls with lemon curd and marmalade.

Later, we're going to Nana and Pop's place for a BBQ lunch, and pretty much the rest of the day.

Russell enjoys the attention

Russell hangs out with Tegan, Jessamy and Xanthe.

Mitchell is stupidly tall now

Nice kid too, obviously, but just really tall.

Grown ups club

Here's Tegan, Nana, Xanthe and Jeff discussing the future, the value of education, and who ate the rocky road.

Boys' club

The younger nephews chill out on Nana and Pop's space age sofa. We have Mitchell, James, Thomas and Jonathan.

Connor - scruffy teen or artful hipster?

Connor has finished school and is waiting on results. He's planning to do a business course.

The topic of discussion, though, was, is his hair just like that when he wakes up, or does he artfully tease it? Good grief, another little relative is now clearly an adult.

All the cousins in one nice picture!

Let's try, shall we? Let's get all the cousins into one nice picture. Shall we have them standing in a row and smiling? Nah, that's too dull, let's go for something more spontaneous.

Here we have, from left to right: Thomas (seated), Connor (cool guy), Xanthe (on-trend denim shorts), Jonathan (footrest), James (I'm fine with Xanthe hugging me), Jessamy (who can I hug next), Mitchell (let go, Jessamy), and Catriona (I can't believe I'm related to you).

And then I realised TEGAN should have been in the picture! Ah well.

Tegan's modelling debut

We're in Perth, and that means COUSINS. Well, visiting relatives generally. Last night was the one night we could get all of the locals together.

So here's Tegan, our favourite Canadian niece, on the balcony at Nana and Pop's new unit. Tegan loves the hot weather. Well, she thinks she does. This was her first 39 degree day. Ever. She just moved to Perth this year, doing the post-university thing while she thinks about a Masters degree. Or just ditch it all and go into modelling?

James Bond gets into the Christmas spirit

"Hey, Rudolph, check this twice!"

Pretty flowers for Christmas

Many, many months ago I bought a little trinket from a trash and treasure market. It's a little flower pot with wires coming out of it. I don't know any more about it, except that it's marked "Japan" on the base. I thought at the time, that's an art project! I will art it! I will make it amazing!

And then it sat on the shelf for months.

So this week, I got out some pretty flower punches, some cardstock and glue, and make it Quite Pretty.

See, it's quite OK for me to keep buying weird stuff and not using it for ages.