The kids have opened their Christmas Eve presents - fleece balaclavas that make them look like ninjas and wish for snow so they could go skiing (they have never been skiing) and A Child's Christmas in Wales illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman. We have also done our traditional read of The Tailor of Gloucester. No more twist!

A Child's Christmas in Wales illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman

That's the one we have!! Such beautiful illustrations.

EM has laid out a lovely antipasti tray, and most of the prezzies are wrapped. Nibbling on prosciutto and roasted peppers and fancy cheese.

We've wrapped Emmett's gift in a sneaky sized Disney box.

JZ and Matilda are off to Children's Mass with the xmas pageant/parade.

Dinner will start at 6 or 7.

Tom and I have continued our laaaaaaaaazy day. But I did make a spinach lasagna! It's cooling now. I'll go over to feed smonster's kitties soon, but other than that, it's all very low key.

So it's not a scandal yet, but it could be. I am staying in a room where my 15 YO nephew often stays. He is our only nephew and my family think he walks on water. Anyway, as I was wrapping gifts, I discovered, not very well hidden, a mouth guard case, the type a 15 YO hockey player would have. In the case, GIRL'S PANTIES. (I assume they belong to a girl, not him.)

I don't really know what to do. Should I bust him, and keep it our little secret? Should I pretend I never saw them and hope he retrieves them before his grandmother does and has an aneurysm? Or should I just destroy the evidence and pretend it never existed?

(He is forever losing keys and leaving things behind, so it's possible he hid them and forgot about them entirely.)

I think if it were me, I would give them to him and tell him to hide them better. Or just leave them. But I wouldn't bust him because, well, to me, it's his own private business.

I would give them to him and tell him to hide them better.

That's what I meant by bust him. I think he'd be just as unhappy to be found out by one of his aunts.

I love the 12 days of buffistamas.

We have survived the Eve. New Zealand reported that santa is traveling our way.

Remember when I mentioned sick cat drama? I foolishly left some green paper crinkle confetti accessible. Well, at least it was festive sick.

On the first day of Christmas, my Buffistas sent to me An echidna in a pear tree.

Mere words cannot express how much I love this. And! Tomorrow I am taking Ryan to see the echidnas. (Faunapalooza!)

Happy Christmas from Christmasland, everyone! Our Christmas morning consisted of taking Ryan to the beach. The weather forecast is for late thunderstorms, so the only way we're getting snow is if a lightning strike shorts out the television.

Despite the best efforts of my siblings, I have no family scandals that can hold a candle to Wallybee's cousin. To recap: he got married at the start of the year. A few months ago, it transpired that he's been having an affair the whole time, with a woman he met while studying in Germany. And she was eight months pregnant. And this emerged after she took her pregnant self over to his parents' doorstep. Her own family thought she was already married to WB's cousin.

Only they didn't meet in Germany. She's never been out of China. And she's in Shanghai illegally, and has at least one fake ID, and may well have been working as a hooker. And the wife (who filed for divorce, unsurprisingly) then claimed that she was pregnant too. And her family is suing WB's cousin (I believe the claim was for a million yuan, so the ex-wife could get a new house).

So I can't top that, although Bec's family included an uncle who defrauded a Saudi prince of a few million. So there's that.

Happy Christmas, everyone!