December 24. Day 358. My extended family

Christmas is a great family time of the year. It's a time for celebration and reflection and most importantly getting together with one's nearest and dearest. In that I include the "extended" family which in my case is two groups of people with whom I share absolutely no blood bond at all.
Megan and her husband Bernie and girls Jacquie and Natasha and Alison and her husband Peter and kids Daniel and Kate have a special place in my life. We all have a child now 15 and we share roots that go back to daycare and preschool. When the children were in the early primary years we started a new tradition of getting together on or about Christmas Eve. I love these people. We have laughed together and cried together and after a drink or two discussed endless amounts of secret women's business. Between then they have convinced me to go camping, walk Cradle Mountain and attend both Taylor Swift and Robbie Williams concerts. So it is only fitting that we always gather on Christmas Eve for some festive frivolities. This year, under the rotation policy, the event came to our house and even two Grandmas were involved. As always we made quite a splash. Pictured from left at (Tash, Megan, Kate, my Drama Teen Oliver, Jacquie and Daniel).