Recently, over the UK summer, we took the kids back to New Zealand, leaving behind the light rain jackets for the winter woollies.
The last time we were home for Christmas, the kids were 4 and 2, so one of my sisters volunteered to host a mid-winter one.
There’s a magic to our get-togethers.
The date and venue is chosen, one that can absorb 40 odd people – seven siblings will do that! Then everyone brings a food contribution for lunch. While some siblings have become responsible for specific contributions (can’t be short on the ham and potatoes), it’s pot luck. Somehow there always seems to be a feast with enough leftovers for the those hanging around for dinner too.
Given the number of us, it was decided years ago to move to Secret Santa as getting presents for everyone would either result in a lot of pens, notepaper and Moro bars, or penury. But the discovery of the present stealing game (aka white elephant) really upped the ante.
This is a no holds barred kind of game. Ten years on, it was an eye opener for the kids to see the noise, tactics, horse trading and hilarity that ensued.
You can now tell how comfortable a newcomer is to the family if they’re happy to ‘steal’ from an in-law, or my mum for that matter!
The kids quickly got into the spirit of things, leaving behind any thought of British restraint. So much so that Nana had to add some rules about the number of times a present could be stolen!
And I think they were both quietly happy that their kilogram bags of broken CookieTime Cookies (best biscuits in the world) might have won the award for most purloined presents…
Tough Mother 