Christmas Day

I was so excited on Christmas day that when I woke up at 5.30am I just couldn't get back to sleep. I found myself in the kitchen at 6am baking soda bread(!) with Christmas songs playing on my ipod. Managed to finally get Ciaran and the girls up at about 8 o'clock which meant we could open our pressies - at last! The girls hadn't got home till about 5am so they weren't too impressed with being woken up but they soon got into the swing of things when they remembered there were presents to be opened! The 5 of us in the house got each other a small pressie which meant that there was loads of unwrapping to do - hurrah!

Myself and Ciaran then headed into Hyde Park Barracks for the Christmas mass which was shown live on RTE. There were thousands of Irish backpackers there trying to squeeze in. The church had asked everyone to wear their GAA county jersey so it looked really cool. Everyone was trying to get their face on TV for the folks back home. I think we were spotted once or twice but with me being surrounded by 6 ft men it was a bit difficult. The helpful text from my mam telling me 'I can only see the top of your head, get up on Ciarans shoulders' made sure I was aware of my vertical challenge.... Everyone was waving like lunatics trying to get on the camera and at one point there was even a mexican wave going round although I'm fairly sure they didn't show that on TV!

After mass we took a walk through Hyde Park with Garry & Clare then it was time to head back to get ready for the beach. Bondi beach was absoloutely mobbed. There was a great atmosphere with everyone wearing their santa hats and red bikinis (not the boys!), even the lifeguards were looking a little bit festive. The weather was beautiful and the waves were great so we spent a good few hours down there in and out of the sea.

That evening we had Garry, Clare, Nicola & Lawrence over for a bbq. We made way too much food but it's not Christmas if you don't stuff yourself! We even had a go at throwing a shrimp on the barbie. Then it was back into the apartment for Christmas night drinks and a marathon game of poker.