To describe it as an afternoon and evening where the huge extended 'family' of friends gets together with potluck food, drinks, kids, 'secret Santa' random surprise gifts and lots of laughs falls short of capturing the magic. A big part of the fun is buying the cheap crap/fabulous gifts that are then handed over to Gordy (aka "Surly Santa") for distribution that manages to be both random and arbitrary. Once handed out, the gifts must then be opened one by one in an orderly fashion so that everyone gets to enjoy the delight/embarassment. Its completely awesome.
The passage of time has been an amazing thing to watch. Couples have formed. Kids have been born and grown. New friends and partners have joined the clan. This year was particularly marked by the arrival of more kids, with a whole buch of newborns in attendance. It was a great afternoon that slid into evening, and I was home about 11pm pleasantly full of food and drink, and brimming with good cheer.
Persephone the pirate!
Isobel discovers the joys of a gift as big as she is (left) and Rachel helps Surly Santa hand out the crap/fabulous random 'secret santa' gifts (right)
Rachel models the fantastic Valkyrie Evening Wear gift, Elvis glasses sold seperately
Wigstock! Ken (left) and Coz (right) get in on the action
James scored the Elvis Impersonator Kit - envy!
Lou and the fabulous Avenging Unicorn (left), while Scruffy scores a HO
Avenging Mousicles, a blur of purple tie dye and whirling plastic knives (left), and Harriett in motion, having a great old time (right)
14 comments:
YAY for Chrissie pissie.
great photos as per normal.
Yay! ...and thanks!
I love the way that Surly Santa somehow seems to give people appropriate pressies :)
I love the way that Surly Santa somehow seems to give people appropriate pressies :)
That isn't always a coincidence...
It's amazing to think that there were seven more babies this year than there were last year! We are definately getting old.
Seven?! Wow, I knew there were a lot but...
as always, lovely photos!
I'd love a Walkure costume myself!
seven if you count Torbenspang, although technically he was already born by last Chrissie Pissie. if not, six - but then seven again if you count Gemma, who wasn't there... we've had Persi, Dinghy, Gemma, Sophie, Eliza, Jasper and Zoe. what a year!
TOA, these really are fabulous photos. they capture people exactly as they are! Coz is so Coz, Ken is so Ken, and the one of James is perfect - that hint of eyebrow finishes it off.
I want to know where the Valkyrie wig comes from. we need about a dozen of them, don't you think? we did Valkyries as a bit of a throw away joke about 415874685 years ago in a Sun on a Stick but I'd love to do a repeat performance!
spear and magic helmet!
I was counting Torby, not Gemma. He was born but he wasn't at the party last year, being as he was only just born.
Thanks!
I don't know who put the Valkyrie costume together, but it was ace! The world needs more Valkyries!!
BTW Mouse, since I took that pic of you goin' all whirling dervish Florentine-style with the plastic knives, I no longer pronounce your 'nome de web' in my head as mouse-ickles... now it rhymes with Damocles!
but that's how it's meant to be pronounced - it's from when we were going through our greek/roman hero phase, The Tales of Testicles (pron. test-i-cleees) as told by Harry...
Very cute Pirate Persi! Awesome! Thanks!
And for what it's worth, I'm with you for Mousickles...
Chrissie Pissie was great, that was our first one!
Roman mouse and frozen mouse are spelled the same. I'll leave it up to you which one you choose to use.
Cool pics, TOA!
I've done two recent blogs on Christmas. My school's traditional Good taste/bad taste gift exchange, and some old Santa's lap pics.
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