We’ve just had a fabulous early Christmas weekend, with our daughter, son-in-law and grandson in Sydney, along with our daughter who is visiting from London. It’s nine years since we’ve been together for Christmas.

We began our Christmas Eve by decorating the tree then watching the movie “Love Actually”. A firm favourite to get us in the festive spirit.

On our Christmas Day we shared a late breakfast out on the deck.

Our girls grew up in the UK with Christmas in winter. So a fun gift of long stripy socks each year became a tradition. Now aged 27 and 24 years of age and in a summer Christmas, they wore the socks! Bless them!

We exchanged gifts and spent time “reviewing our year”, unwrapping photo or word prompts about the special times we’d each experienced during the past twelve months. Holidays, new jobs, successes, friend’s wedding, theatre shows, baby showers. We had a seafood dinner later in the day, prawns, scallops, morton bay bugs, with salad.

Our grandson is almost four months old. Boy and dog are best friends. The dog keeps an eye out and tickles the baby by licking his feet. They are both rather cheeky.

We finished the trip with a ride on the Manly Ferry across Sydney Harbour. A perfect weekend.

What unusual family traditions do you have?

Cheeky