The Celebration - Family Day

So Luke's family is a little different from most, which means I fit in perfectly because I'm a little different as well. Anyway, instead of celebrating Christmas with gift giving, (which, when you think about it, really detracts a lot from the actual focus of the celebration - Christ's birth), Luke's family have always given presents to each other on Family Day, aka the wedding anniversary of Luke's parents, Joanna and Stephen. They got married on January 26th 32 years ago :) (I know, I know, I'm behind on my blogs.) So, (ahem) a few weekends ago we went up to Luke's parents' place to celebrate and generally just hang out with everyone.

Every Family Day, it seems as though the Tysoe clan is expanding. I was the new addition in 2010, and now Alina has joined us. :) It makes me wonder if they'll be a new member in 2012, although Joanna and Stephen assured me that they are quite happy to take a break from weddings for a little while. So the family of 6 has grown to 8. We were divided into pairs to prepare culinary delights for lunch, dinner, breakfast and another lunch.

First up were Stephen and I, bringing a little taste of Italy with our pizzas.

Looks good huh?

 I think there are some satisfied customers there.

Next? Croquet, of course! What better way to enjoy a sunny afternoon?

I might have especially enjoyed it because I won by a mile (totally a fluke, because I'm normally pretty bad). Don't you just love the random selection of hats?

Dinner.

Hmmm... "Bex, what was that unique ingredient in the fish mousse?"

Oh... maybe I didn't want to know. 

Okay, it must be said that this is in no way a reflection on Bex's cooking, because she is a brilliant cook who absolutely in every way cooks circles round me. (My one and only signature dish is brownies - luckily it goes down quite well). However, this incident was just so funny I had to share it with you!

Present time! Bex is not only handy at making kitchen utensils into tasty appertisers, she is also handy with knitting needles, as evidenced by the lovely scarves she made for Michael and Alina.

And I discovered a love for Tintin that I never knew I possessed. :)

And I couldn't believe it - Joanna actually took an illustration I had drawn on her birthday card last year and put it on T-Shirts for everyone. Here's Luke modelling his:

And here is everyone! Including the most important member of the family...

The dog, Broc.

Breakfast.

Lunch.

And Family Day was over for another year. Could you tell we did a lot of eating?

Until next time :)