Christmas 2009 San Pedro Belize!!!!!

So it's Christmas day and if you can't be with your immediate family you spend the day with the next best thing. We were invited to have dinner with Ruth and Graham Verralle's of Caribbean Villas and their family. It started off being about 16 of us and ended up at 24 so a nice crowd to invade their home. As can be seen below Ruth has Graham well trained, she has a glass of vino in her hand and he is carving away!

Colette and Maya made a grand entrance and Colette's outfit was in Maureen's honour. Knowing Madame and JD were away for the holidays Colette knew we would all have missed her very colourful outfit so here she is Bet Lynch herself! She was named Boa women for the duration of the day and there were bloody feathers everywhere,

Maya was checking in on the chef to make sure the gravy and everything else was going to plan.

In fine style people started to arrive fashionably late of course, Belize time at it's best.

This little furry friend was very early and very lucky, a neighbour gave it to Ruth yesterday as it was found nearby. Being the cat lovers that this family are how could they say no? Needless to say she now has a lovely home and was named Holly in keeping with the spirit of the day.

Jamilla hadn't checked face book for a day so didn't know about what was in this box!

How happy was she when she realised that she had won the camera that we had been raffling for the Saga Humane Society these past couple of weeks. When Jim bought the tickets she commented how she never wins raffles-well that has changed!

Love this picture, Jimjam with some of his special women.

A few more of his women, we are thinking of making him an honorary WISP!!!!!

Ronnie is Ruth's mum but has been told by mine to stand in for the holidays, so was full of hugs and presents all day.

Ok so by now we had all had plenty of wine and were starting to love each other more than normal!

The Grimmin's family have arrived, along with Dana's scrummy roast potatoes!

Grant swears he was only wearing that funky tie cause his mum sent it for Christmas but we think he loved it much more than that as he was beeping and flashing all day long.

Who would not want to cuddle and hold this wee thing for ages? Little Holly was the most popular pet of the day.

Note the Roses on the table which were right in Maya's reach, that was my first mistake of the day when it came to rounding up ones presents from people!

Quick time to eat and everyone was ready to get a taste of what we had been smelling for what seemed like forever!

All in a days cooking in the Veralle's household, 24 people no fuss and no problem says Ruth!

How tasteful is this as a table decoration, a conch shell with some island flowers.

Come on gang the part we have been looking forward to for weeks, Ronnie's gravy and stuffing to compliment all the other dishes!

Check out those smiles who says men are driven by their bellies?

Looks good enough to eat!

Round one!

Suddenly the room was rather quiet.

This was to be the younger ones table but then the biggest kids of all sat there, maybe a good move as much closer to the food.

The dogs say outside and just drooled at what we were all about to eat, bless them.

Me and my favourite young one, the lovely Lucy.

It's that time of Christmas day and Chris's main task to facilitate the secret Santa.

For those that have never done this before it is time to tell the rules. poor Chris had to fight over Colette's placid tones at this point which was a major challenge!

It was getting tense as some of the gifts had changed hands 3 times already but this wasn't what Lucy wanted to hear!

Ronnie's turn.

I got this great gift on the first go then lost it then stole it back, but did I go home with it is the big question? No I managed to go home with a Trivial Pursuit came that I actually brought which was a great result as I wanted it for our house!

Chris is the only man for this job and made sure each person had their go and after a lot of swapping everyone was happy.

It was a great day spent eating fantastic food, drinking some delicious wines and hanging out with some very lovely people cheers to everyone. Happy happy Christmas and have a great New Year's!