Christmas Eve was 30C, but we baked 2 sheets of cookies, and read stories beside the Christmas tree with the air conditioning on. All the kids were asleep and the presents were tucked under the tree before 10 pm.

Thankfully we went to bed then, because by 4 am most of the kids were awake. We waited for 7 am to wake the house and open presents.

Christmas morning we snacked on mandarin oranges and "Nonya Love Letters." Love Letters are almost like a waffle cone, but rolled in a cylinder and eaten like a crispy light cookie. Japanese oranges were $1/orange. So we had picked up Mandarin Oranges for 1/2 that price.

After leisurely opening presents and playing with them all over the living room floor, we burnt off some energy playing with our new balls at the Basketball Court. Quite a few families were already out on the playground at 10:30 am.

The afternoon found us in the swimming pool, but we were chased out by some rain. Mornings are generally sunny during this season, with rain most afternoons.

Dinner Christmas Night was a honey mustard glazed ham, new potatoes and lemon-garlic green beans. Unlike our Turkey Dinner, I made Christmas Day Dinner myself as our Helper had the day off.

Our friends called us on Christmas morning, and marvelled over how Santa had already visited us even before they had even crawled into their beds on Christmas Eve.