1am: I finished yesterday’s blog post.

2.15am: a phone call woke me. It was a neighbour in Oyster Bay who found our dog wandering down to the oval. I explained to her how to get into the house and she returned Millie inside for us. (Our dog sitter was at church and then at family Christmas lunch, and thought Millie had been so good for the last few days, she gave her access to the backyard while she was gone….clearly the weak point has not been strengthened well enough!)

4am: Belle appeared in our room to tell us she had vomited in her bed (to her right and her left 😩).

…..Joyeux Noel to us! After that interrupted night, we slept in and were all eating breakfast around 10am. Poor Belle spent the day drugging up on Panadol, sleeping and waking only to drink some water to avoid dehydration and then sleep again.

After breakfast, Ross and Luke started cooking our Christmas lunch. While they were cooking, we all rang our families and friends at home to wish them a merry Christmas. Our Christmas lunch was delicious!

On our way back to the car yesterday after visiting Bordeaux Christmas markets, we walked past a shop where the lines were out the door and down the street. The store was selling Christmas cakes, but Ross couldn’t bring himself to pay for one. So Beck and I did some girl maths and bought two!!!!! We rationalised that the boys have not been turning down beers or wine on offer for themselves, so we should not have to give up an expensive, local dessert we want to try!

We watched the cake being made through the street window while waiting in line – it was layers of meringue and cream, covered in chocolate flakes. We bought one white chocolate and one dark chocolate dessert, and as we divvied it up between everyone for our Christmas lunch dessert, each person’s serve was a cost of 4 euro…..surely less than a beer!

After lunch we had some rest time – the kids played games and the adults rested and took walks around the property. It is an impressive place, but the amount of maintenance required looks expensive!

Estelle had left the chapel open for us to use, and we had hoped to have our own little Christmas service in there, but the piano was in the main house and the day as it unfolded unfortunately didn’t lend itself to it. Jarrod played carols on the piano inside instead.

Belle woke about 3pm after a very deep sleep, and felt well enough to sit up long enough for us to open presents. We had bought everyone a “tour shirt”and card game wrapped up from home so they had one present to open on Christmas Day. As Belle had designed the shirt and planned the secret Santa, we all waited until she was ready to open those presents and the Secret Santa presents.

Ross cooked a pasta dish for dinner, which he felt was missing ingredients (they didn’t sell cream in Aldi here, so we couldn’t have carbonara for example), but Ollie said it was the best pasta he’d ever had! After dinner the kids watched a movie on the projector downstairs while the adults and Jarrod and Tim tried more of the Maison Borgeat wines.

Poor Belle has not eaten all day and was only up for long enough to participate in the present opening, so hopefully she will sleep this off and be ready to go again tomorrow. This has not been a normal Christmas for us, but with less materiality about it and more rest time and family time – and in such an amazing location! – it has been a lovely and memorable Christmas.