This will hurt me...

Not content with keeping us up all night, he pulls our hair in the daytime! It's a good thing that he has very kissable cheeks...

Sometimes all seagulls need on Christmas day is a stroll along the beach and a long, wistful gaze out over the ocean. I would like to think that this seagull is ruminating on the often contradictory impulses of nature, the isolation of modern life or how to build a better mousetrap, but I'd wager it's thinking about sex like the rest of us...

Christmas in Australia means many things - backyard cricket, prawn salads, a quick game of "throw the dart at Grandma" - but most of all, Christmas means parsurfing . As you can see by this picture of two parasurfers on Christmas day here on Bellerive beach here (on Hobart's Eastern Shore, with Mount Wellington in the background), parasurfing is to Christmas what rabbits are to Easter! Ever since the First Fleet arrived in this great southern land oh so many years ago, the fusion of sail and surf has been a Christmas tradition. Convicts - bored with digging holes and breaking larger stones into smaller stones - utilised their Christmas break by taking to the skies like a seagull in heat. From 1788 onwards, convicts could be seen every summer parasurfing up and down the coast, fanny packs [snigger snigger] filled to the brim with prawns, morton bay bugs, seal pups and penguins. Taking advantage of the speed and dexterity that is granted by the wind, these wily criminals s...

Of course, this enabled all of us the have a fiddle with the new camera.

This inevitably meant that all of us not called Ezra felt a little Christmas bloat, so we decided that a wide course of action would be to walk off the turkey down at the beach. The wind did not deter us.

So we all had a sleep, and when we woke up we had a little more chocolate mousse, some of us having more than others. Henry, generous soul that he is, wanted to share his with the world. So, here you go.

So this is Christmas, and what have you done? Quite a bit, actually! Pressies been handed out and all wrapping, boxes and packaging has been scooped up before they can present a problem for the tidy-inclined (I had a process that worked out beautifully , thank you very much. Shifting all the food preperations to Christmas Eve emerged as a masterstroke, as the timing for an early feast of turkey (rolled in ham) and a mountain of veggies, followed by a HUGE vat of homemade chocolate mousse was all completed in a timely fashion to accomodate all the sleeping needs of both kidlets (not to mention the proud parents). The gift choices also seemed to be a winner, even the Frankenstein-ish concoction of Marino, Silk and Possum that I took a punt on. Very pricey, but the meterage has to be seen to be believed. [How they get these beasties to mate with each other really must be a sight. I can find nothing on YouTube...] Henry elected himself chief present-opener, and showed excellent form. I am...