We had an amazing Christmas holiday. All the family were in one place at the same time. A truly rare occurance. We had Christmas Dinner at my youngest brother and his wife's house, and 25 people sat down to eat at one long table. My brother's wife cooked the entire meal almost single-handedly, a truly heroic feat, and an absolutely perfectly delicious result.
It was my oldest brother's 60th birthday on Christmas Day, and my mother had ordered a cake in the shape of a Christmas Tree, since she'd always made him a Christmas Tree cake when he was small. The resulting cake had four (4!) layers, each a different flavour, and was covered in white icing. There were candy shapes like decorations stuck all over it and an angel sitting on the top. There was one polar bear candle per decade, just so his lungs wouldn't be put under any strain when he came to blow them out. (Actually, the real reason was that there was some concern that the cake would catch fire if there were 60 lit candles on it.)
This picture was taken by my daughter, with her digital camera set at black and white. Hence the lack of colour. When I was her age it was so exciting (and expensive) to take colour photographs, because the norm was black and white and most people couldn't afford to take or develop colour pictures. Now we've gone full circle, and black and white photos are cool.
