Hanging out with our friends!

Tony and Egidia had a bbq for us on the 27th.  It was our last big night with our friends.  The end is coming :-( 

Adam, Deana, Ethan, Flynn, and their new addition Mia came by Tony/Egidias to say goodbye.

Mia was precious and the girls loved her wee EVERYthing.  Many congrats - she's BEAUTIFUL!!  

Move on over, here come the gang of kids!

The boys having a Coopers and checking out the Harley.

We are playing the wii!

Our darling neighbours / friends -- we will MISS you so much!! 

xxxx

Gidia!!!!!!!!!!!!

Queen Vic - where is your crown?

Yummy!!

Hey there!

Blue Tongue lizard outside the house

We enjoyed a nice lunch at the Winston with the Bilas on the 28th.

Boxing Day with The Tangs

I'm going to FINALLY tie up this blog once and for all!!

Boxing Day 2008 -- my Aunt, cousin Rosemarie, cousin Sam and his wife Paula and his son Joshua (from Hong Kong) were in Sydney town on Boxing Day.  We enjoyed a nice dinner at Darling Harbour with great views of the Harbour Bridge on a beautiful warm evening.  Joshua and Margot are about the same age and the cousins enjoyed their time together.  

Hmm, I remember it all now.  On Boxing Day, David Jones (the oldest and largest department store in Australia) is open until midnight.  Paula, Rose and I went for a shop!  Afterwards, Paula, the smart one, went back to the hotel.  Rose and I ventured out trying to find a place to go for drinks.  With little thought that it was Boxing Day (where NOTHING is open), we ended up at Kings Cross at a couple of gay bars dancing the night away.  I again without thinking wore my havianas / flip flops out and the barmen wouldn't let us in.  We somehow managed to sneak in through the side door.  All was well and we had loads of fun!

I crashed with Rose and auntie and took the bus home in the morning!  

Christmas in Oz

Poor Margot woke up very early on Christmas morning -- 6 am or so and we had gone to bed very late the night before.  We made her wait until Fiona woke which was about 9am!!  We are such meanies!! 

We had a lazy morning and finally managed to leave the house at about 2pm. 

We stopped at the Bolands for a x'mas drink and to say goodbye.  Fiona has become very good friends with the twins Laura and Bridie and she will miss them loads.  Amy is in Margots year and the girls get on great as they have similar personalities.  Kerrie and Mark have been a godsend, giving us lifts whenever it rained!!!  We'll miss them!!

We then drove towards the beach, to Freshwater Beach.  We had been meaning to go there as everyone raves about it.   It was good.  Not too crowded, gentle waves, it was a very enjoyable few hours.  We had a picnic lunch and took a walk around the rocks.

We then headed back to the hills and had a bbq,  just us at the house.

By 9pm or so we finally made it to Vic and Mario's house.  Vic's Mom, Dad, Sister Michelle, Brother-in-law Peter, and four kids were there.   We drank, sang and danced until the wee hours of the morning! 

All in all, it was a memorable Christmas; different but enjoyable!

Christmas Eve...

How odd is Christmas in the summer?  I guess it is what you are used to but it's just been very odd,  Christmas trees, snowflakes, Santa in the summer heat.

One of our favourite bbq meals - lamb cutlets and haloumi cheese!!

The hills hoist - an aussie invention

The girls dressed up for Christmas Eve mass

Fergus burns the letter to Santa, the smoke should reach the North Pole!

This is a utility vehicle which Aussies call a Ute.  This particular Ute carries Santa around the neighbourhood; he stops and throws lollys at the children.

The Christmas Lights in our hood.  We walked down to the park to meet up with Santa to get more lollys!  Poor Fiona was hit in the eye by a sweetie!!

The girls with Sam, Mariah (our neighbours), Emma (our babysitter) and her wee friend.

Our 14 year old babysitter Emma was fantastic.  She lived across the street and made it very convenient for us.   She was super mature and just lovely!!  Notice Fiona's puffy cheeks; it's all that candy!  ;-)

We had a beautiful Christmas Eve seafood dinner at the neighbours.   We had calamari, squid, swordfish, mussels, octopus, prawns....what an amazing feast and a suppppper late night!!!  

Jamberoo

Jamberoo is in the middle of nowhere!!!  How odd to build a waterpark of such scale in the hills....what a fantastic waterpark for kids and adults alike!

Fergus and I loved it!!  Some of the rides were pretty scary but the girls were great.  We have some major adrenalin junkies!!!  Fiona says to me as we bobsled down the mountain, "Mommy, be brave, go FaaaASTER!!!!".  Margot was charging up and down the waterslides.  We went on every single ride and spend at least six hours there!  I think we'll have to go down to California in the next few years!

Bobsled ride

This is the view from the chairlift!!