Christmas/New Year catch up

We are all glad to be back home again. Lani and the kids were away for over a month and enjoyed returning to their own beds and the family home. We had a good holiday. The kids enjoyed meeting up with their cousins, uncles and aunts in Canberra and Sydney.

Things didn’t quite go according to plan at the beginning of my holiday. On the Friday before Christmas I planned to leave work at around 2pm and get to Mum and Dad’s place around midnight. Unfortunately I was delayed and didn’t leave work until 3:30pm. Then to make things worse, when I was around 60kms from Mum and Dad’s I missed a turn off and found myself driving through Maitland and heading towards Tamworth! Eventually I found my way and arrived around 2:30am.

On Saturday morning I woke up around 7:15am and drove to Canberra arriving in time for a family Christmas lunch with the Birks clan at the Connolly household. We had a nice lunch and it was good to catch up. With everyone gathered together we opened the Christmas presents, much to James and Jasmines delight.

On Christmas day we had lunch at Debbi’s house and played James’ Star Wars trivia game.

We spent a few more days at the Connolly home with James, Jasmine and MJ keeping each other entertained. Then we said our goodbyes and started our journey back home, staying at Mum and Dad’s place for several days.

The kids had a good time playing with their cousins Nicholas and Rebecca at the beach. Dad got a surf mat for Christmas and the kids had a lot of fun catching waves on it. I also took the kids out into deeper water to teach them how to float over waves and dive under breaking waves. They gained a lot more confidence in the surf and we ended up going to the beach 3 days in a row. The only reason we didn’t go a 4th straight day was because Jasmine’s face got a bit burnt.

On New Years eve Lani and I were going to go to bed early and not worry about ‘partying’ into the New Year but James wanted to stay up. So I convinced Lani to play Star Wars Trivial Pursuit with James and I until midnight. Then at midnight Mum got here big bell out and rang it out loud on the front veranda. There was already a lot of noise on the street so it wasn’t too bad. We let James enjoy the moment then we went to bed.

On New Years day (Sunday) at Mum and Dad’s the temperature was 43 degrees. So we spent the day inside which was pleasant with the air-conditioner on until the power dropped out for 3 hours in the afternoon. Jasmine spent the day with Rebecca and the Ayoub clan.

We travelled home on Monday because the temperature was much cooler. The kids were really good for the whole trip and didn’t mind the long drive. We asked them if they preferred to fly or drive to Sydney and they actually preferred to drive. Both thought it was more comfortable in the car and Jasmine thinks you have a better chance of surviving a car crash then a plane crash.

We now have Kali visiting and in a couple of days Bob and Kim will also visit until later this month.