Merry Christmas 2014

We have now been home for 2.5 months and have used the time to catch up with family and friends. At the end of September Murray's son Adrian and his wife Danielle had another beautiful young boy,  Max, and so now Murray is the proud grandfather of FOUR grandsons. Blayke, Heath and Dane are lovely healthy looking lads, and I am sure it won't seem too long before Max will be running with the pack. 

Murray with new grandson Max

L-R: Ret, Jen, Leonie, me

After a few days catching up with family and some friends in Melbourne, I left Murray there to spend more time with the family, and I flew back home. My sister Ret and girlfriends Jenny & Leonie joined me for a weekend of iPhones, Mac computers and Thermomixing! What a fun weekend. It was actually the Prawn Festival weekend in Ballina that weekend, and so we took this photo to show that we embraced the spirit of the Prawn! 

I had one day to pack after the girls left, and then flew to Darwin with my brother Tony for 3 days. He spent time with his daughter Anna, and I spent time with my son Mark. I even caught up with two friends that I went to school with in Alice Springs. I last saw Kathy in 1968 and Angela in 1964. We had a great time reminiscing about old school friends and what they are up to now. The photo on the right I took from the front of our beachfront hotel. What a fantastic sunset photo. Thankfully although I was talking to Murray at the time, I was using a bluetooth headset in my ear and had left the iPhone in my pocket. I was able to remove the iPhone from my pocket and quickly take the photo and still keep on talking to Murray and telling him what a beautiful sunset I was witnessing. The Darwin visit also gave me time to catch up with 3 of my lovely nieces. Overall a great 3 day trip.

Top photo is of my son Mark in the centre, with my brother Tony to his right. The lower left photo is me with Kathy (on left) & Angela (centre). Tony & I are bottom right

L-R: Niece Rosie holding her daughter Erin, brother Tony, Me, son Mark standing behind me, nieces Bridgette and  Anna. Our dinner location.

On November 29th we celebrated my nephew Jackson's first birthday with 17 family members. It was such an enjoyable party, made even better by the fact that Jackson was in fine form - smiling and happy to be with whoever picked him up or played with him at the time. His sister Kate made his special cake, and his other sister Anna surprised us all by flying down from Darwin. We missed you Nicholas! To top it off for me, despite numerous odds against them, Benn and Daina flew in and made it to the party in time to cut the cake and catch up with the family.

Then Benn & Daina returned to Ballina with us for a few days R&R. I think they enjoyed their low-key activities. After all, cycling, bowling, and snorkelling are a bit tame compared to their usual edgy pursuits of snowboarding in Canada, chasing snow drifts in Iceland, getting a boat captain's sailing licence in Spain etc. You get my drift. Ballina was very low on their adventure Richter scale, but I daresay it enabled them to recharge their batteries.

It is now time to get seriously into the Christmas spirit. Next week I will be manning a stall with my girlfriends to do Christmas gift wrapping in the local mall. Then we have the first of the Christmas parties kicking off - my Book Club I believe. Looking forward to all of the festivities. We hosted Christmas lunch at our home for the past 2 years, so this year my younger sister is having a turn. Aunt Dympna, Murray and I have reserved an apartment on the Gold Coast for 3 nights, and it will be a nice change. I was grateful for Daina's help to set up our Christmas tree. Thanks Daina. Hard to believe that it is 3 years since Kim and Sarah set our tree up. 

Wishing all our family and friends a Christmas to be thankful for. We hope that 2015 is a wonderful year for you, and that we get to see many of you during the course of the year. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!