Day Thirty-One

This was the day a bit of raindancing happened. We drove to Gembrook and took Asher and Jaye with us. Our dancing was not for rain like the Red Indians might do it, but because the rain came. The day was massively hot and as darkness arrived our little party, waiting for the new year, was treated to lightening flashes on the horizon. And it all came upon us in a rush. It was a rush. There was the strong cold wind, and then the rain. So before we saw in the new year we just upped the tempo and made it all very religious.

Even Peter danced a bit before he felt it was worth catching some of the action with his camera. Bec and Gord were real stayers on the dance floor and danced till the end. To dance this night you had to not care how you looked and how wet you got... like saturated. It was a spiritual return to nature.

Now not everybody went raindancing so those who opped out had stories read to them for a time. This was a very memorable last few hours till the clock reached midnight, and... Well, that is a blog for 2010, not this one.

Now Peter wants to apologise for swamping those of you who follow this blog with thirty-one of them. This was just an experiment, probably never to be repeated. Six to Twelve blogs a month is in the right range and so this month was overly excessive. Do have a blessed year ahead, and all our love.

Day Thirty

This was the day we caught up with Terico and her husband Len. We enjoyed hearing about their recent wedding both the official one in Japan and then how they celebrated in Australia. Intercultural marriages haves stories that are always good to hear. Len has been living in Japan for ten years and can speak Japanese reasonably well so Terico's family warmed to him. That's always a good start.

Before letting them leave for their next (whirlwind) appointment, to see Midsummer Night's Dream in the Gardens, we stood in front of the mosaic at Flinders Street Station. Infact, that was the place we had arranged to meet... under the clocks.

Earlier in the day Peter had taken Asher and Jaye out on a good coffee hunt. The place they stopped at was in Kinkora Road, Richmond. Nice coffee.

They then stopped at CERES in Brunswick for lunch at the cafe there. Without knowing it they had missed the once a week market by a few hours. So now we know that it is every Wednesday for a few hours in the morning. An organic food market. There is also a place there to bring your old bikes and they will be given another life. A bike heaven.

They did lunch there and it was wonderful sitting outside under the trees. You cannot know that this place is very much in the middle of Melbourne. The casual nature of the place gives the impression that you are at a holiday destination. A faraway island.

This picture was taken at a very expensive place. Most things in the shop were glass creations, a lot of them costing in the four figures. They were lovely to gaze at but that was as far as it goes. You get to feel happy and sad at the same time.

Day Twenty-Nine

Even though this was taken on Christmas Day this was the day that Dan made this really nice snap available to us on his Face Book photo collection. So we thought that it was worth giving it a wider viewing. Thank you Ma for going the full hog and giving everyone in the family a personalised towel. At eighty you are a marvel.

This day also marks the second day that Asher and Jaye are with us and we found that they are so into coffee that they take their coffee grinder around with them. Only Fair Trade (or even fairer trade) coffee beans are ground in it. They have very high principles. Good on them.

Something that has been happening all December has been flies in the house. They have found a way past all the screens daily. We are still to discover their secret. We have some suspicions but have not found the "smoking gun"... the fly in the act of sneaking in. So each day Peter gets out the fly-swat and stalks them till there is just a tolerable few. The number in the picture is Peter's kill for about two days... there is that many getting in. If anyone else is having the same trouble in their house, drop us a line.

Day Twenty-Eight

Today was the day that Asher and Jaye came to stay with for a while. Asher is our godson. He and Jaye live in West Australia and have come east to taste for themselves various Christian communities that they have heard about. We are chuffed that they have desired to stay with us for a time in the midst of their travels.

And how about this. They cooked up a storm on the very first day they came. They prepared a high class chinese meal from scratch in a kitchen they had never used. That's brave. We enjoyed their gift to us.

Afterward we continued our theological discussions as we discussed what "church" is in our present society. Asher and Jaye have only recently returned from an alternative church experience in Brisbane where they learned to do industrial bin diving, retrieving food to feed the needy, food that the stores are daily throwing out because it has passed the "used by" date but is still good.

Day Twenty-Seven

After church on this day we went and had lunch with Craig, Joy and Abigail. We often do this on Sunday and bring a jigsaw puzzel or two for Abigail while the food gets cooked and for after when we get to chatting. One of the waiters there took this picture for us. We had an enjoyable time and so did Abigail with a few "magic" tricks to show us, then the centre of attention.

Abigail is becoming a wiz at puzzles and this time she opted for doing it outside the frame just to make it a little harder. We will have to look around for harder ones soon.

Abigail is a very good runner. She is learning gymnastics as an extra activity in a normal school week. She will be in grade one in the coming year.

Day Twenty-Six

We stayed overnight at the Retreat and in the Hut as we did numerous times last year and the year before. It was nice to be back there again. The morning welcomes us in such a calm way and allows us to be reflective. Jane and Steve's baby was born about a week ago so there was this new blessing to the Retreat to contemplate.

The light of life is all around us
The light came into the world

Just one week ago a new life for the Hope family
That's a whole new world of meaning, a completely new dynamic

A little life direct from God, so close to God
With wisdom from God, having come from God

Closely attached to God's culture, so recently there
How nice to have a new child in our midst

To remind us of God
We are truly blessed

Steve and Gord went for an inspection of part of the property. With them came Peter (camera holder) and Jasper. We counted the sheep and moved the goats and did it nice and slowly.

It was back at the Funks house for lunch which was anything we did not eat the previous day. Bec was very pleased that we could have a meal like this, a meal that required no prep.

Later Dan, with Gord's encouragement, did a bit of wood splitting. Well, Dan did quite well at it. It was his blistered hands that failed him in the end. Still, the little pile of firewood was added to for next Winter.

Ok... after all that work, a bit of recreation was needed and the kids joined in and did their best.

And while all that was happening, there was Bec deciding to harvest some of the garlic. We were very impressed at the size of the bunches of cloves. Well done you guys.

We left in the late afternoon to take Dan back to his place and then on to ours. We each felt that we had had a super time... a true tonic for us all.

Day Twenty-Five

After Barb finished a "half shift" at the hospital we picked up Dan and drove to Gembrook to share Christmas with the Funks. We had a very relaxed and enjoyable time with family for the rest of the day.

We even shared a video link up with family on the Atherton Tableland. A bonus was to see Peter's Mum (wheeled in on her wheelchair).

A further bonus was to see and chat with our son Simon. It sure was nice to see him. It was great to see Peter's two brothers and the other members of family as they came and went from the computer room up there.

Here we have Jethro warming to his uncle Dan. In fact, Dad was a hit with the kids. He had a ball and was really glad he came.

The highlight gift of the day was the one Bec gave Gord: a framed set of pictures of their three children when they were each about nine months. It was fascinating to see each one together like that.

The next little series of pictures show some of the gifts that the kids received and what they did with them later in the day.

Then there was the meal. It did not matter that we had it at 7 pm. It reflected our relaxed time we were having. The meal was had at the perfect time and enjoyed by all.

And for afters, Claire's special cup cakes came out, much to the delight of Piper and Jasper. The whole day was such a tonic. We needed a day like this after quite a full week of unusual pressures.

Day Twenty-Four

Today is Christmas Eve. We did a number of different things, one being a drive to Seymour to deliver a gift that we did not get round to posting. That was OK except that we had to leave our gift at the door and leave again. We had a coffee in the town though. When we returned, Barb made two cakes for Christmas Day. After that, our plans were altered and with no notice we dropped in on friends who we really did owe a visit. Their two dogs, Maltese-something cross, were delighted that we came and made us at home on 'their' couch. One was called Max and the other Sam. We enjoyed the visit, a place to stop and relax with friends who also stopped what they were doing and gave us their time. There is a lesson in this.

This is Max... giving you the eye. Peter thought that he looks a bit like an old man. This was the dog that had addopted him, while Sam had adopted Barb. Nice dogs.

Day Twenty-Three

This was the day that Craig, Joy and Abigail came over. It was our Christmas with them and it went very well with a roast, talk, presents and games. At the time of leaving, Abigail was given some glow rings bracelets to wear. These are the rings lying for just a moment on our carpet. They are such fun things for kids, and were found in the party section of Safeway.

One of Abigail's presents was this wooden dolly set, the sort that fits neatly into the next. Abigail loved it and so we were pleased with this rather unusual choice of gift for a child of six.

Abigail also received from us a little set of memo pads with animail motifs and matching pencil set. We got these in case the dolls were a flop. These were positively received as well and we were given memos written in very neat letters. She is getting the hang of letter shapes. Well done Abigail.

Day Twenty-Two

This was a picture of the TSMV Kanimbula that Peter downloaded from the website www.ssmaritime.com/Kanimbla-Oriental-Queen.htm as extra research concerning his father's life. When Peter was in Atherton last, he was given the task of typing up the journal that his Dad wrote about his life. On this particular day, Peter has reached the stage when his (ten year old) dad and family migrated from West Australia to North Queensland. What a pivotal decision that was! What a huge change for that family of six (at the time)! Peter is typing and reading the story as it comes, stuff that he has never ever heard from his dad in real life. It has opened a new world in his appreciation of his dad. Wonderful stuff.

The family travelled on the Kanimbla from Fremantle to Melbourne in late 1938, and after a four day break they took another ocean liner, the TSMV Manunda, for the second leg all the way to Townsville. That's as far as Peter typed this day and the rest will have to wait till after Christmas because there really is far too much else to do.

The Kanimbla was Australia's most beautiful and luxurious ocean liner.

When Barb finished work we dropped in on friends closer to the city heart and afterward found a few small presents in the Carlton area.

Day Twenty-One

Today Barb worked a shift at the hospital and Peter made an effort to do things that Barb asked him to do. After work in the late afternoon, we strolled through Epping Shopping Centre to try to find a few things on our checklist. Gifts for people. And after a coffee we did just that. A few more things ticked off. But what was noticeable there was a much more subdued festive spirit. It seems that not having a government stimulous payout this season is going to make a lot of difference to the shopping centres. There was even this large plastic Santa that said it all. Why they used a Santa like that we don't know, but he looked like the place felt. Where are the crowds? he must have been thinking.

Now if we did not have our own checklist there was a large one ready made for us at each entrance. Oh yes, the shopping centre has thought of everything just in case we come unprepared. For those of you who haven't made a checklist, this collection may be just what you have been looking for to get you started. :-)

Day Twenty

This was the day when in the late afternoon our church had its Christmas Carols service. We both thought it was very well planned and sensitively presented. Well done to the Creative Ministry team!

The Children's Church Music Ministry group also led some of the carols. Well done Emma for all that organisation and practice that had to happen during the weeks preceding this. We were very encouraged to see such involvement from the kids of Children's Church.

They got up on to the stage on a few occasions and led us in the singing and in their dance movements. It was such an awsome effort. Well done you guys.

We must also mention the hard work of Lyn (mother of four) who not only coordinated the Creative Ministry team but also had a major singing role up front. Well done Lyn.

Lyn was supported by musicians from the Youth Group. All in all it was a well coordinated team effort and at a time when a lot of people, including us, were wondering just how we were going to make it through to Christmas and beyond. This was a grace-filled occasion as we all took stock to remember the birth of Jesus. Emanuel - God with us.