Happy New Year

May you all have a Happy and Blessed New Year. We ended 2012 in a rather quiet fashion. We drove to our normal restaurant and found all tables taken. What would you expect? Teach us for not booking. We tried a few other places and some were closed (!) and some crowded. It looked pretty sad for us... but when we inspected our fridge at home we found a feast of unfinished stuff left over from Christmas. We made it into a meal that was equal to any restaurant's. We even found a bottle of champagne waiting for us in the fridge. God's love was bubbling up.

December 28

This is a mostly pictorial effort and the pictures will say it all. The day (Friday, December 28) was extra special because family from Darwin were able to be with us. Barb's sister Jan and her hubby plus their son Nathan and his girl Jaymee were the Funk's honoured guests. We came together at 5 pm and had a very precious and enjoyable time for the remainder of the daylight hours. Jan was hoping to see her niece and family of Gord and the three kids. She had last seen Piper as a baby. The following pictures report on how we used the time, again showing the versatility and popularity of the trampoline. It finishes with the nicest picture of Piper and Gord. Enjoy.

Christmas Memories

The Christmas get-together this year was hosted by the Funk household. We drove up in the early morning taking Donna and Simon. We had loads of gifts, mostly for the grandkids. Donna had her own load to give to them. We wondered if the little ones might OD on gifts and leave us feeling that we have overcooked our gifting. As it turned out it did not happen that way. The distribution was very well managed by Gord and there was a good spirit in the place.

Peter had to drive Barb back to Mill Park at noon so that she honoured her afternoon shift at the hospital. Peter then hung about till Daniel had finished his chef work at the RSL making 3 course Christmas lunches for 200+ people! He and Dan were then off to Gembrook with one visit to the bottleshop. So Peter had a Christmas 1 and 2 this year and when he returned he found the kids watching a movie and most adults sitting around a backyard fire. There was a cool South-Westerly blowing, so the fire was a welcome addition. Gord even made an exotic mint drink with the help of a blender and few other things. Otherwise there was Japanese beer.

When it was close to the Summer time sunset of 9 pm, Peter, Donna, Daniel and Simon paid their good-bye. It had been a nice day all round given the tricky bit of getting Barb back for work. Each Christmas - different. We wonder how next year's will go.

Happy Christmas

We wish you all a happy, blessed and safe Christmas as we remember the birth of the baby Jesus in Bethlehem. May all your plans for a nice day come to fruition. Our tree is a wooden one this year, reflecting an avalanche of woodcraft activities for the year for Peter. And our tree looks different as it is turned just as we all see differently. In the tree's centre there is a 'negative space' tree with a dynamics of its own, just as we have our own inner thoughts and perspectives. The three images of the one tree may reflect combinations such as the magi, those travelling seekers following a star in the East... or the Trinity: God, Christ and Holy Spirit, three different natures in One. Shalom to all.

Graduation 2012

The grade six students waved good-bye singing a 'leaving school' song they had been practicing for weeks. They also danced as one big group before their families. Most were dressed as if they were graduating from secondary college. Many of the girls had their hair set. Many of the boys wore ties. Some even came in stretch limousines (ten tumbling out of one of them). The venue was the Plenty Ranges Conference Centre at South Morang so it made for a very impressive and formal occasion, witnessed by up to seven invited guests per graduate (parents and siblings mostly). It was a nice way to send them off even though many of the parents there remarked that they had not graduated primary school with such fanfare. Peter remembers nothing at all at the end of his primary school years in North Queensland... 48 years ago!

The thing that seems remarkable in this picture is that the kids are still sitting on the floor, just like at school, this time in evening dresses and suits. :-)

School at Church

Earlier in the year, the School Principal and the Anglican Vicar as real neighbours discussed the possibility of giving the Religious Education children an experience of a Christmas church worship, and in the church that has sat beside the school for longer than a hundred years. The event happened in the final week of the school year, and the Vicar led two services, one for the young kids and then one for the upper grades. The Vicar, his wife at the keyboard, and his son and daughter as singers and puppeteers for the Christmas skit, led the service. Other adults who helped him were the RE volunteers who had brought RE to the school every week, half an hour a week, for the year. Peter did not want to miss this and so was there on one of his off days. He, two teachers and a teacher's aid were the accompanying adults who walked from the school, for both groups. The service seemed more solemn than fun but it was a start... something worth doing from now on at the end of each year.

Building Elective

In this final term at school each teacher led a careers elective for grades three to six. Peter was invited to lead one on building. This has proved a very successful elective because Peter decided that each of the 19 students in his elective could make their own miniature house. The goal was to build the models, following as closely as possible to how builders really do it in full scale. This meant keeping up the supply of (1:20 scale) small section timber so the project could keep going. There were only six one hour lessons (over a six week period) to do it, so it was a bit of a race to reach the last week 'roof stage'. Peter was a little stressed in the last lesson handing out all the roofing bits to match their houses. Each one was different! But the results were super-encouraging as you can see. Also, there was no back wall to each house so that students had easy access to the room in order to decorate it any way they wanted to.

Most students were able to obtain a chair for their house to go with their table. There were many miniature house interior items available but no toilet 'kit' which was requested a number of times. All students were given a miniature Christmas tree as a parting gift. It was a fun project and each student was justly proud of his/her work.