Suburban New Year

While most of the spectacular fire works were over the city centre 30 Km away there was still the home grown suburban variety. People came out into the streets at midnight to see these random explosions coming up out of people's back years all about the suburb, and it must be the same in other areas of Melbourne. Fireworks is a little hard to purchase in Australia but people have ways and means of doing it. The banned Guy Fawkes bonfire nights have a likely replacement on this day.

Glitter strewn on the road was easier to photograph actually...

Craft Storage Project

Peter has reworked this upper corner of his workshop. It had been in disarray after collapsing a few years ago. Never trust hot glue. Now most of the 'shorter' off-cuts are stored in the easy to find shelving. And there's a lot. In the process of tidying up the area, two pieces of school craft made by Simon were found, a Christmas tree panel and one with the words 'Peace be with you'; and these have added to the look of the place.

Starting to fill...

And the next day: a successful de-cluttering and tidying of the carport...

Savers Closed

It is with great disappointment that we announce that Savers the super thrift store closed in Mill Park. When our grandkids stayed overnight with us, this was the one place they wanted to go to following breakfast. They would be allowed to come away with a toy on a budget of $5 each. It was fun all round. With the superstore gone we aren't sure how our grandkids will take it. Savers announced that that there were not enough customers. What waffle...

Christmas Play

Lilidale Lake has a beach (with some help from the city council), so we were able to play a little beach cricket. There were some spectacular catches and runouts which made it all a lot of fun. Instead of making a sand castle, a sand mountain and sand turtle were the way to go this year. Then there was a visit to the ice-cream vendor (shouted by Simon). After that the grandkids found a way to make some of their Lego gifts without losing any of the pieces with the help of towels. With the permission granted they all spent a good length of time at assembly. How relaxing is that. We also took up throwing the frizbee. We were very impressed at the distance that Jasper can throw it. A wonderful variety of things to do at a wonderful family get together.

Christmas Gifts & Food

Our family met again for Christmas at Lilidale Lake. Again it was a very successful family time. Included in our party group were Nathan and De (Simon's friends) and Arnny (Daniel's friend). There were quite a few gifts for the grandkids including a massive Lego sets sent by Peter's brother John. After the fairly long present unwrapping period we got to the table to make up what we liked from the assortment of food available. We were all trying to make the food bit less intense for us. We still brought too much! There was a 30 knot wind which was a little distracting but this dealt with the flies. Nice.

Christmas Carols

Our church held its yearly Christmas Carol night on the Sunday evening beginning the Christmas week. It was well attended. The creative ministries group led many of the songs. Other song groups were from the youth group and a Samoa singing group (last pic) that also uses the church building. Coming to carols helps capture the Spirit of Christmas in a world of distracting heavy and relentless Christmas commercial marketing.

Christmas Visit

Barb's sister Madonna flew into Melbourne from Tazzi and she stayed with us one of her two nights in Melbourne. The picture reflects how complex the day became, involving Christmas shopping for gifts and food including picking up Madonna. Before she left us Madonna secretly set up fairy lights at our front porch. It was a very special surprise find them the next night glowing away. A very special gift.