It's hard to believe that the holiday period is now over - where did the time go - in fact where did 2008 go??!! There is no doubt that my favourite time of year is the few weeks over the christmas holiday - the sun is shining, everyone is on holiday and there is a party atmosphere in the air. Having Robert and Kat around helped with the holiday feeling and made the time seem longer.
We had an excellent New Year's Eve at a little beach close to our house which can only be accessed by foot. We invited a number of other families and it felt like we were having our own private cocktail party on the beach with fireworks provided by Manly Council. The temperature was in the 30s and we got to the beach at around 5pm in time for everyone to have a swim in the evening sun. The kids played until it got dark when we brought out the glow sticks and sparklers. The fireworks were fantastic and we managed to walk home in the dark without incident - in fact I had consumed enough wine for the walk home to be a hazy blur! We finished the evening at Ken and Emma's house which has the most fantastic views over the city and we were able to see the synchronised midnight fireworks from 5 points across the city.
Tom was very civilised on New Year's Day and actually slept in until 7.15 which is a small miracle and hopefully a portent of his sleeping habits in 2009! We decided that the best way to spend the day was out on the speed boat - we had a swim, a lovely picnic and then cruised up to the opera house and harbour bridge for the benefit of Rob and Kat. Friday 2nd was a sad day as it was the day Kat and Robert left us. We started with breakfast at a Manly cafe (Tom wore Jules' sunglasses to fit in with the cool local scene!), a swim in the surf on Manly beach and a quiet afternoon during which the kids watched a movie and the grown-ups played endless rounds of "Bananagram", a christmas present from Emma. For those unfamiliar with this game it is fantastic - it's basically a faster version of Scrabble where each player races to get rid of their tiles by creating words in a crossword-like fashion - I highly recommend it!
On Sunday Jules had a sailing race in the afternoon with wind of 20 knots and Oka was flying along under spinnaker. Mark was one of the crew so Caroline, the twins and Ruby spent the afternoon with us which was great fun although Tom was a little jealous of the cuddles the twins were getting. Lisa and Craig arrived back from their holidays on Saturday and so came round for a drink on Sunday afternoon after the sailing which turned into dinner and a few too many glasses of wine - there goes the new year's resolution....sigh!
I have included a photo of the new fence around the pool deck for you all to admire Jules' handiwork and to appreciate the difference it has made to the garden.
We wish all of you the very best for 2009!
No comments:
Post a Comment