Safe arrivals

Firstly a huge congratulations to Nate and Sarah who welcomed their baby daughter to the world on Sunday evening.  It was John and Rae's first night in Australia so they were suffering from jetlag and kept waking during the night and checking whether there was any news from the UK as we knew Sarah was in hospital being induced.  I also slept badly and at one stage woke and was convinced that the baby had been born.  I jumped out of bed at 6am to find John busy checking his mobile but we actually had to wait until 6.50am before we got the call and then there was much excitement although it was a bit early for champagne.  We'll be cracking a bottle tonight to wet the baby's head and we're hoping Nate and Sarah may have chosen a name by then - we're glad to see they're taking the naming process seriously!!

John and Rae arrived on Sunday morning to the most glorious clear blue skies and a fabulously warm day so we spent most of our time lazing around the pool taking the occasional dip before everyone had an afternoon nap (we'd had a very late night on Saturday night).  John, Rae and I headed off to Tess' piano concert in the afternoon which was long but fun with lots of christmas carols to sing along to.  Tess did an excellent job with her carol (Silent Night as a duet with me) and the three pieces that she chose to play and she was so thrilled that Granny and Grandad were here to watch her.  

There was a special recognition assembly at school on Monday and Tess got a second award for the year - this time for "consistent high standard of effort in all aspects of science".  They come up with some good ones!  

 

On Saturday morning Tom's T-ball team got into the Christmas spirit by playing t-ball in their Santa hats.  

I've included the above photo which is an excerpt from Tom's diary.  I think Jules wishes his job was more like the one Tom describes!