December

December is always a crazy busy month - a lot of loose ends at work to tie off before schools shut down over the summer break, all that end of year socializing, and Christmas just around the corner.

The month starts with Maxie's birthday (see previous post), closely followed by Thomas L.'s. He's 20 this year!! We celebrated at his choice of restaurant, Bella Vista on the lake in Belconnen (same as last year). That bottle of Bailey's Shiraz in the centre of the table is one of a dozen that J & J bought the year Thomas was born (1993). It is still tasting very good - a big bold Rutherglen style Shiraz.

Thomas has had another brilliant year at Uni this year which must be a source of great pride for J & J.

Aunty Anke drove all the way to the Gumnut Cafe in Berrima for this beautiful mud cake....which we all thought was well worth it.

Judy L couldn't be there on the night. She was just home from hospital -  still very sore and sorry after surgery the night before. We missed her - it just didn't feel quite right without her.

The night after on the 7th we celebrated our last RED (retired extremely dangerous)  group dinner for the year at the divine POD Food at Pialligo.  We've been meeting up for regular big dinner nights for almost FIVE years now - something to celebrate indeed. It is ironic that very few members of this group are really truly retired. We're mostly all still working our heads off in various capacities - especially one of the gentlemen who had to argue the case, on behalf of the the ACT Government, for our new same sex marriage laws, to the High Court in the week after this dinner (unsuccessfully, regrettably).