Mature Christmas

At our family Christmas breakfast last Saturday we were all struck by the mature approach taken by the three, four and six year olds present. Instead of the extreme excitement and hyper activity of previous years, followed by the inevitable exhaustion and emotionalism, all the kids were very calm and considered in their approach to gift giving and receiving, and displayed their beautiful manners to each other throughout our four hour breakfast celebration.

Ella was thrilled with her new Oobie sundress from one of Ros' favourite shops at Sawtell (thank you Ros). Size 6 looks like it will fit perfectly!
For Ollie and Angus it was a Star Wars Christmas. So there were plenty of smiles going around as the packages were opened.....

and stacked so carefully to make a tower of boy joy!

Ollie received his first Meccano set.

......which kept the Grandpas very busy for an hour or so.

Luckily Ella had been given her first Meccano set too, so that gave Ollie something to practise on while the Grandpas worked on his set!

It was Ollie's idea to have a Christmas chocolate cake to round off our celebratory breakfast (and a bowl of jibbly jelly). I think it was Claire's idea to light some candles...no doubt heavily influenced by all the amazing Christian Christmas stories Ollie brings home from Scripture classes at his (government) school.

There is something that makes all kids VERY serious as candles on the cake are lit. It must be the thought of all that sugar and CHOCOLATE that is almost in their grasp!

But for most of the morning it was all about concentrating on playing, with great focus and discipline, with their beautiful new toys!

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

I've never seen girls have more fun than Ella and her four friends (and baby boy Linkin) today at the Erindale Pool. Ella had her weekly swimming lesson, followed by well over an hour of free play with her friends and their heroic Mummies, splashing up a storm in both pools!

We were amazed to see that Ella's confidence has grown so much she can even do a few nanoseconds of unsupported "doggy paddle" back to the edge of the pool!

and has no qualms at all about dunking her head underwater... It was all so wonderful Ella even had a melt down about having to leave the pool today, which reassured "Brampa" no end because the same thing happened the other day when he took her to the pool on his own. He thought it was because of something he'd done wrong!!

Keeping the spirit of the day we also booked our tickets to the Cyndie Lauper Concert in Sydney (next April), not only because she is the original girl who wants to have fun but also because we like her latest Memphis Blues album.......and anyway..... she's a 57 year old New York City babe, and an 80's icon, so why not?

Water

Last Wednesday night it poured with rain all night (on top of all the other rain we've had in recent weeks). The residents of Queanbeyan woke to find their river had flooded, cutting the town in two. We had a rain soaked visit to the fresh food markets at Fyshwick on Thursday morning and everyone was trading stories about the best way to get home, by circumventing the flooded roads.

By Thursday afternoon the worst of the rain had cleared, so we took a walk along the lake foreshore near the Waterside apartments at Kingston. We couldn't remember Lake Burley Griffin ever looking like this before. Turgid brown flood water lapping the top stones of the lake wall, lots of vegetable matter and whole trees floating in the strong current, obviously uprooted from the flooded wetlands of the Molonglo River.

Canberra only suffered localised flooding, although quite a few of our large trees have met a sad fate as their roots have become totally waterlogged, causing them to just topple over, at great risk to life and limb.

It has been a joy to see our garden return to life after the long drought years. We have even been able to turn our water features back on now that we are on a water conservation regime (as opposed to a water restriction regime).

Gifts

It's our tradition to organise our family Christmas celebration around the time of Maxie's birthday in early December. So at our "birthday afternoon tea" today, with three teachers in the family, it seemed natural to do some list making (which other members of the family paid us out about!).

I was astounded to see 6 year old Ollie write this ON HIS OWN!

I love his breakfast menu ideas and will give a lot of thought as to how we can combine jelly, toast and chocolate cake into the breakfast buffet!

Speaking of gifts we had a short but sweet visit from London Davey this week, here for two friends' weddings and a few days with Canberra family. He collected almost a case full of baby clothes for little "peanut" and lots more admiration from the younger set, who seem to find him a magnetic attraction.

Although I don't know why!

Ella thought he was funny and adorable - and don't we all!

Joie Pantalons

There is a new rule that outings to parks require the wearing of pants. These were picked out by Ella's Daddy - and so were OK.

although fairy costumes are usually her favoured form of apparel.

Wearing pants, Glebe Park on a late Spring afternoon, time with Mummy and Daddy, ropes to climb, slides to rush, swings to push............total joy!

Then dinner together at North Quarter and a chance to check out the beautiful Robert Foster light sculptures in the new ActewAGL building, much to Ella's delight.

You can tell Christmas is coming

because today is feeling like summer may be around the corner, after weeks of cool, wet Spring weather (Canberra's wettest year in 11 years and our dams are just over 90% full - yay!).

and because our garden is looking it's Summer best with plenty of red flowers for Christmas bunches: gorgeous callistemon......





and those hardy old rose bushes I held on to throughout the worst years of the drought,

including the Scarlet Queen Elizabeth rose, one of the few plants we kept from the house's original garden, which helps to explain its very 60s-70s brashness and monarchist references. I've never seen it look so healthy as it does this season.

and because all those end of year events are unfolding: parties and dinners and festive outfits to plan, the December birthdays to celebrate, present shopping, and a quick visit from London Davey to liven up the pre-Christmas preparation.

It's also time for the end of year performances for students studying the Suzuki method (piano). Sophie successfully completed her Book 3 this year and entertained us on Saturday afternoon with a beautiful performance of 7 classical pieces played meticulously on the baby grand.

I always remember Thomas in the same circumstances would sometimes fit in his concerts in between long bike rides and sweaty ball games so it was very special that Sophie dressed so beautifully for the stage. Proving her versatility she and friend T. had a complete wardrobe change straight after, ready for the next event on their social calendar, a friend's twelfth birthday "Hollywood" theme party.

Coogee reno

I arrived at Coogee last Thursday to see the results of Nic (father) and Nick's (son) 8 days of hard work painting our apartment. Given the state of the original paint work I would say they each spent 6 days scraping and then the remaining time painting. I was absolutely thrilled with their work. The apartment has been transformed.

That is Porter's Paint Polo in the living area (and the back wall of the bedroom) and Dulux Whisper White everywhere else (1/4 strength on the ceilings).

Now if we can get everyone else on the Body Corporate to make up their minds about fixing and painting the windows (exterior) we will have really achieved something!

The trouble is it all looks so beautiful it makes it harder for us to decide whether or not to rent out the apartment next year.