Christmas Family Traditions

It is truly hard to believe that another Christmas has come and gone so soon. Such big build up and preparation for just one day that seems to come and go so fast these days.

Here is a picture of my sister's and I on Christmas Day. I think my older sister told me at least 5 times that day that she was glad I was home!!!

Christmas has always been about family for me. Even though with just our immediate family there are about 20 of us and it can get quite noisy - I just wouldn't want it any other way. Christmas always starts on December 24th - Christmas Eve - for us. We all went over to my older sister's place for drinks and nibblies. This Christmas Eve it was pouring with rain so getting the gifts and food in the car was an 'event' in itself. We finally managed to get over there and have a good time. At about 11pm 'Santa' arrives to hand out all the presents under the tree. This year 'Santa' was played by my sister's Father-In-Law. It was great to see a really skinny Santa with an Irish accent handing out gifts to the kids and they not having a clue who it was!!!

This is my nephew Liam, and I celebrating Christmas Day!! He is such a cool dude!!

Every year one of the men in the family have to dress up as Santa to hand out the gifts. When I was younger it was usually my dad who would dress up as Santa for us kids. My most fond memory is when we were just a bit older and clearly realised that Santa was not real. My dad and mum had planned this whole scenario that dad was called in to work on Christmas Eve. We didn't say anything at the time - but we all knew that they were telling us stories so that dad could go to the neighbours house and put on his Santa suit. The things you do for your kids - I just love mum and dad for trying to keep the fun in Christmas when we were kids.

Here is Dad and I on Christmas Eve - I do not know why I am pulling this face......... perhaps too much punch!

The next day, Christmas Day, was spent at my parents house. Christmas Day is another full on day in itself.

5 years ago on Christmas Day my dad's mother passed away. Every Christmas Day we start the day by visiting her gravesite and leaving her some flowers. I have to say, I like starting the day like this as it feels like we are including her in one of her most favourite family holidays. She always loved having family together at Christmas.

This year my mum's mother was put into a care facility - we didn't want her spending Christmas alone so we took her to our place for the day. Well, actually, we took her to our place for as long as she would stay - we didn't know how well she would do. She surprised us all and had a wonderful time with us. She did some dancing, and enjoyed her dinner and even had a little glass of wine. It was great to have her spend the day with us.

Now, Christmas is all about food for our family too. We had: turkey, ham, lamb, prawns, pasta, potatoes AND dessert!!!! We were totally stuffed by the end of the day. The kids had fun playing in the pool and also playing with the Wii they got for Christmas.

As for me - I loved being home with my family, I loved watching my nieces and nephews open up their Christmas presents, I loved having my Nana at home with us and I loved having my DH experience his first hot Christmas.

My two older nephews received there very own golf clubs for Christmas. For the first time ever the two of them were speechless!!!! They really loved these gifts.

Madison got this cute bear for Christmas - she just loved it!

My DH and I giving me a 'Christmas Kiss'. I was so glad to have him with my family for his first Australian Christmas!

Christmas SHOULD always be about family - spending time with them and loving them for who they are. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas this year and a Happy and Healthy New Year!!!

Till Next time..........

A brush with fame....... and a haircut!

The one sport that I grew up watching was Rugby League. Unfortunately, (for my DH anyways) Ice Hockey is not a big sport here in Australia. Infact, ice hockey in Australia is near to non-existant - we have grass hockey but apparently that is definetly not the same if you speak to my DH.

I grew up watching Rugby League as my dad used to play it when he was younger. Now on the Gold Coast we have our very own team. To make it even better, the stadium is literally 5 minutes away from our house.

The Gold Coast team are called the Titans!! I am yet to see them play as it is off season right now. My DH and I got to meet two of the Titans as they were at our local Mall - Robina Town Centre.

My parents have season tickets to the Titan's games - I am hoping that they let us use them throughout the new year.

As for who the players are in the photo's - I have absolutely no idea - although I did find out the guy with the dark hair is Mark and he is a cutie patootie. (See, I managed to put my hand on his shoulder).

Other news in the homefront - I got a haircut!!! In these photo's I have long blonde hair - now I have short dark hair!!! It was getting so hot here and having long hair I just kept putting it up anyways. I needed a change and I love it. I am sure I will get some photo's at Christmas and will post my new look then.

A big shout out to my friend Eleonor - saw your photo's of your Christmas Light bus tour!!! You guys were freezing your butts off!!!! We celebrated Christmas by attending Carols by Candlelight at a park by the beach. What a difference a world away makes!!!

Till next time...............

Summer Fun - part 2

Here are my three gorgeous nieces from my Summer Fun blog. My dad is holding Madison (the eldest of the neices) and Chloe (the youngest).

The second photo is my middle niece Olivia.

My three cute little angels. Each of them is so adorable. I told my brother and sister's that they really made some cute kids.

Till next time..........

Summertime Fun

A few weeks ago we celebrated my mum's birthday and my parent's wedding anniversary. We had a BBQ lunch at my parents place, as you do in Australia, and then the kids and the men had an afternoon of fun in the pool.

I absolutely LOVE having my family all together for events like birthdays, anniversaries and especially Christmas. One thing that I especially love about my family is that all the kids get along so well with each other. I think it is wonderful to have cousins that live so close to each other and that you can see often enough and get along with so well.

On this particular day for some reason only the men went into the pool after lunch and ALL the kids followed in as well. All the kids just love the water - in Australia one of the first things you teach children is how to swim. Also, it is not uncommon for backyards in Australia to have a swimming pool.

The weather on this day was amazing - the sun was out, it wasn't too humid and there was a slight breeze. The last few weeks we have been having some pretty crazy weather - torrential rain, high humidty, floods, lightning, thunder - we have seen it all in such a short period of time.

Below are a few photo's: (I did download photos of my three cute neices but they disappeared - will try to post another time)

My three nephews Christopher, Liam and Andre' all love the water. Aren't they the cutest.

Till next time.............

A Touch of Nature

We have lots of beautiful creatures living in our neighbourhood.

My DH has made friends with all the lizards that live in our backyard. He has actually started naming them like they are his pets.

I have yet to see the Kookaburra's but I have heard them. You can hear them 'laughing' a mile away.

Canetoads - they are gross and disgusting but we do get alot of those at night time.

If you can believe me we also get bats here. I don't ever remember bats being part of the wildlife here on the Gold Coast but they are everywhere each night. Infact one early evening my mum and I went for a swim in the pool and there were bats flying overhead the whole time we were in the pool.

A few weeks ago I got some great shots of the lorikeets that fly around our area. I was going for a walk with my nephew and we hadn't even left the street that we live on when we found these birds eating from one of the trees in our up our street. They are beautiful birds but can be very noisy first thing in the morning.

Last night we heard an owl in the backyard - I tried to take a picture of it but wasn't succesful.

You just never know what creatures are hiding in the neighbourhood - I wonder what we will find tomorrow!!!

Till next time...............

Love You Nana..........

Apart from missing my family tremendously, another reason why I had wanted to come home was my Nana, the person I was named after. Over the past year she has been a little more forgetful and my parents made the decision that she needed to move to a care facility that will give her the freedom to still do as she liked but that also allowed for her to have somebody watching her all the time.

They found an amazing place called Hill View House - it is an aged care residence. When my parents first told me about my Nana moving there I was really concerned as I think back to dirty old nursing homes that smell. When I got to visit Nana, after arriving home, I was amazed. This place is beautiful. Nana has some of her old furniture in her room with pictures of her family all over the room. There are activities that she can participate in if she feels like - for eg. bingo, dances, movies, etc. She seems really happy there.

Infact, she seems extremely happy there. She is one of the more alert residents - alot of the people living there are quite elderly and just sit and chant all day or just keep to themselves. I have to say that I am lucky that Nana isn't quite that ill. She is just a little forgetful - I am not even sure if she truly recognizes me - I just take each visit a day at a time. My mum said that she thinks she does know who I am as she was asking about me coming home, 'When is she coming home?' she would say to my mum. I try to visit once a week - I have to go when my mum goes as my Nana will start talking in her native language, Maltese, and I don't understand what she says when she does this. Also, I don't think I am strong enough to get my Nana out of the sad moments that she does have. On my last visit to see her I went with Mum and Dad and it was amazing how both my parents pepped Nana up and made her laugh and smile. I don't think I could do that.

Seeing my Nana like this really makes me think how fast people can deteriorate - the last time I saw my nana was back in 2005 and she was fine. Infact she was getting my DH and I to write down a family recipe - something that she used to make us a long time ago. I think back now and realise maybe she knew she was slowly forgetting things and that was why she was so adament that we write this recipe down.

Something I have learned, and probably always known, make time for your family. Never take them for granted. Especially Grandparents, we have alot to learn from the elderly.

Till next time...............