Christmas in Sydney

Merry Christmas or Happy Chrissy as the Australians say.  Christmas Eve was really beautiful.  We took the train into the city, had a great Italian dinner and then walked to Christmas Eve service at the historic and beautiful St. Mary’s Cathedral.  We stopped along the way to see Christmas trees in the city.

 

Santa and his reindeer made their way to our cozy 1 bedroom apartment through the balcony door and delivered presents for Christmas morning.   The kids got their wishes and fortunately they will all fit into a suitcasesJ.    Our apartment is tiny, but the view is amazing and will be perfect for New Years Eve.   We hear the cruise ships leave every day around five and wave goodbye. 

 

Around noon on Christmas Day, we drove about an hour up the coast to Palm Beach to spend Christmas Day with our friends from San Francisco.  We did not have a white Christmas, but it was a wet Christmas.  The weather kept us indoors all day so we baked Christmas cookies and made a great Aussie Christmas dinner.  When we woke up the next morning, the rain had cleared so we hit the beaches for the morning.    We said goodbye around noon as our friends were also moving back to States the next day.    We are now less than a week away from our departure.

 

 

Moving Time

Here we go again….  It seems like we just unpacked all of our things.   We spent the week before clearing out clutter and separating summer and winter clothes into sea shipment, air shipment and luggage.  We took this opportunity to clear out some things as we were at risk of being too full.   I finally parted with my bedroom set that I purchased when I graduated college.  Matt and I took a big sigh of relief when the last item made it in.  Our last night in our Australia home was December 21^st and we waved goodbye to the truck and moved into our temporary apartment just before Christmas.    Hopefully all of our things will arrive back in Kansas City by early February.  I am not looking forward to the transition period again.

 

 

It’s Beginning to Look A lot Like Christmas

Although it doesn’t feel like Christmas with the warm temps, there have been plenty of holiday activities to keep us feeling festive.  Santa’s mail box is up the street from our house, so the kids have been busy writing letters.  Cade’s list is simple.  He wants Lego Ninjago Age 8-14 sets and Paige wants a new baby, flip flops and a watch.  We’ve had several Santa sightings including one at the end of Nippers at Balmoral Beach.    We also went to the Taronga Zoo’s family Christmas night.  They stayed open late and had an elf DJ mixing up Katy Perry’s Roar song and several other hits.  With a bubble machine, dance party and bar for the parents, it was quite the entertainment.   Our favorite holiday event was Carols at Balmoral.  Thousands of local came out with their picnic blankets/baskets to listen to carols at the beach.  The beach was lit up with kids and glow sticks dancing around and having a ball.   

 

 

End of School Year Activities

Frank arrived in Sydney safely on Monday, December 9^th and we were thrilled to see him.  We decorated the house in our Christmas décor, but no Christmas tree for us this year:( 

The last week of school was filled with activities.  Cade’s last day was December 5th, and he had his prize giving concert.  Each class performed a skit/song to the theme, “It’s a Small World”.  We especially enjoyed the Born in the USA performance.  At the end of the performances, the school Headmaster presented each boy with a book and certification of completion as their prize.  After that it was summer break.  All of the boys are so excited to be in Year 1.  Cade seems to understand that he will return to Kindergarten in Kansas City and is ok with it.   Paige also had her Christmas concert where they performed a number of traditional carols.  She practiced for weeks and was so excited.  I even caught her singing in her sleep one night.   The very last song of the performance was Jingle Bells, and then we heard a big Ho, Ho, Ho from across the room where a summer dressed Santa greeted the kids and presented each with their own book.  Cade attended a few camp days and a week-long tennis camp with his mates from school as well as about forty other K-6 kids.   On the last day of camp there is an awards ceremony where trophies are presented to the singles and doubles winners from different age categories.  The final trophy of the ceremony goes to the most improved player of the camp, and we were thrilled and all surprised when Cade’s name was announced.  It is his first real earned trophy.