'Twas The Night Before Christmas!

On Thursday we managed to get our youngest daughter Kim to Tullamarine Airport quite comfortably in plenty of time for her flight and a 6 week holiday to India. She was flying in to Mumbai and then had a couple of 'wait line' bookings on trains to Goa. We heard from her yesterday saying she had not been able to get a seat on the train and was now waiting at Mumbai Airport for her flight to Goa.

Our half-price Chinese meal with Chris Wendy & family filled us up but the food quality wasn't a patch on the Vietnamese food we enjoyed a night or two before. But it was great to catch up with Chris, Wendy and our two grand children Andrew and Emily just before Christmas. Chris has recently bought a new TV which has an inbuilt Media Player. After I showed him how well it worked with some of the movies I had, he quickly got 120 movies or so off me onto a hard drive he had sitting there.

Grandson Andrew has discovered Usenet and was delighted with the new Wii computer game he had been able to download. I helped him extract the game and then burn it to disk. It works perfectly for him and he was very pleased with himself. This photo above left shows one of our grand daughters Emily with Trish.

Friday afternoon saw us across the see my brother Geoff for the afternoon. Again about 20 movies crossed over and I introduced him to "Internet Radio". The day was lots of fun and it was great to catch up again. On the way home we stopped off in Springvale for another Vietnamese meal. We had Hokkien Fried Rice with egg and seafood sauce as well as Satay Chicken. We had problems finishing it all!

After we arrived back at Kate's we watched the annual "Carols" on TV before the spanners and screwdrivers came out to put things together ready for Christmas Day.

Christmas Day began early with the patter of little feet and suppressed squeals of glee. The looks on Charli and James' faces made the long drive down from Caloundra all the more worth while. It wasn't long till wrapping paper littered the floor and the two bikes were being expertly ridden around the house.

For Christmas Lunch this year we are again joining Arj's family. It is lunch this year instead of the evening meal which is quite a change. There will be lovely Sri Lankan curries to enjoy, gift giving and even a little carol singing in the true Sri Lankan Christian tradition.

Tomorrow Boxing Day will see us head to Drouin for a BBQ and the day with friends Barry and Rainy, John and Sue and Wayne and Launa. It promises to be a BIG day. On Monday I am off to the 4th Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Merry Christmas to all!