Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to our friends and family worldwide!! Nick and I thoroughly enjoyed a wonderful Christmas with our Aussie Family!! From GIGANTIC Christmas Crackers (it was almost larger than Iris!!) to silly hats, it seems Santa finds silly things in all parts of the world to keep the laughter going through the Christams season!! Jay and Melissa arrived on the 24th and the fun began!! From a wonderful sunny day and sitting out on the patio with festive drinks (Jay's quite the mixer in this regard!!) to Nick entertaining us with his use of the Australian dictionary! Yes, "chook" is in the dictionary and yes it is a chicken!! The entire evening was capped off with an exceptional meal cooked by Jan and carved expertly by Keith!!

With our full stomachs, we crawled into our beds and enjoyed a restful sleep. The crazy antics began shortly after we awoke and found lots of pressies under the tree!!

The very cute reindeer sightings really did make everyone's day!!

The next day - we went to Melbourne and enjoyed a boat ride along the Yarra River to Williamstown. We had lovely fish and chips and ended it all with an ice cream. Even though Nick declined the offer of ice cream, he did well helping me with mine!! The entire visit with our Aussie Family has been amazing!! We have been truly spoiled and wish we never had to leave! Alas, today we depart for Sydney. We are driving from Kilmore to Sydney and catch our flight to Auckland NZ on Saturday. Nick and I will be counting the days until we can return to our Aussie Home. We wish you all a Happy New Year and all the best in 2009!! We'll be adding more blogs soon on our excellent Murray River Camping Expedition soon!! Koalas, Huntsman spiders and more...stay tuned!!