Not really the 5th Day of Christmas, but our 5th Christmas celebration. The Brisvegas Wilsons made a special trip to Sydney to catch up with us while we were in Australia. Aren't we lucky? It meant that the Wilsons could have a proper Christmas celebration with all the family there (with a special guest appearance from the Ezzys).

It also means that I can now devote some blog real estate to our nephew Isaac. Poor Isaac gets neglected a little bit on here because he lives so far away. We actually haven't seen him since he was 6 weeks old, so you can imagine that he's grown quite a bit. He looks a little bit like a cherub with his beautiful curly hair and his chubby cheeks. Of course, he's not an angel; he's a little boy. The only time he was still was when he was asleep. He loves to climb, and run, and jump, and climb and run... yes, like I said, a little boy.





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A day sailing on Sydney Harbour in the sunshine with my family. A day that will make it harder to go back to cold and grey London (in just a few days too *sob*).













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This year on December 12th, Oscar turned six. Rather than buy him a birthday present, Andrew, Paddy and I decided to take Oscar out for a day of birthday fun. Annie told us that Oscar would have a better day if Leo was there, so Leo came along too. (Although, I think it may have had more to do with the alluring prospect of a CFD - Child Free Day - for Annie and Richie.)

And, what a day it was. We visited the Aquarium, then Wildlife World and afterwards we went for a ride on a little train around Darling Harbour.

We saw the aquariums newest additions, the dugongs. Andrew was a bit disappointed that there were no mermaids.

My favourite part of the Aquarium is the large aquarium at the very end. In a darkened room there is a very large window which looks into the aquarium. It's a pleasure just to sit there and watch the fish and the sharks swim by. Oscar and Leo's favourite part of the aquarium is the oceanarium with all the sharks. They love the sharks, though they also find them very scary.




In Wildlife World, they have a butterfly house at the very end. If you stand very still, the butterflies might pay you a visit, and land on an outstretched hand or even on your head for a little bit. Oscar liked the butterfly house too and was excited that 9 butterlies decided to rest on his hand for just a little bit. Leo never stood still enough for long enough for a butterfly to settle. I think Leo's favourite bit of Wildlife World was the phiders (phider is what Leo calls a spider.)

After the Aquarium and Wildlife World and the train ride we treated Oscar and Leo to an icecream cone. We were really suprised when both Oscar and Leo managed to eat the whole icecream. Then we sent the boys back to Annie and Richie loaded up with sugar. Having to deal with the aftermath of a sugar high, I think it was a reasonable fee for a CFD.




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Merry Christmas to all our family and friends in Australia and all over the world! Hope you all had a wonderful and relaxing day.

We had a beautiful sunny day in Sydney filled with family and presents and too much food.





This year, we've decided to donate the money that we would have spent on Christmas Cards towards an Oxfam Unwrapped Gift. We donated money which will help plant an allotment.

We spent an afternoon at Sydney Park the other day with the Veitch family. There is a new children's playground there which is lots of fun for little kids and big kids (me!) alike. There are slides built into the hill which were a ball. We had a great time trying to chain as many people down the slides at once. I think we managed a Ellie, Hannah, Sarah, Jess and Jason combination.





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