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Published: February 6th 2011
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Christmas Morning
Family picture on Home Beach after opening stocking pressies. This Christmas has been especially special for all the family because we were fortunate to all be together and spend the holidays in Brisbane and our favourite island, Straddie. Alex saved up most of his holiday leave and flew out with Anne via a brief stay in Hong Kong before flying onto Australia to stay for just under three weeks.
After a few days to get over jet lag and visiting friends Alex and Anne visited old haunts before spending a long weekend in Noosa in search of some waves to surf, sadly the sea was as flat as a pancake! We did however manage to explore a different coastal walk at the Noosa Heads National Park which took us through scrubland and rocky paths out along the sandy beaches, we also stopped and watched dolphins swimming in the bay. We were able to dodge the showers and drink lots of coffee! It was such a shame that it was so wet, little did we know that this was the beginning of a very soggy Christmas. Kevin and I also sent a vey enjoyable morning at the Eumundi Markets browsing and treated ourselves to a painting to eventually hang
BBQ along the Brisbane River
Keen to get Alex and Anne into the Aussie way of dining out we celebrated their arrival with a bbq at Kangaroo Point. on the walls of our new home.
We returned to Brisbane and with a day to food shop, cook and pack the car we set off early the following day for the ferry and our trip to Stradbroke Island. The beach beckoned as we approached and we soon unpacked and wandered onto Home Beach and a stroll along the shore. We all managed to unwind and relax and enjoyed catching up on every ones news both near and far along with playing Yahtzee, cards and Boggle. It was also an opportunity to start talking about wedding plans and share thoughts and ideas, all very exciting.
Amazingly Christmas day was dry and quite sunny so we all carried bags of food and drink, rugs and chairs and Christmas stockings onto the beach and sat under the trees on the edge of the beach as it was high tide and there was very little sand to sit on. So with bacon rolls in one hand and silly Santa hats on our heads we laughed and joked as we opened our gifts. More present opening continued back at the house and we followed the Goldsack tradition of handing out gifts and
watching everyone open their given presents to help Annie feel more at home!
The afternoon was spent on Cylinder beach where Alex managed to surf a few waves and we managed a walk and a scramble on to the rocks to watch the surfers on the headland. How different Christmas day was as far as catering I don't think I have ever spent so little time in the kitchen before sitting down to our Christmas meal. We all managed to make our own party hats and Anne and I made table mats and table runner to adorn the table, who needs M&S when you have craft paper and stickers!!!
Determined not to be held up in the house due to the rain we fashioned our selves in designer bin liner bag coverings to help keep us dry much to the amusement and interest from passer bys but I know who was dryer! We managed to walk around Point Lookout and got buffeted by the strong winds and rain, how different it was from last Christmas as well as a walk along Frenchman’s Beach and around the headland onto Dead man’s Beach and onto Cylinder and Home, a favourite
walk in any weather!. Another day we drove over to Amity beach and had coffee and cake before walking along the mangrove edged beach and watched dolphins swim five metres away from us with young by their sides, it was really rather wonderful to watch. We were able to walk out onto the headland and look back along the beach to Adder Rock and talked about doing the 8kms walk back, unfortunately the weather closed in and more rain followed so we will have to save that for another day. Main Beach was amazing the day following a particular rough sea the beach was literally frothing along the shore and the waves had washed in tiny Blue bottle jelly fish the waves were enormous and very rough but it is not a patrolled beach so could only be enjoyed from the shore, poor Alex!
Despite the weather we managed to have a lovely time and returned rested and refreshed ready to say our farewells to Alex and Annie before they returned to Newbury via Sydney for the New Year celebrations. Good byes are always difficult but at least we knew we would all be together again later on in
the year. It had been a wonderful Christmas and one we will all treasure for a long time as non of us are sure when we will all be together again.
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