HOME FOR CHRISTMAS AND BACK AGAIN.

The last few days have been busy visiting Diane’s Mum and Dad through the day on Thursday and Thursday night we stayed at Rachel and Tim’s place which gave us and Hannah a chance to get to know us better. Charlie had no problem he remembered us OK. Friday morning I babysat George and Riley while Diane and Melissa went shopping and in the afternoon after Darren came home from riding his new trail bike I helped him pull one of the radiators off it as it was leaking after he hit a tree whilst he was out riding. He was lucky he didn’t get hurt more than a few scratches.

Diane and I had Dinner at Mum and Dad’s on Friday night which was our Christmas meal with them before they go to Newcastle on Sunday.

The 10 days that we have been home have just flown here it is Friday morning 28/12/2007 and we are leaving at 10.00am to go back to Perth to continue our trip around Australia. Last Saturday night we went out to Wallaby Point to Carols by Candlelight and stayed at Greg and Skye’s place overnight. Sunday morning we went to Mum and Dads to say goodbye to them as Paul and Raymond came up to take them down to Maitland for Christmas.

Monday morning Greg, Sid and I took the Barcrusher out fishing off Crowdy Head in the morning. The sea was fairly sloppy but quietened down as the day went on. I don’t have any marks out off Crowdy and it was too rough to go down to Old Bar so we fished east of Crowdy around some fish traps but only caught a Mowong and a small Pearl Perch and heaps of Rock Cod.

Christmas Day as always was a hectic day with breakfast at Charlie and Audrey’s after the opening of the presents. It’s great to have the young kids around again to see the looks on their faces when they get their presents. Lunch was at home as Melissa and Darren had Spike and Sue, Shaun and Leanne and Paula and Ben coming for the afternoon. Dinner was put on by all the Grandkids (Big ones that is) up at Michelle and Darren’s at Wingham. It was a good night and we arrived home at about 10.00pm. Boxing Day was a rest day hanging around the house recovering from the previous day’s events.

On Christmas Eve as it has happened on a few other Christmas Eve’s we received some great news of things to come, Melissa and Darren, Diane and I were sitting in the Family room and Diane said that it was good to see the two kids playing together so good and Melissa said that it will be good next year when there will be three. It took a while for it to sink in as to what Melissa had said. Yes they are going to have another Baby in August next year. (As I said, Great News).

On the 27th we went out to Harrington for the morning where Rachel and Tim were staying and went to the beach at Crowdy Head for a while. It was High tide and not much sand on the beach and the wind was up a bit so we didn’t stay long. We had lunch back at Harrington before heading Home. At 4.00pm we went over to Charlie and Audrey’s for a drink and to say Goodbye to them.

The day has arrived for our trip back to Perth; it has been great to get home for Christmas and to see the Kids, Parents, Brothers and Sisters and Grandkids. The change in the Grandkids has been amassing Hannah and Jett are now walking and putting words together, Riley is talking his head off and loves his push motorbike he got for Christmas. George and Charlie have both grown up a lot in the last 7 months.

We left home at 10.00am after saying goodbye to Greg, Skye, Melissa and Darren and the kids. We had a good trip down to Sydney and arrived at Bronte to see Sid and Sandy at about 2.30pm. We went for a walk down to Bronte beach for a coffee before heading out to the airport at 4.30pm. The flight back to Perth was more pleasant with Quantas than the one with Virgin, they gave us dinner and a wine and we actually got a little bit of sleep also. The movies also worked where the Virgin flight couldn’t keep reception. We arrived back at the caravan at 11.00pm Perth time.

29/12/2007 after breakfast we rang the Central Caravan Park and booked in for three days as that was all we could get. We packed up the van and moved over to Central. We had a fairly lazy day after that reading most of the day, but we had to go Grocery shopping to restock the fridge.

Sunday morning we went for a drive through the Swan valley that is the winery area. On the way back we drove into Perth and followed the Swan River down towards Fremantle and when we reached the Leach Highway we returned back to the Caravan Park. During the afternoon we stayed around the van until Alex arrived and then we went out to Dinner at the Rivervale Hotel for my birthday. Paul, Tracy and the kids, Markus and Anna and Alex were there as well. The meal was delicious and Markus and Anna gave me a big piece of cardboard covered with red cellophane paper and then they taped Cherry Ripes to it in the shape of the number 57.