Carols in the park

Monday:

Yesterday we did some unpacking in the morning and played World of Warcraft, then we had some visitors in the afternoon who we hadn't seen for ages. They moved from Canberra to Sydney about a year before we did. It was great to catch up. They rented for a year then bought a house recently, so we mainly talked about the housing market! They brought two big containers of home-made fudge with them to share. Unfortunately (or fortunately!) it wasn't great. The kids had some, Tim and I had one small piece each. They insisted we keep some (they wanted us to keep all) so to be polite I kept some then later shared with other people and tossed the rest out. Life is too short to waste on mediocre fudge, but I think we managed it without hurting any feelings.

In the evening we went to Christmas Carols at the local park. I was really apprehensive about this as it was a stinking hot day, and also the only other time I'd been to that park there had been a million flies, and we all know how I feel about them. But it turned out really nice.

The sun was heading below the trees so we were in the shade, and the temperature was ok at that time of day. There weren't many flies - probably hanging around the sausage sizzle. We had a nice picnic that I had prepared and sat with other family members who we'd arranged to meet. The singing and band from a local church wasn't great and we talked rather than singing along, but it was good to sit in the park and enjoy the festivities.

(I don't know any of these people, it was just a random photo towards the stage area.)

Jasmine and little Emma got their faces painted and Aiden got a pretend tattoo (and also two huge mosquito bites).

Today we went into the city. There were a couple of items people had asked for for Christmas that I couldn't get anywhere else. So we took a child each and did some shopping - the huge department store was pretty awesome - then met up for lunch. We got lucky with the weather, it wasn't as hot as the day before and the rain held off until we were back on the train going home. We came home and collapsed, Tim and I both having a nap. Only a few sleeps until Christmas!