Aussie Summer 2012/2013

Where to begin? I guess our Summer began in December 2012 with Hannah graduating from Primary school & Lizzy graduating from Kindergarten. It was a big year!

School Captain Speech

Excited!

Congrats Lizzy!

Ben's teacher 2 years ago, he's taller than her now.

The Christmas season was soon in swing, although it felt more like Summer with Christmas thrown into it. After having many months of cold & rain, my little system was rejoicing at the sunshine. I believe the change of season overrides the fact that it was Christmastime- does that makes sense? I did a small cookie exchange to help me feel the Christmas vibe, it was a lot of fun & my friends brought beautiful cookies to share. Looking forward to trying it again!

Cookie Exchange Invitation 2012

Cookie Exchange 2012

Gingerbread Advent Calendar Cookies

Cookies all wrapped up

Christmas Eve arrived and we went with our friends to Carols by Candlelight, which is a very traditional Melbourne thing to do at Christmas time. It's televised each Christmas Eve, kinda like A Christmas Story back home? Anyway many famous Aussie singers come & they sing Christmas carols (we of course had no idea who they were). The audience gets real candles & everyone lights them as the sun goes down. It was lovely, very family friendly which was nice.

Christmas Day came and we enjoyed a peaceful day Skyping family in our jammies. I attempted my first Pavlova for Christmas dessert, something very popular in Australia. It was a good day, even though we were away from our family.

This pic is actually from the cookie exchange, but the only nice pic I had of our tree!

Christmas 2012 Dinner

Pavlova

Now you know what I look like Christmas morning!

Christmas cards from friends

After Christmas we basically hit the beach for several weeks! It finally got warm here & we enjoyed our first full Australian summer.

White & Fitisemanu Family

Mangoes at the beach, the best!

Aussie sky

Dan's mom, Rita came for a 2 week visit in mid January & we drug her everywhere! We got attacked by the wild cockatoos in the Dandenongs. We hiked up the side of a mountain to show her the kangaroos. We drove down the Great Ocean Road to see beautiful beaches & took her home via the ferry from Queenscliff to Portsea. She was a trooper & we enjoyed having family here!

School began at the end of January with Hannah in high school & Lizzy & Ben together in primary school. Autumn officially starts here on March 1st. Although I've always enjoyed Autumn, I'm not going to lie, I'm a bit terrified by the upcoming changing seasons. I just got to feeling normal again, with lots of sunshine & long days, soon it will be dark again at 5:00pm. Oh well I guess nothing stays the same, still trying to accept change!

Rita & Dan 2012

The 12 Apostles

London Bridge