Merry Christmas Everyone!

Well, we've finished our late-night trampoline building (thanks Aunty Bec and Mel for the help!) - so in just a few hours we'll get to enjoy the best present of the day!

Wishing you all a fantastic Christmas, and a wonderful New Year.

M, M, J, __ & J

Did you say DECEMBER 16th??

OK, it's late and I need to get to sleep, but if I leave this blogging any longer...well, I will have left it longer. And I'll try not to do that. Seeing the months march on without an update always gives me a mild sense of guilt, having failed to keep up with something. Yet another something. That's not to say that guilt is the only or even a very strong motivation for writing :that's definitely not the case and I genuinely do enjoy the opportunity to write something every now and then. There just seems to be more then posts than now posts these days!

What's happened recently?

We've had the privelege of hosting my Mum & my sister Bec at our house for the last few weeks. Their house sold toward the end of last month, and they're yet to find a suitable rental in the right location. It's been lovely to have them, and Jessica has really loved spending more time with them both (and I think the benefit goes both ways, just quietly). There's been a lot more trips to the local park in the evenings, more active partners for Jessica's frequent dancing, and a much larger audience of admirers for Jessica (& Jersey) than is usually the case. We'll all really miss them when they move on: Jersey will be very forlorn, and Jessica probably won't cope at all. Hopefully they'll still be here at Christmas, so they can share in Jessica's early-Christmas-morning excitement too. (We've bought Jessica one of those new-fangled SpringFree trampolines - but don't tell her that!). Speaking of Christmas Day, we'll be hosting my side of the family here. Years ago that might have put us into a bit of frantic activity for the preceding weeks, but we're learning to be a bit more casual about it all now, I hope. Really looking forward to it, even though I know that not everyone is able to make it along.

It's become a tradition in this house to work on our Family Album DVD's throughout December, but - believe it or not - mine is still not underway. I'm not sure that I'll be able to compile something in the 9 sleeps remaining, but we'll soon see I guess. It'd be a little disappointing, but you have to be realistic at some point and recognise that there's too much to do and too little time (I'll probably only recognise that on Christmas Eve!) The major reason that I'll press on and try to complete something is that I want to include a video that Mel made yesterday. It is just beautiful, and I was in tears when I first saw it (it's a compilation of photos of Jessica through the last 12 months). So I have to make a DVD for my family if only to include this one clip: it wouldn't be fair that they miss out on Mel's video just because I didn't get my act together (The Family Album that Mel does for her side of the family is well on track, so there's no dramas there).



Part of my justification for not getting the Album started yet, is that work has been a little hectic - particularly at this time of year and following 4 weeks of leave. I was also sent up to Wodonga last week to conduct a series of training sessions over successive days. It was actually one of the nicer times I've had to be away for work: there's something about that whole region that I really love. For years I've wondered (as we drove back and forth visiting family when we were based in Sydney) if we could ever afford to buy a parcel of land nearby. As a glimpse into what I love about the area, when I had finished dinner at the hotel I'd take a walk along the bank of the Murray just before 9pm, and there would be dozens of families barbecuing, with a dozen or more kids still swimming and giggling in the river. There was a paddle-steamer moored nearby, a huge chorus of birds singing away overhead, and a palpable sense that people were really living here. It actually reminded me a lot of being on family holidays in the late 70's and early 80's: warm nights, simple BBQ's, swinging on tire swings and swimming out to sand bars along the Murray. I don't have any crystal-clear memories (not even of sitting on the hot camp stove by mistake!), but the vague recollections I do have - mostly of sounds and smells - always make me smile.

Another excuse for not having done the Family Album yet (if I was interested in lining up excuses) is that we went to a Wiggles Concert this week. Yes, another one. This one was much bigger, and was held at Rod Laver Arena (the Tennis Centre). It was a big deal, with police directing traffic and closing lanes etc. Due to the size of the place it wasn't nearly as intimate as the earlier concert at Dallas Brooks Hall (where we were spoilt with seats about 3 metres from the stage). Of course it only matters that Jessica enjoyed the most recent concert - and that certainly was the case.

Today we went to Myuna Farm, for the Christmas Party for Mel's Mum's Group. She still really gets a lot from the friendships she's forged there, and they seem like a lovely group. The location was chosen as it offers lots of little animals for cuddling, and - perhaps ironically - lots of covered barbeque areas (presumably for lentil burgers only). The kids all seemed to have a great time, as did the Mums and Dads, though we're all pretty exhausted afterwards.

This week, we also went along to "Road To Bethlehem", a pageant (I guess that's the right word) staged by the Seventh Day Adventist church, and held outdoors in their Nunawading grounds. The night involves groups of about 50 being ushered through various places/events of the Christmas story, listening to Mary, being growled at by centurions, travelling from Jerusalem, meeting the wise men, coming to the Inn and stable etc etc. It was really well put together and felt like a great gift to the community (it was free, and I think I heard that 15,000 people attended across the 3 or 4 nights). If you haven't been before, I recommend it, and I'm pretty sure that it'll become part of our Christmas tradition.

And finally - in keeping with a tradition held by many people at Christmas - we watched "It's A Wonderful Life" this week. Amazingly, Mum & Bec hadn't seen it, so it felt a little special to involved in sharing such a great film with them for the first time. They must have liked it, because over the next couple of days we all also watched "You Can't Take It With You" & "Mr Smith Goes To Washington" (even the first half of "The Philadelphia Story", just because we were on a roll). There's something timeless and universal about films of that era, and those films in particular. Maybe I should buy a dozen copies on DVD, then replace the cover with something that says "Family Album 2007". I don't imagine anyone would feel shortchanged, unless of course they'd heard about the video Melissa made about Jessica. No amount of Capra would make up for missing that.

Well "Goodnight", that's enough from me: I either need to start capturing another video tape onto the computer, or I need to go to bed and hope for a more productive Family Album day tomorrow. As it's now clicked over to 1am,I think my eyes are making that decision for me....

Matt