Christmas Day, Boxing Day, and Beyond

Tristan "catching a wave"

Stick Wall on the way to MacMasters Beach

On Christmas morning, the kids woke up at the holiday house but didn't find any gifts. I asked them what happened and Zoe said it was because we didn't have a Christmas tree. Poor girl.

When we arrived at the MacMasters Beach house, Dave gave the keys to Tristan. Before we had even made our way up the driveway, we heard shouts of delight! They all found their gifts. We spent a few hours at the house, then went back to the Terrigal Holiday House. Later, I took Tristan to the beach at Terrigal so he could tryout his new boogie board. He did really well.

On Boxing Day, the day after Christmas, Dave called his sister, Jennifer. He was able to catch up with her and his mom, who was visiting Jennifer. Clara, Neo and I went out to the Boxing Day sales and bought most of the rest of the stuff we needed for the MacMaster Beach House. Namely, microwave, pots/pans, sheets, etc. We spent the afternoon packing our suitcases. Dave took them over to the house while I cleaned and made the house ready for our departure.

Saturday morning, we had breakfast, loaded the remaining items into the car, dropped the keys at the Estate Agent's office, then drove to our new home. We spent most of the morning putting things away. Later, Clara, Neo, and I went to return some items at the stores, then bought groceries. It had been a hot, muggy day in the city, but when we reached the rainforest here, it was much cooler. In the early evening, we were treated to the cockatoos flying overhead and playing in the trees. Later, I saw the kid's ball in the front garden. I hoped a flower bush to retrieve it and was immediately, and repeatedly stun by some type of wasp. Fortunately, they didn't follow me as I scurried away. I received about 10 bites in 30 seconds.

Today, Sunday 28 December, we woke up in our house for the first time. It was a little cool overnight. The morning was beautiful. I took Neo in the stroller and walked down to "Nina's Little Shop" to get the Sunday Sydney Newspaper. It was the first time I was in Nina's shop. It's a very small "store". It's about the size of our kitchen. They had some bread, milk, ice cream, etc. Neo was most impressed by the ducks. The slogan is "duck in" and there were ducks everywhere.

Along the way, we came upon a man who was picking blackberries. His name is Luke and he's a teacher at St Edwards Catholic School in Gosford. He walked with us and we talked about schools. He recommends Copacabana. I was leaning toward enrolling the children there, in part for the novelty of walking to school everyday via the beach! Wouldn't that be cool! His recommendation gives the school more weight in our consideration.

We got home to find that a Cockatoo had landed on our balcony railing. The family were quite excited. Later, the Rainbow Lorikeets were not phased by Dave's presence on the balcony - just 3 feet from where they were feeding in the Cheese Tree.

I was turning the car to get out of the driveway, when I heard a hissing from the tire. A roofing nail on the driveway had punctured the tire - or tyre as it's spelled here. It was flat before I had gotten down the driveway. Fortunately, I had transferred my AAA membership to Australia when I was still in Queensland. I called the emergency number. Road assistance was here to change the tire in less then 60 minutes.

We spent the day enjoying the cool of the house and gardens. At low tide, we walked down to Mac Masters Beach to allow Tristan to use his boogie board. The surf was very strong and Tristan couldn't really manage. Dave swam Tristan out and he caught a wave back to shore. Clara then took the board out but the lifeguard had to intervene to retrieve her, she had drifted out of into a dangerous area. Dave said the water was warmer then any he's experienced in California.