FAR AWAY FAMILY VISITS FOR CHRISTMAS.

 I was excited. Our daughters and their families were coming from Melbourne to Brisbane to spend some time with us over the Christmas Holidays. Carol and David arrived first and celebrated Christmas Eve with us and Christmas Day with David's family. Sonya and the boys came later on New Year's Eve they had spent Christmas Day with Bernie's Family in Melbourne. Bernie had been working over Christmas and New Year. He was playing in the Musical, "A Christmas Carol". He came up later when it had finished.

So we had two Christmas Dinners and present giving days. One with just Carol and David and another when Sonya and the boys arrived.

Christmas Eve with Carol and David.

We had traditional Aussie Fare, seafood and salads. Tiger Prawns and Moreton bay Bugs (like small lobsters).

Then it was present time. We really don't need anything at our age but we do enjoy receiving books.

It is so nice having them here.

Another day we invited friends for afternoon tea. Carol loves baking so she made us a delicious baked cheesecake.

She also cooked Bill's favourite Swiss breakfast loaf. He enjoyed a Swiss breakfast of bread cheese and jam.

The stormy day ended with a pretty sunset.

LIGHT UP NIGHT

On the first weekend in December our village has a light up night. Where everyone who wants to participates turn on their Christmas lights and invite friends and family especially grandchildren and great grandchildren to visit the village and walk the streets and see the pretty lights. They can also join in with the village singers who are also walking the streets and singing Carols. They start at the top of the hill and walk zig zag down the hill and end up in the community centre for drinks and more Carols. We start on dusk (better for photos).

This was the sky when I left home. Our unit is on the left and Sue, my neighbour on the right. The building is a quadplex. There are two units under us. They access their units from the next road down the hill. So there are no steps.

The singers start with leader playing the keyboard on the back of the buggy. Then they walk down to the next street and set up again.

They collect more singers on the way.

Some people make a huge effort with their homes.

You can see here the units that are underneath on the right and the upper units above. The ones on the left are the next lot of upper units.

It's a tradition of David and Diane to ply the passers by with a port and snacks outside their house.

After walking around most of the streets it was time to go home and sit down and nurse my sciatica.

Bill sat on the bench just out of shot and chatted to the passers by.

PARTY TIME

 Well its that time of the year when there are many Christmas or end of year parties. First we had a street party, then lunch with my Play group mum's from the 70's, then the village Christmas Party. I was supposed to go to the tennis ladies Christmas outing but I was in too much pain for a whole day's outing involving a lot of walking.

Bill enjoying a snack at the street party. The guy serving is also Bill and his wife is Diane just the same as us. They also own a red Mazda like us.

The village singers entertained us with Carols before the Residents' Christmas Dinner.

Our visiting Chefs serve the ham and pork.

Lois served the chicken and other resident volunteers served the salads and vegetables.

Ann at 83, the organiser of our dinners, serves the bread.

Elly is happy with her meal.

I was asked by friends to take a nice photo of Beryl and Rex because this will be Rex's last Christmas, he has a fatal illness and is not expected to live much longer even though he looks fine here.

We enjoyed the night too, but we couldn't join in the dancing. Me with sciatica and Bill who is wobbly.

It was a good night all organised by volunteer residents. Unfortunately, in the following days many came down with Covid. So far we have dodged the bullet and I hope it stays that way. We are up to the 8th wave of Covid and we have had our sixth jab.