January 5, 2009

Well, the season came and went in that frantic manner that it does every year.  The kids met Santa at 9 separate events this year.  It seems when the elves let him out of the workshop, he likes to spend some quality time down here in the sun.  Right before the big day Matt and I had a night out-sans-kids for the first time since the horse races.  We went to the B watch Christmas Party and had a great time enjoying uninterrupted conversations (a rare event in my life lately) with some terrific folks.  While Matt was at work the kids and I took a driving tour of the homes that won the Christmas light competition.  Bryson was in awe of the millions of lights and decorations.  We spent most of Christmas Day with our friends the Johnson's eating, swimming, and playing.  They had a big crowd, and the kids had plenty of playmates.  The next few days we stayed busy swimming and riding bikes.  We also went to the wildlife park which had extra activities for the school break.  The kids spent at least an hour whizzing down a giant slip-n-slide.  They also saw their first real scuba diver when it was fish feeding time in the giant aquarium.  On top of that, the mother wallaby who resides at the park let us give her a pet and allowed us to get a close up look at our first joey.  New Years was spent with Franky and Gurty and a few more friends.  Now that they live next door we were able to ring in the New Year with plenty of libations--thus Matt and I spent our first day of the New Year as Gurty put--"Feeling far less than ordinary. "  We managed to pull through spending the day on the wharf with the kids  and some ice cream.  We also discovered some new walking trails downtown and explored some beautiful neighborhoods in Darwin.  Our last adventure this past week was a trip to the rocky shoreline of Nightcliff where we found new shells, trilobites(I think), and sea slugs( I think).  Off to a fun filled start this year