Following on from the Mega roundup of 2024 (so far), comes the last two months...
November
The start of November is always a bit packed with birthdays for us. In the space of a week, we had birthdays for my neice, my brother and my mum. And this year, it was a milestone birthday for my brother! His wife had organised a weekend of celebrations, and my other brother, his family and my mum all stayed at our house. It was the first time we had my family all together in the same place for a long time (possibly the first time since we shifted back to Australia?), and the girls really enjoyed playing with all of their cousins. It was also nice for us to spend a bit of quality time with my Brisbane-based brother and his family, since we don't get to see them all that often.
November was also the month that Evie started orientation for her new school. Evie is due to start at Eleebana Public School in February 2025, and the school have been very good at running orientation sessions. At these sessions, Evie has had a chance to visit the classrooms at school, as well as meet the kindy teachers and her new classmates. In the most recent session, she also met her Year 6 buddy who is going to show her the ropes next year. Needless to say, she was very excited about the whole thing.
Our employers both seemed keen to get into the Christmas spirit, and we had our respective Christmas parties at the end of November. Unfortunately, I missed out on getting to Brisbane for VA's annual Hangar party, but I managed to get along to a smaller gathering in Sydney. It had a very weird, slightly corporate-branded vibe - background videos were basically TV ads, dancers wearing VA uniforms, that kind of thing.
November was also the 12 month anniversary of our move to Australia! We both have lots of feelings about this, but I might save that for another time.
December
December was the usual mix of everyday stuff, realising that we weren't ready at all for Christmas, with an added helping of trying to organise ourselves for our UK trip in January.
Evie had her actual graduation from preschool at the start of the month - one of only 3 in her room moving on to school next year. She got the hat and gown and everything! Of course, the only thing she wanted to talk about was that they were given some cake to celebrate... 🤦
We had the opportunity to babysit for my brother and his wife while they went to Victoria for a wedding. It was great having their kids staying over with us (even though Ivy comprehensively thrashed both Claudia and I at boardgames), and our kids loved having them sleep over.
I also finally took a big step back into Australian culture and bought myself a BBQ! Maybe not quite as nice as the one I had in Writtle, but more than enough for my rudimenary skills. And just in time - my mum travelled down from Stanthorpe for an early Christmas with all of us in Newcastle. We all had a great time, making full use of the BBQ and the pool! We also rolled the dice on a late evening for the kids, and went to Carols by the Beach - the girls had a really nice time doing a picnic in the park and listening to the music. We beat a retreat before the fireworks though - tired kids + loud explosions = bad time.
And before we knew it, it was Christmas Day! Unbelievably, this was our first ever Christmas in our own home without anyone else around. It was actually really nice to do the day at our own pace. Of course, in reality that meant the kids set the pace - so opening presents early was the order of the day! Santa was about to accommodate a last minute request for dress up costumes, and presents from Auntie Harriet were also a big hit.
On Boxing Day, Claudia had arranged to take Evie down to Sydney to see the Australian Ballet perform Sleeping Beauty, and met up with some of our Sydney friends and their kids. This was a show aimed at kids, and apparently it made a big impression on Evie. The twins and I held down the fort and started packing bags for our UK trip!
And that was our year! Match report from the UK holiday coming shortly...
Yours etc,
Patto