Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Nathan had time off between Christmas and new year, which means a week and a half break from work!

We miss the winter Christmas, but at least this year it hasn't been a scorcher like previous years - it was quite pleasant most of the time, with a bit of rain here and there. Most of the Christmas traditions in Sydney are taken from Europe, however there's one that certainly didn't come from anywhere in Europe that has snow. It's decorating your house in Christmas lights. Some people go to quite elaborate lengths and spend thousands of dollars doing up their houses, and there is a spot not far from us where the whole street is decorated. In our street there are only two serious contendors, shown here.

We know the residents of one of these houses, and they are encouraging us to join the fun. No success so far, but they have managed to persuade another of our neighbours to make a start... Maybe next year.

For Christmas, we spent lunch with Nathan's family at his parents place, and dinner with Jo's family at our house. Here's a photo of some of the relatives on Nathan's side of the family. Nathan with three of his (male) cousins, with a total of 7 sons and 1 daughter!

At our place, we played with a homemade set of Kubb. What's Kubb? It's supposed to be a viking war game that Jeff (friend in Leipzig) introduced to us at our farewell picnic. It was a great hit at the picnic especially with the kids. You throw sticks at the wooden blocks (soldiers) to knock them down (kill them).

Jo wanted to buy a set for Nathan, but someone said that it was easy and cheaper to make a set yourself. Nathan (foolishly?) decided he would take the hard route and make a set. After a few weeks of trying to get the right sized wood pieces (which he never found), buying a new saw, relearning how to be a carpenter (3 years of wood work in high school finally came in handy!) he finally did it! It was Nathan, Jo, Nessy (Jo's sister) and hubby Jack verses Jo's parents and Jack's parents. Guess who won? We won't say, because we don't want anyone to get a big head. The photo is an action shot of Jo's dad making a throw.

Between Christmas and New Year, we were quite busy. We went to the Sydney Aquarium and Sydney Taronga Park Zoo. We also had a German style board games evening, which was lots of fun! Oh yeah, we went to see a movie in a cinema (Happy Feet) - our first in over 18 months!

We didn't do anything special for new years. We watched the "kids" fireworks on TV at 21:00, and went to sleep before the main event. The Sydney fireworks are more spectacular than the ones in Leipzig, but in Leipzig everyone gets front row seats. We like the Leipzig version better!

Okay, here's your Owen fix. Another video of Owen walking, but a bit more confident than last time. Unfortunately he has a painful "donk" at the end!


PS: Actually, it was the oldies who won Kubb. It wasn't a fluke either - they beat us fair and square, two games to nil!