We finished work for the year, on Friday 22 December. The next day, Tress and I drove up to Canberra. We were to spend little Abigail’s first Christmas there.
On Christmas Eve, we attended the service at Southside Bible Church, which Kiddo and Mic have been attending for a little while. They left Crossroads to be ready for their new lives and they have settled well at SBC, warts and all. After the service, we went to lunch with the Koh’s where we caught up with Desmond and SL, along with a few of Mic’s sibblngs.
On Christmas Day, I did the usual turkey. The Kohs turned up to join along and promptly took over the occasion. Tress and I were just outnumbered, and I was very happy to just soak up the atmosphere of a large family over a Christmas lunch.
Mic and Kiddo got us a Skylight smart photo frame. It’s one of those newfangled apparatus where it doesn’t just hold digital photos for display, but with an app, one can upload photos from afar, to be displayed on the frame that sits on a shelf anywhere in the world. Obviously, it is meant to hold and display photos of little Abigail and the frame now takes pride of place on a corner shelf in our lounge room.
A couple of days later, we – all 5 of us along with our doggies – packed our bags and drove to the coast. We had booked a property at Burrill Lake, as the crow flies from Ulladulla. It is a beautiful home, with loads of spacious areas. I particularly like the very large deck that sits atop stilts, surrounded by tall gum trees which meant the fauna was fantastic. Right through the 4-5 days we were there, we heard kookaburras cackling incessantly, to accompany the cacophony of other callings from birds, insects and other creatures. Unfortunately it rained half the time we were there, but when the sun came out, it was beautiful. We walked to the lake nearby, to the beaches a touch further out, and drove to Ulladulla, Mollymook and Milton little towns that were hugged by the beautiful NSW south coast. Little Abigail had her first beach outing at Burrill Beach, when the sun appeared on the second day to light up a glorious morning.
We also ate out a lot. The cafes and restaurants in Burrill Lake, Ulladulla, Mollymook and Milton were all very good and we indulged ourselves. The large deck at the property we stayed in, with the beautiful surroundings and fresh airy conditions, were only used the first day, when Mich got us some fish and chips soon after we arrived. I spent each morning reading there, but we didn’t make full use of it otherwise.
We returned to Canberra and went out for dinner on New Year’s Eve at a Japanese restaurant in Canberra city. Little Abigail caught a fever but did not complain too much. She’s just a lovely, tranquil and engaging little thing. Tress really took to her and all that attention was returned in spades and Little Abigail had loads of fun with her grandma.
We left Canberra on New Year’s Day, after a breakfast at a cafe near their home. We got back to Melbourne late arvo, unpacked, set up the fancy photo frame and I then took the little fellow to the oval for a bit of a run around. He was a bit subdued however, and wanted to come back to be with Tress. Later that evening, we put up feet up in the lounge room, caught up with photos etc., and felt immense gratitude for the wonderful Christmas and New Year’s that we had with Kiddo, Mic and Little Abigail.
Ante 