Australian Christmas (Aussie Chrissy)

We made our first trip to the Southern Hemisphere and have been greeted by a hot summer heat.  We arrived in Sydney and got to wander the Harbor area.   We really enjoyed being back in a country/continent that speaks English, even if they abbreviate almost every word.  Kara has liked going to stores and asking employees for help and opinions, and understanding their responses.

We then took a short flight to Adelaide to hang out with our friends, Deb and Graham.  They have been so kind to host us and invite us to their family Christmas where Graham made a traditional Aussie Holiday Barbie.  They have shown us beach after beach, animal after animal, and winery after winery.  It has been an amazing run with the days packed and fun at every turn.  Kara's goal of seeing a quokka happened and we also got to hang out with a few other marsupials.  We went on a boat cruise to see dolphins and got some nice looks.  More amazing, during a gorgeous beach sunset, Nina turned and thought she saw a shark, but we were thrilled to see it was actually a group of curious dolphins. 

Christmas performances 2019

We've reached the end of our 2019 school days and everyone is excited.  The girls really enjoyed their holiday parties and shows.  They put in plenty of practice and sang the songs at home non-stop, and the hard work paid off.  They really supported one another and were excited to watch the other's performance.  Be warned that Nina's video is a bit long, but you can now feel like you were really there. ;)

Link to Vivian's Performance in "Superstar Nativity"

Link to Nina's Performance in "Sulky Santa"

Pip drove the bus to go see Nina's show ;)

Christmas season

There have already been many reasons to celebrate this month, but a big one was a visit from Barb and Colee.  It was surreal to see them in Shanghai and the girls loved getting to spend time with them again.  One of the highlights outside the usual sight-seeing was a trip to the wildlife preserve where the group got to see pandas, kangaroos, and even ligers.  

Christmas season is in full swing and we've enjoyed going to the German Christmas market and had the tree-lighting ceremony at school.  We've had some other birthdays parties, went to see Matilda the musical, and have been enjoying the thrill of finding Marwin the elf on the shelf.  We also celebrated Ben's basketball team that had an undefeated regular season.  One more week of school full of class parties and performances for the girls and plenty of grading for Ben.

 

Remembering when the girls were 8 & 9 pound bowling balls for Kara