Christmas in Estella

This little girl from church had a speech and drama concert on Saturday so this hair had been slept on once, but I was transfixed. Isn't it beautiful?

It was very hard for Bethany to wait until 4pm as she had woken up excited about the Christmas party that is held for our suburb by the local progress association. The face painting was the very first stop. Jossie looked a bit like a manga character.

Bethany was a cat. The pose above was her very own.

It is lucky I took photos quickly as the paint around her mouth disappeared quickly.

Toby didn't get his face painted but went in for the games. Three-legged races are very difficult. Andrew and Andrej went in one too and Andrej was most put out when they didn't win. I watched a lady jumping in the sack race and asked Andrew to remind me never to participate in one of those. She wasn't even a busty lady but it looked very uncomfortable and just wrong.

Sophie had on the sweetest Santa outfit but was hard to pin down for a photo.

Santa arrived in a fire engine (?) and commenced giving presents to all the children in our suburb.

The children don't mind waiting in a queue when presents are at the end. I wondered if children from all over town ever thought of coming as you don't have to prove that you live here. We're very lucky, I suppose, to be surrounded by countryside rather than other suburbs and yet still be so close to town.

Inside the bag, amongst other goodies, were bubbles, Bethany's favourite short-lived amusement. She tries several techniques to find the best. A lot of the detergent ends up on her dress.

The downside of this particular technique is that detergent ends up in her mouth......

Despite the threatening weather and occasional rain it was a wonderful party. Like Hugh Mackay said, we have the herd instinct and as more and more of us live in households of only one or two people, we need to get together with the herd outside of the home. Community in the park, delightful.