New Year

It's New Year's Eve and  I am not posting a wrap up of our year, but about Christmas, which seems so long ago! Time, ever reliable, marches on.
We drove to Mum and Dad's on the Sunday before Christmas. It was a good drive, but we gratefully tumbled out of the car into the heat and deafening cicada noise at Broke. We had a couple of days before Christmas to relax. The kids swam, Andrew took the big kids on a long ride and the adults drank coffee in the mornings and prosecco in the evenings. Delightful.
On Christmas Day we opened many presents and had roast pork, awesome crackling, duck fat potatoes and pumpkin for lunch, followed by cheesecake. Tim, Shona and the clan arrived on Christmas night and we had a few days of family fun before driving home again.
Andrew drove Joss to PY summer camp on Boxing Day and she has been there ever since, arriving home tomorrow. Toby and Bethany have had friends over and enjoyed their Christmas presents. I have read and watched movies, thoroughly enjoying being on holidays. I tried to watch Cloud Atlas, having very much enjoyed the book, but found the dialogue impossible to hear and the ridiculous makeup distracting in the extreme. It was a disappointment and in order to avoid further disappointment, I don't think I'll see the Hobbit.
Tonight, Andrew plays at the big gig in town, Bethany is having a sleep over at a friend's so I think Toby and I will watch the early fireworks from our backyard and then I'll start watching Bleak House, which I got for Christmas - there will be no disappointment there! Happy New Year!