Christmas Highlights

I am back in Australia after a wonderful trip home to visit friends and family in the States. Here are some highlights.
A quick stop over at Daytona

Visiting the "Living Nativity" at Ponte Vedra Presbyterian

Watching Jack dance up a storm

Having a Thai bubble tea on Argyle.......gosh I miss those!

Visiting the massive "American Gothic" on Michigan Ave with Chris

Seeing Wicked...Thanks Phyllis, Colin and Jack!!!

Remembering how pretty the snow is at Christmas time

Remembering what a pain the snow is and wondering how I lived in it for 10 years

Making the most of the snow

Visiting the Wicker Park Fire Station with Jack, who is a teeny, tiny bit obsessed with anything to do with firemen

Visiting the tree at the Christkindlmarket in downtown Chicago



Going to St Augustine to see the lights

Playing trucks with Sam and Wright

Matt sharing his boomerang expertise with Colt and Adam

Helping out Sam on Uncle Mike's construction sight


My Mom and Dad's birthday dinner

Even though I got a cold for Christmas it was still a great time. I hope everyone has a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Christmas Fun

Matt and I spent yesterday finishing up making and buying Christmas presents. I have been a little Scrooge-esque about getting a tree. Matt spotted a tiny tree and pointed out it was only $4.50 so we got it. We decorated out little tree and it was perfect for the amount of ornaments we have. Matt was very happy and I must say our little tree is very cute.

We went up to Canterbury for carols in the park. I was making fun of a spelling mistake in the program. "Noel" was spelled "Nowell". Turns out it is an English way to spell it. Never seen that before. Nobody really sang along with the carollers where we were sitting but Matt and I did a bit. There was a choir from Tonga that was quite good. I am going to be taking a "blogging" vacation but will be back in 2009. So to everyone MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

The Bells Will Be Ringing

With Christmas time comes the bell ringers from the Salvation Army. I think the Salvation Army does great things but I am not always the biggest fan of the bell. I am however a BIG fan of the brass band!! They have been outside of our local grocery store on the weekends playing Christmas carols. Lovely!

Thanks for the Support!!

Movember is coming to an end. Really it's none too soon. The moustache has had an effect on Matt so much so that he was considering a career change. There was an opening for a football coach in Clanton, Alabama Public School Number 29. He thought he might be perfect. Coach Clarke! I was a bit more worried about him taking up permanent residence on Lygon Street(Melbourne's Little Italy). Maybe he could be an extra in Underbelly the 1940's.
But seriously, thanks to everyone for your support during Movember!!

Christmas Decorations

Much like Marshall Field's in Chicago, Myer has the big window displays for Christmas. We went downtown with Barry and Laurel to have a look. This year the windows are based on the children's book, How Santa Really Works by Alan Snow. They were very cute and animated. Two of the elves were also having a conversation about Birmingham, Alabama so I had to love that. (Hello, Family in Birmingham!!)

We also went over to Docklands to check out the new ferris wheel, the Southern Star, that is due to open soon. It looks like the London Eye but is a little bit smaller (a big point of irritation with Matt). For me the Eye was an exercise in terror. It was a beautiful view but my serious fear of heights made it really un-fun. I probably won't be rushing out to repeat the experience on the Southern Star.

Thanksgiving in Australia

This weekend started off with some lovely spring weather including a hail storm. Just when Matt and I were attempting to leave the house to go see our niece, Natarsha, in her first ballet recital loads of ice pellets decided to fall out of the sky. Still, off we went and Natrsha was lovely as both a snowflake and a teddy bear. The little ones are always so cute. One little guy in her dance number decided instead of dancing he would do everyone a favor and pick up all the sequins on the floor. Very cute. We also went to see an exhibit of Graeme Base's work. He makes the most beautiful children's books. Good news for the gallery because his work is selling like crazy. I saw in an interview it takes him 2 years to make a book. His work is so super detailed it was great to see the originals. I had never seen Uno's Garden. Now it's my favorite of all his books.

Sunday was our "Thanksgiving" here in Australia which we celebrated at Nick and Rebecca's. Nick, being the head of the household, was given the ever so stressful task of carving the turkey. He did a wonderful job especially for a first timer. I am patting myself on the back because this is the first time after many, many tries my sweet potato casserole was successful and not soupy...YAY ME!!

Studley Park

Bosley was visiting on Saturday so we decided to take him for a walk down to Studley Park along the Yarra River. The weather was perfect and cool enough to keep the flies away. Australia's biggest draw back is the fly population especially anywhere near water. We took two walking paths on either side of Kanes Bridge which is suspension bridge that was originally built in 1929 but swept away by flood in 1934. It was rebuilt in 1935 by Unemployed Relief Scheme Workers. It's hard to imagine a massive flood during a drought.

There were loads of birds everywhere especially rosellas. I still get excited to watch all the different kinds of parrots flying around. I guess it's like when Matt sees squirrels since there aren't squirrels in Australia. I didn't see too many wild parrots flying around in the States.

Some of the trees were chock-a-block full of holes. There were a lot of butterflies around so I thought it must have been caterpillars so I went on the hunt. I love to look for bugs. I was wrong. It wasn't caterpillars reeking havoc but a tiny little beetle.

The Studley Boathouse is just a bit away from Kane's Bridge. We are going to go back soon and rent a rowboat and head out on the river. We thought about going but Bosley was freaked out by the opening between the slats on the bridge so we weren't sure how he would do on a boat.

Movember III

I am beginning to think the Matt is taking to his moustache. Hmmmmmmmmmm.......

Movember Week Two

Just wanted to give everyone a Movember update picture. It's filling in quite nicely!

Historic Woodlands Park

In an effort to be more economical, Matt and I have taken to going to parks and having "sausage sizzles" (aka grilling sausages on park provided BBQs) and having picnics in lieu of going out to eat. We went to the Historic Woodlands Park this weekend and picnicked beside a dried out creek bed. There were loads of different birds including one so small when I first saw it I thought it was a dragonfly. Around dusk hundreds of kangaroos come out of the bush and have a little hop around.

After the picnic we went up to see the old homestead which was built around 1840 and now also has another area called Living Legends which is home to some of Australia's finest retired racehorses. These horses were so massive and beautiful. My favorite was Might and Power. He won 15 of his 33 race starts including the Melbourne Cup and won $5,226,286 in prize money. Nowadays, he likes to get pats and eat grass.

Movember

Matt is Rocking the 'Stache for men's health! It's Movember (month formerly know as November) here in Australia. Men grow out their moustaches and raise money to fight prostate cancer and depression in men. If you want to donate to the Moustache cause click here. https://www.movember.com/au/donate/donate-details.php?action=sponsorlink&rego=1875941&country=au

Thanks to Anna and Mary for making the first donations. This is an international event so you guys in America and all over can also Grow That Mo!! I will be posting pictures of Matt's 'Stache status.

Healesville

Yesterday was Melbourne Cup Day which equals a day off from work in Victoria. WooHoo!! We weren't going to the races so I suggested doing something new...go see some koalas. I am addicted to them. I love them. I did feel a little like I was cheating on Elliott going to a different animal sanctuary but I have heard a lot about Healsville and wanted to check it out. We drove up into the Yarra Valley which is wine country and gorgeous. We stopped by Yering Station which is Victoria's oldest winery. There was a sculpture exhibition taking place all over the grounds. There were little wooden men/ monstrous creatures that I liked. I should have written down the artist's name and the title because I can't remember for sure but I think it was called "The Damned" and then had something about Hieronymus Bosch. How is that for remembering the details??

We headed on up to Healsville and the first thing we saw when we got there was a BIG koala (cheesy tourist photo YAY!) I did learn alot more about my favorite Australians. I have been corrected many, many times for calling a koala a bear. I know, I know! They are marsupials, not bears. Their closest actual relative is the wombat. Both wombats and koalas have hard cartilage plates in the backsides. The wombat uses hers for defense against predators. With her plated behind the wombat can squish any predator that tries to enter her burrow. The koala's is for comfort. The plate makes it much easier to sit on small branches for long periods of time. The other popular misconception is that eucalyptus makes koalas drunk. It is not true. Eucalyptus doesn't contain a whole lot of nourishment. Koalas appear drunk or lazy because they have developed a low energy lifestyle to compensate for their extremely low energy diet. Hamish the koala was out and about and doing some bellowing (or the koala mating call). It sounds like loud, grunty burping but I hear the lady koalas love it.

Healesville Sanctuary has been around since the 1930's and cares for over 1500 injured or orphaned wild animals every year. They have done a lot of work with the platypus including building special platypusaries which are integral for breeding. On November 5, 1943, "Corrie" the platypus was born. Although other scientists and sanctuaries have tried to breed platypus in captivity, no one has bred and reared a platypus until 1999 when Healesville Sanctuary had success again.

The best part of the visit to the sanctuary was the Birds of Prey show (and it takes something pretty special to beat the koalas). The show focuses on Australian raptors which are birds that catch prey with their claws. I thought Bernice, the Black Breasted Buzzard would be the show stealer. Bernice did a little demonstration showing how she uses a rock to break open an egg and get some food. Emu eggs are a favorite of Black Breasted Buzzards in the wild. I was sure Bernice would be my favorite but no. Out came the Wedge-tailed Eagle, one of the largest birds of prey in the world. She was massive (the girl wedge-tails are bigger than the boys). So, she's flying around and I am taking pictures when Woohoo she is coming right towards us. Whoosh and wack! She flew right over our heads hitting the side of my face with her wing. It was really cool if not a little scary. She was beautiful. All of the birds were trained to return to there homes when the audience clapped. After the birdshow we went searching for the Lyrebird but even in an enclosed space I couldn't see one. I don't know if I will ever see a Lyrebird in real life but hopefully someday.

Halloween BBQ

Saturday was our Halloween BBQ in the Rocketship park. We had a fantastic time! There was a high concentration of bumblebees (not the little flying kind but the human variety). The weather was nice and overcast but I somehow managed to come home looking like a lobster. Must buy sunscreen.

I had a great time making lots of Halloween treats like chocolate witches hats, orange rice crispie treats and witch finger cookies.

The pinata was the high light for the kids. As a child I saw at least one incident with a pinata stick so I was prepared for safety steps in the pinata arena. I did have to duck and weave a few times to keep from getting belted in the head. I however did forget about the feeding frenzy that occurs after the pinata has been destroyed and the candy goes flying everywhere. Good times!

For my last Halloween-y thing for 2008 here is an illustration called Trick-or-Treaters from one of (I think) the best illustrators ever, Gris Grimly. To see more of his work visit www.madcreator.com.

Cable Ties VS Magpies

Over the weekend there were tons of cyclists out and about. There seemed to be a new fashion trend, cable ties on bike helmets. This made for a strange antennae like look and had me very confused. Matt solved the mystery. The cable ties scare off magpies. There are often reports on the news of Magpies swooping to protect their nest and taking out some poor persons eye or making cuts large enough to need stitches. Who knew Magpies could be shooed away by cable ties? I learn something new everyday!