Frohe Weihnachten - Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas and all my best wishes for a wonderful happy and bright New Year 2009.
I cannot believe that I have just survived my second Christmas in Australia and my first year here has just flown by!
We had a lovely romantic Christmas eve just with the two of us and Wilson under our teenie tiny Christmas tree and then spend Christmas day out at Rob and Jackie's farm with a massive BBQ, lots of prawns, cold beers and 32C! So hot! It was great fun, 7 adults and 6 dogs! No grey skies, no colds, no rain. I guess we are doing pretty well for ourselves!!
But still.... I will never get into the Christmas spirit in this heat, it is just wrong! I miss being with family, being tucked up inside with comfort food, with Christmas carols and Christmas decorations.... The only way you know that Christmas is happening in Australia is because everybody is on holidays and of course the CRICKETT is on!!! Craig is glued to the TV screen and everytime I look the guys in white are breaking for lunch/tea etc. I don't get it!

We are very well and feeling a lot more settled. We have even been invited to a couple of dinner parties lately! And I am so excited that we will have quite a few visitors from Europe this year!!!
Kicking the New Year off - Audra will come over in early January for a couple of weeks of sun and chill. We are planning a week in Byron and a long weekend in Sydney over Australia Day Weekend. I can't wait!
And then Donna and Tim are flying over in March for a bit of beach and a lot of diving. Hurray!!!! And later in the year my brother is coming out with his family for a bit of a road trip holiday up the coast. Fantastic news!
It means the world to me to have friends and family out here. Even though we feel more and more settled, it still feels like I am lightyears away from the people and things I loved all my life. Thank you guy

We are at the Sunshine Coast at the moment, 2 hrs north of Brisbane to enjoy 10 days of beach and chill. Very relaxing and the coast is beautiful and fairly undeveloped, just the way we like it! I had my first go at trying to surf yesterday, think I am a bit old to learn! All the 5 year olds are looking better than me! But will persevere and report back.

Lots of love and all my best wishes for a good start into 2009.
Tanja xxxxooxxxoxoxoxxx

Meet Mister Wilson!

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This is our lovely new addition to the family - Wilson! We inherited him from the sister of a friend of Craigs who are moving overseas and were looking for a happy home for their baby and we could not resist. He is very very sweet and seems to be smiling a lot, very cute. It is so nice to have a dog around. You might not be aware that I am one of the very few people on Earth how never ever had a pet. Great to finally fix that!
Like most dogs Wilson just LOVES having his bum scratched and driving in the car, he likes running away and being chased, he likes to play ball and his favorite food a raw carrots! Very special dog...

Weekend break in Byron Bay

We had a glorious weekend in Byron Bay with lots of sun, beach and no surf :)
Honestly, the water is so cold after the storms that we really could not face going in for longer than a couple of minutes... But it was beautiful and clear. I cannot believe it took us so long to do a beach weekend! Must do that at least once a month now!



We stayed in my favourite hostel - Anna's, a little guesthouse with only 3 rooms and a swiss hostess.