Happy New Year 2012

Another year over and looking forward to what 2012 brings.  This year we even managed to make it out to watch the annual new years eve street parade in Port Fairy.   We had a takeaway picnic dinner at the church grounds whilst we waited for the parade to start but the kids (and Brett) was fast asleep for the fireworks at midnight.  Eloise had asked if I could wake her for the fireworks and I did try  as we could actually see it from our campsite and all she had to do was unzip her window in the camper trailer ... but she was way too sleepy for that!  For a small town the fireworks were pretty impressive.

The girls exploring our picnic grounds at the church

We think Abbey enjoyed her takeaway teriyaki udon noodle !

There are lot of uses for the takeaway chopsticks after dinner

One of the floats in the street parade.  This year's theme was Carnivale

Port Fairy NYE fireworks

Yambuck and Portland

So who would have thought .... a huge slide in the middle of nowhere, or more precisely in the town of Yambuck which is about a 20 minute drive west of Port Fairy. We have noticed on this trip that Eloise has lost her fear of the unknown (and I'm not sure that this is necesarily a good thing). Where she was once a lot more cautious, she now throws herself headfirst into things. A classic example was when we pulled up at Yambuck and as soon as we had let her out of her car seat she had bolted to climb up to the top of the large slide and before we knew it she was going down the slide at full speed.

                       

Hmmm.... I think we broke all of the rules except for the no skateboarding.  

                         

Yambuck beach was on the other side of some fantastic sand dunes

Have you ever wondered what was in Portland? I have, so we drove on from Yambuck to Portland and have now found out that there is not much there at all ! It still has a very industrial feel to it and whilst it is known as one of Victoria's oldest town (if not the oldest), it just does not have the same quaint charm that Port Fairy exudes.

Portland waterfront

 

Port Fairy Dec 2011

It was our third year in a row in Port Fairy and we are starting to become known as one of the regulars.  We find Port Fairy a great spot, not only because of its attractions but also it is not that far from Horsham to head to after Christmas.   

Fish & chips for dinner on the first night while mummy and daddy were setting up

The girls were very eager the next day to explore Port Fairy.  First stop was the beach followed by the pier and then the park.

 

Drunken sailors dancing on the pirate boat

Life was pretty good for the kids at camp .... there was fresh croissants every morning thanks to the Cobb Bakery van that did deliveries each morning and lunchtime.  Wish there was such a service at home !

The kids are sitting in the 'living room'.  The stripey walls are one side of the annexe to the camper trailer and the Williams residence is the brown tent.

Our set up this year had a little less running space for the kids because of the space that the camper trailer took.  And we spent most of our waking time under the communal canopy - thanks to Andrew for the loan, would have been lost without it ! 

Christmas Day

After a morning of opening presents, it was off to Paul and Denese's for Christmas lunch.    Santa or Eloise calls it "Pretend Santa" came on horseback.  

Santa arriving on horseback

Backrow L to R: David, John, Daryl, Kim, Denese, Beck, Abbey, Jess, Brett
Front row L to R: Billee, Brooke, Beth, Eloise, Paul, Shannon and Logan

Eloise helping out as Santa's elf

Eloise and Brooke

It was a traditional Christmas lunch with roast turkey, pork and lamb and vegetables followed by Christmas pudding, Sago pudding and Chocolate pudding.  

Christmas lunch .... notice Abbey sitting at the head of the table down the other end

The girls had a great time with their cousins and aunts & uncles that they don't see that often and made themselves feel right at home.  

Playing with a chrismtas present with Uncle Paul

Flat out after a big lunch. L to R: Aunty Kim, Eloise, Brooke, Billee, Shannon and Abbey

Eloise and Abbey with their older cousins: Logan, Brooke and Hannah

Christmas day was a scorcher and the girls were very happy to jump into the large inflatable pool that had been filled with dam water.

Presents Galore

Its Christmas time and Eloise has been very excited, each day opening up a drawer on her Advent Calender tree and finding a little treat as a surprise.   And Abbey recognises it as the thing that dispenses chocolates.  Whenever, she sees her sister open up a drawer she will get very excited and shout out "chocolate, chocolate, chocolate" !

There has also been lots of different times when the girls got to open up Christmas presents.  First, there were presents to unwrap at the Christmas lunch at Aunty Ann's place:

                        

Then there was present opening with Tess before we left for Horsham .... the girls could not find their Santa hats so they made do with their witches hats. 

                           

And then there was off course presents from Santa. Santa came early this year as we were going to Horsham and he did not want to go all the way to Horsham with the big presents.  Eloise left out some milk and cookies for Santa and carrots for Rudolph.   Her look of amazement on the morning after Santa left the presents said it all ! Eloise had this year asked Santa for a princess castle and Santa came through with the goods much to Eloise's delight.   And Abbey got her favourite toy - a baby doll in a capsule.

 

Santa also visited us in Horsham on Christmas Eve night with the lighter presents and left them in the Christmas stockings that were hung up inside our camper trailer.  The girls had a great time, first thing in the morning opening up the presents.

Then it was inside at Grandmas' on Christmas morning to open up more presents with cousins Hannah and Brooke - this time the presents from mummy and daddy. 

And finally, there were presents to open at Christmas lunch