Christmas Time

As always these days, Christmas was quite busy. Christmas eve brought a Skype call to Australia to see my family. It was nice to catch up with them and I think they enjoyed seeing the girls. A "live" exchange of gifts then took place so everyone could witness the smiles (real or fake) that always accompany gift opening. After this, we went over to see some friends and eat a traditional Christmas eve dinner of Indian curries!

The morning saw the girls open their gifts. A 6:30 wakeup time was quite bearable. They seemed happy with what they got. I think their favourite gifts were for Naomi, a human anatomy doll and for Fiona, a "Groovy Girl" doll. In the subsequent days, the board game "Guess Who" has been getting a real workout, much to the delight of us getting to join in endless playings of this fascinating strategy game.

In the afternoon we went over to see some friends which was quite nice and relaxing also. The girls had fun playing and it was nice to sit down, eat some good food and drink some beer. Of course, in the evening I was glued to the TV for the start of the cricket.

Boxing Day brought more cricket! There is an indoor cricket facility about 30 minutes from my house and 12 blokes from my team met up there for an afternoon of practice, followed by an indoor game. My bowling was terrible but I batted OK...and the team that I was on got home at the end in a close match.

Since this, a little bit of driving around gathering more free firewood. Mindy is a little annoyed about the growing plie of pallets in the back yard ("It looks like a shipyard")...but I plan to cut up most of them in the next couple of days so hopefully this will ease her concerns. Also, of course, many late nights watching us wrap up the test match. The icing on the cake was watching Johnson and Hogg find some form with the ball to ease some minor concerns I had with their play. I would imagine an unchanged team for Sydney but Tait is right there applying pressure.

Unfortunately the 10 days off work is passing way too quickly but good news is that when I go back, it will still be local as I have been extended at Colgate for possible another few months.