28/12/2022
Monday morning the kids were having a fun morning with their new Christmas toys, thank you everyone, we had an amazing Christmas with family and friends.
Eloise had Grandma Nicholls on the floor early, helping out with the kids’ new Australia puzzle, she has a lot to learn about this rather large island.
Just like that, it was raining toys and books.
The kids had even more gifts from Henley and Peyton who we had missed on Christmas Day. We will have to see them soon.
At 09:00 on Boxing Day, it was finally time, finally time for the Cricket! Jeez, have I missed it. Da boyz were in prime couch position to watch “Cameron Green tear through South Africa on Boxing Day for first Test five-wicket haul”. Lachlan was not too keen on the idea of sitting still, who would have thought, and tried to put Baby Shark back on.
It was heating up again so our wee Glaswegian needed some water play to keep cool while Eloise watered Grandma’s plants, a new strange phenomenon.
On the way down the hill, we grabbed a beloved Froco, we have missed these too. We know inflation has been high this year, didn’t know it was at 100%, now AUD$2.
As soon as we arrived Eloise was eager to get her Magnetika Monorail set out and made sure that Grandpa DAVE came back out of retirement to help her.
In the afternoon the Fensoms all started to arrive. There was no Tim obviously, who is kicking off his PhD at the University of Cambridge, enjoying a white Christmas.
The day turned into a big pool party which all the kids and Chris enjoyed.
The kids were lucky and excited unwrapping all sorts of Australian themed presents. Thank you, Chris and Simon for the Aussie Trivia Game, looks like fun, hopefully, we can still pass.
In the back corner of the garden, Lachlan managed to find the kids’ car and climbed straight on in, yelling for Dad to push.
Eloise and Audrey were having a great time swimming, doing jigsaw puzzles and riding scooters down hills together. Eloise would love another playdate Audrey.
In the evening the kids were desperate to try out their award-winning swing set.
In the evening, Dad slipped away for a nap, standard, while Super Mum and Nali took the kids over to visit the playground.
On Boxing Day it was announced that “water levels at Renmark have reached their peak”. Also, “Supermaxi Andoo Comanche is leading a closely bunched pack of supermaxis in the Sydney to Hobart yacht race, as the fleet heads south on day one of the contest’s 77th edition”. In the UK, “Coronavirus modelling data will stop being published in early January, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) says”.
Tuesday morning Lachlan had managed to find one last present while crawling around under the Christmas tree as he kicked off day four of Christmas celebrations.
We were prepping ourselves for the hot day, Lachlan was already feeling the heat and had stripped down to a nappy and a bucket hat, past the point of just tapps-aff.
The kids were enjoying chasing around Grandpa DAVE and Nali with Xavier seeing what they were up to.
We had invited some friends from Melbourne to come over for a swim. Eloise was so excited, jumping up and down and telling Nali that Emma was about to come over. Sadly it was not Emma, she has definitely forgotten how long it took to get here. The kids are getting more confident in the water, even just after a couple of days. Eloise is now jumping in Xavier style. The kids have not really done much swimming since the hotel pool in Rome.
In the afternoon, Lachlan was exhausted, a combination of running himself ragged and swimming his little heart out. Liam generously offered to watch over him, surprise surprise.
In the afternoon, we had more guests, Eloise was super happy as this meant more pool time. Lauren clearly won best dressed with her matching Macca’s swimmers and bucket hat.
Luckily James had brought his camera along and as photography is in his blood, took some fantastic shots, thank you James. If you could please follow us around for the next couple of years James that would be very helpful.
It was then hot chocolate time, even though it was 40°C, while Eloise showed Lauren her Glaswegian jujutsu.
Once we had dried off, we found out “Warner caps milestone Test with 200 at sweltering MCG”, Even more impressive, this is FIK’s 200 blog post.
It was a tricky night, we think Lachlan was struggling with the heat, poor boy. In the morning, Eloise took to the streets with Grandpa DAVE on her scooter. They needed to pick up some last minute ingredients before helping Super Mum with a cheesecake.
It was a big morning, the lunch table was fully booked out again. Full of food, there was nothing stopping the Three Musketeers.
The kids have loved the extra space to run around, we don’t know how the three of them keep on going, bouncing off of each other. We could not keep up and had to put them into storage.
Lachlan has enjoyed the summer park walks, nice way to get him to sleep. After a decent nap, we headed down the road to Great Nanny’s house.
Eloise had a lot to show Great Nanny, starting with all the random stuff she carries around in her bag. It has not left her side Belinda.
Lachlan has been warming up to dogs the past week, he is a little unsure about Delilah, very unsure about Lily but was more than happy to pat Maya.
In the evening it was party time. Super Mum and Eloise had done a terrific job with their cheesecake and Lachie biscuits, not quite Scottish Empire biscuits but not far off. We arrived at what is becoming Tom Pat’s biennially double year-in-review party.
Amongst all the new faces, Lachie saw someone he recognised and clung on like a little monkey, he was very peaceful.
After a long time, Hazel was starting to lose feeling in her left arm so Hugh happily stepped up to bond with Lachlan over his new Crow’s footy. Lachlan must have felt safe with Hugh’s matching coloured shirt.
Thank you Paterson’s and all for the delicious food which we enjoyed on Tom Pat’s stunning soft-leaf buffalo lawn.
We left Lachnado with Jamila for five minutes and he was dancing on the table. All while Jenna’s twins were peacefully fast asleep.
Perhaps this was all part of Jamila’s cunning plan, the boy was tiring.
The flight route between Melbourne and Bali is still absolute carnage with “‘holiday nightmare’: Jetstar makes sudden U-turn 4.5 hours into flight to Bali”.
[…] was finally back together, with Hazel and Tom returning from London earlier this year and the Paterson’s and Paterson’s-to-be over for the festive period. As we were getting a good setup, the kids headed straight to their […]