35 sleeps to go and Happy New Year!
The Baigrie house was a hive of activity this week. I finished my last day of work for 2010 and prepared for Christmas with last minute gift wrapping and food preparation. We enjoyed a Christmas Eve feast as a family unit as the joys of shiftwork saw Steve rostered on for Christmas Day. I drove 2 hours to Brisbane on Christmas Day with the boys to share lunch with 20 others at my aunt and uncle’s house. This was a great opportunity to catch up with family before our departure in February. Thank you Santa for delivering Patrick an iPod. No arguments over the one igadget anymore. The boys scored neck pillows, iTunes cards, Sporks, board shorts, workbooks and head torches to take RTW.
The sun was exceptionally hard to find this week and ½ of the state of Queensland went under water with record breaking floods. Whilst out taking photos of our yard during a torrential downpour I realised the water was lapping the shed door. The camera was quickly cast aside and my efforts in flood mitigation took over to save the numerous boxes stored in our shed. As quick as I could relocate a box to higher ground, one would succumb to the inundating water. In all 7 beautiful big boxes were written off and the contents required repacking. Luckily nothing in the boxes was damaged. The next day I invested in more plastic tubs to avoid a repeat performance. Whilst this was an inconvenient little glitch in our preparations, considering the degree of flooding hundreds of families have suffered, our little problem really doesn’t even rate as an issue.
This week we said goodbye to Steve’s sailing boat as it went into storage in my uncle’s shed and we said goodbye to Bubbles 2.0, our sole surviving goldfish.
We celebrated the New Year with our good friends the Searle-Crossleys and their family. My boys enjoyed their first ever ‘slip-n-slide’ experience as our dams have increased from 9% capacity to 60%+ within the past year. None of us were awake to see the new year tick over – heck we need as much rest as we can get given our adventure ahead!
I am glad you are faring well during the floods. I have been wondering about you all. Sad about the sailboat! I look forward to hearing about your adventures in the coming year. Happy New Year!
Might have needed the sailboat if we lived in a different part of Queensland! Happy New Year to you too. Can’t wait to hang out next year!
Can’t wait to read of your travels in just over a month.!
Thanks Alysia. We can’t wait to get out of the house for starters!