We had a great christmas dinner, these are just some off the lovely new friends we've made over the past year, Vickie and reeni, Phillis, emma and her baby Meesha, Mels cousin Johnathon and Kealin, Jasen (Sherri's new husband) and Dean, They ate five kilos of prawns together, Mels mum and dad, and baby william and his aunty emily. There were more there but can't be bothered uploading the pics. We spent christmas eve with all these guys as well, and New Years we will all be together too.

overview

OK sorry everyone I haven't written for a while because I thought we actually had nothing to report, but as it happens we do. The Christmas season has begun, we decorated the house upstairs and down Jackson wound up the end of the year with a school concert which we happily attended. He also finished school for the year and Dean is finally off work for two weeks over the Christmas new year week, his whole work shuts down for that time and he still gets paid cool hey!. Mel's bells Palsy has noticeably cleared up over the last week and she is happy about that. She wasn't happy about sending out those Christmas photos because her face looked funny and Dean looks like he is carrying more weight (but hes not really). We have happily over spent on presents this year but the kids will be happy and probably send Mel to tears again, while she watches them open their treasures. Mel's pregnant sister an husband have moved in for a while, so adds tho the madness around here. Lucky there is enough room for us all!. And our long time friend whom Mel calls sister has come to spend Christmas with us. What a wonderful feeling the house has. We wish you all a great Christmas and a wonderful new year. Be safe, Be happy, and God bless you all with the spirit of the true meaning of Christmas.

the tree

Ok so the tree story is.... Mum had been nagging our neighbour for a few weeks to take her out to cut down a tree for christmas ( which there are plenty of around here) but he never had time. So dad and mum venture off with Jackson and go cut thier own down, goodness knows where from. Then my dad, and if you know him you can relate, got on his high hourse and was defiant in not putting the tree in water as he said they don't need it ( but really what would he know he has lived in the desert for 30 + years). After yelling at mum for a while because 'he is right', by the way mum always wanted a fake one. Dean came home from work and gently (as he does) suggested that he put it in water as it will wilt. So dad and Dean constructed the smallest contraption of a container for this poor tree with the tiniest amount of room for water, but Dean was too scared to argue with dad. So the story goes their free tree died because of lack of water. Dad was wrong and mum had a pitiful tree. So, as my dad does he took mum shopping and ended up spending over $300 dollars on this beautiful fake tree. The moral of the story is to listen to your wifes!!!

Kool Kealin

Our cool dude, Kealin found his long lost sun glasses and wears them with everything. He thinks he is so good. He is looking forward to Christmas so much which is nice to see that he is becoming more aware.

charna in hat

Here is our little Christmas elf. The Coronas decorated their loft and the kids had a great time putting up decorations. Charna loves this hat and wears it all the time. We get so many people telling us that she looks like mel when she was young or like he great grandma. But in this photo " hello auntie Rachael!"

Sorry one of these images isn't very clear, but mels mum was experimenting with her flash new camera and most of them look this way ( she is getting better now). This is jackson in his end of year preformance with his class. They danced to the crazy frog song and banged clavas. It was very enjoiyable.

jackos speech

Jackson was a school representative this year which means he has had lots of responsibility. One of them was to give a speech at the end of year concert this year, which was about a week ago. He was really nervous but did a really good job. Hes been very busy this year, his report card was great everyone loves him, and will finally be moving up to year four.

update

Hello, well another week has passed. The high light was little Kealins birthday. there are pictures of that to follow. We also made gingerbread houses but i had no photos downloaded on to the computer yet and can't be bothered going upstairs right now to get them. (Sorry!). Well Dean has been suffering really bad with his hay fever and is on all sorts of medicine. Its enough to sent us broke. And off course none work. Jackson has hay fever as well. He was the only healthy child, and now he gets hay fever. Kealin spent the week counting down to his party. We just made the 1st his birthday because he wouldn't understand otherwise. Charna finished her last day of Flying Fours which should make her nice and comfy to start full time school next year. Mel has had an interesting week. On Wednesday night she noticed that she was spilling all of her drinks from the left side of her mouth. On Thursday her left eye would not stop watering, and on Friday morning She couldn't move the whole left side of her face. Dean Skipped work that day ( he was happy) to take her to the doctors. So Guess what. She is not only 30 weeks pregnant and cant walk because of sinsis pubis pain, a pregnancy rash all over her chin, she now has Bells Palsy on her Left side. Apparently its not related to the pregnancy but the length of time it takes to get better is unknown. She talks funny with a droopy mouth and cant shut her eye and wears a patch at night to help her sleep, the whole side has just relaxed, even her nostril. So the stress from all this sent her to hospital on Sunday because of early contractions and show. So She is alright now but this is DEFINITELY their LAST child. Hope you all had a better week then her. Life goes on and we had a great party for Kealin and you should all be getting Chrissy cards in the mail soon, so look out for those. Have a good week.

Happy birthday

Finally its my turn to have happy birthday sung to me. I waited all year.

the cake

The table setting and cake. Kealin wanted a venom cake. It was the easiest request yet. Black frosting and piping. He loved it. Were lucky he let us cut it up. All the kids had black mouths after

Waiting for the music to start in musical pillows.

the party

Playing pass the passel

Kealin got a nice red three wheeler with a wooden trailer for his present from mum and dad this year. He had fun dancing in musical freeze

gingerbread houses

Melanie learned how to decorate ginger bread houses this week and of corse is going to now make it a family tradition. left to right sister Webster ( mels mum), Sister doig, Mel, sister triffitt and her baby william, sister triffitt, sister young, and sister porter.

broard beans

Gotta teach them the basics. Charna and kealin loved podding the broard beans from our nighbours. They were really yummy braised in chicken stock and garlic. Off course they didn't eat them.