Festive Greetings from Oz.

G’day folks, we hope you and your lovely families are well and happily preparing for the festive season. How quickly it has come around again. It is easily our favourite time of year in Australia. Spring melts into summer and dress up fun and general frivolity ensues

Phil’s big brother Tim flew out to escape the UK winter shivers.
 
Whale and Dolphin Watching at Point Lookout 

Frolicking on Flinders Beach. There were some bizarre looking blue things (see above) along the shoreline. A type of Jelly Fish perhaps?

  
Olivia and Ryan splashing around in the waters of the aptly named ‘Brown Lake’

Tim was thrilled to see the warnings and shark nets at Amity Point

The Chissells love Mount Coot-tha, be it the Botanical Gardens, the Planetarium or the spectacular views of the city as shown in previous blog posts.

We also love visiting Mount Tamborine. We really enjoyed the German tucker and amber nectar at this eatery.

There is a lovely rainforest trek to Curtis Falls as shown above. The Philster cooked up barbie goodness on a trip to another favourite Chissell haunt, Bribie Island.  

The wind was quite strong along the shore of Woorim Beach that day and I am sure we lost entire layers of skin in the sand storm - lol. We definitely did not risk getting sand granules in the camera.

As usual sports reigned in between our trips and Conor kept Uncle Tim on his toes with lots of Tennis matches and Trampoline gymnastics.

Alas sadly all good things came to an end and it was time to say goodbye. They never get any easier folks……..

Miss Olivia celebrated her 8th birthday with a Sizzler feast and cinema fun. Thank you again folks for all the lovely gifts, cards and messages. She is a very lucky lady to be so loved.

Chatting to the many rellies who telephoned from Blighty with birthday wishes.
Can you guess which present was her favourite? The Electric Guitar was a gift from Granny and Grandad. I am loving the birthday dress she is wearing too – a gift from her Nanna.

Along came a little event called Halloween and you all know how we Chissells LOVE TO DRESS UP . The annual Manly Street Party was even bigger and better this year and the spooky Chissell family got ‘papped’ by the paparazzi. In fact the media blurb said it is the largest Halloween event in Australia!

Picture courtesy of the Courier Mail.

We also had an impromptu party on the 31st itself which was great fun. Trinity and Olivia’s ‘bff’ Oliver joined the Chisslets for some trick or treat japes around the local area. I am convinced they each came back with their own body weight in candy! We cannot wait for next year!

You would never guess it, but sport has been a huge feature for the Chissells recently too

The Philster won the ‘double’ with his soccer chums this week and Olivia is about to finish her soccer season soon.

We also went to our first Supanova event recently and a hilarious time (think Comic Con from the fab movie ‘Paul’). It was great fun and we got to see Colin Morgan (Merlin) and Christopher Lloyd (Doc Hollywood). The Chisslets even sat in the iconic De Loren car. Such a shame Conor was away camping with the scouts. Olivia achieved her ‘Promise’ badge which is a major achievement and is now linking up with the Cub Scouts. Conor achieved his IT badge and is currently linking with the big boy Scouts. They are all off camping this weekend and poor Chil Phil will be Scouting Tuesdays, Wednesday’s and Friday evenings from the new year.

 

The academic year is drawing to a close in Australia and the Chisslets are bringing home the most inventive Christmas creations. It makes me want to hang up the deccies early, shush but do not tell Phil…..

Our next visitors to Chez Chissell over the festive break will be Penny and Jim (Phil’s parents). We are so excited and are counting down the days until they arrive. Talking of visitors, this chap came to say hello in the garden over the weekend….

Well that is all our news for now folks, keep sending all those wonderful newsy messages and photographs of your gorgeous families. At this special time we remember and raise a glass to absent friends and relatives , may they rest in peace. Best wishes to those of you who will be celebrating a birthday over coming weeks, especially our beautiful nephew Joseph and our dear friend Sue. xxx

Have a Merry and Joyful Christmas folks and an amazing 2012 too!

With love and respect, Amanda, Phil, Conor, Olivia & Ryan