Australia Day Celebrations and the past two months

Hi all!

I cant believe that in a couple of weeks I have been here for two months - I have seen so much and have been having a great time, I hope you have been enjoying my photos!

When Tina and Chris got home we started Christmas, Tina LOOOVVVEESSS her Christmas and actually starts watching Christmas movies in October. We went to two Christmas choir concerts and they were amazing, my favourite was a small group who sung in a big old church in downtown Vancouver. There voices sounded so beautiful as it rose to the high ceilings. We went with Chris' parents, Martha and Klaus and it has been great getting to know them.

The week before Christmas was full on, with baking..... there is sooo much Christmas baking! and family events, and Christmas shopping, it was so much fun. We had a Goetz family reunion, they were so lovely, I felt like I was part of their family. We sang carols, some in German, and ate and ate and ate.

We celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve, as Chris' family is German. We had fondue and more baking! The Christmas tree was lit, and the fire was going as we ate and ate and ate again! It was truly just like the movies. We had waffles in the morning, at back home we opened our Christmas stocking presents.... I love stockings... full of fun little things (expect mine had an Olympics ticket in it! so Tina and I are seeing the Moguls on a local mountain on 13th Feb) and then went back for a Turkey dinner Christmas night.

I don't think I have ever seen a whole turkey cooked before, stuffing and all, and I don't think I want to see it again. It was horrible watching Klaus 'pull' the stuffing out.... I couldn't watch as I was dry reaching! The family had a great time paying me out about it, but it tasted fantastic! Everyone was so curious as to how we could actually celebrate Christmas in the summer, 'what do you eat?!' was the main question I would get. I reassured them that we still celebrate well, just with cold food instead.

New Years Eve was great as was the two weeks that followed. I got to be a tourist and visit downtown and Vancouver Island for a couple of days. To get to the Island we got to take the helicopter, it was so beautiful seeing Vancouver and Victoria from the sky - a once in a life time experience!

So we have all settled in to normal life now, Tina and Chris are back at work, and I am - not so intensely - looking for a job myself. However, we did take a few days off and go snow skiing up at Silver Star a couple of weekends ago. I skied with Chris (who has grown up doing it), I had a great time. Even though the last mountain I decided to - well we will say that anyway - go down head first on my back! I was laughing so hard at myself, but Chris assured me that I was 'making good ground' and funnily enough I felt much safer going down the mountain that way than on my skis! It was so beautiful - if you haven't seen my photos, check them out! Ultimately words and pictures can not to justice to how beautiful it was. The day I skied the sun was out and it was so clear you could see forever, standing on the top of a mountain is the most majestic experience. Even if you do realise that the only way is down! I am hoping to get a bit more skiing in before the season is over, but I think water skis are still going to be 'home' for me.

Australia Day was fantastic! I met up with a couple from Adelaide, Lauren and Brendan, and they had a BBQ with some of their friends. I love Canadians, but I didnt realise how much I miss the Australian sense of humour til I was sitting in the lounge room laughing and drinking with my Aussie friends. We had Tim Tams and Pavlova, and although we all said we missed having it down at the beach in the summer, it was a really good subsitute.

All in all, it is great being over here. Catching up with my old friends and being here with Tina and Chris, especially as her baby date is getting closer! Tina and I have now started an Aquafit class two mornings a week and baby loves it! I felt the baby kick the other day and I cried - it is such a wonderful gift - and such a blessing to be here during this time.

Please have a look at my photos, I am not sure how else to post them other than Facebook, but I hope you enjoy!

Let me know how you are all doing

Kiri :)