A rainy day was Boxing Day

The Australian holiday has been fab so far – with a minor blip here and there. Like the fact that our plane left nearly an hour late – resulting in rather contrary little boys! Then, on our shopping trip to Southbank (so much fun looking at the shops, riding the ferry and having poffertjies for lunch) we got back to the car at 8 Mile Plains and it would not start and the steering column locked. This is not a good thing to happen at 2pm the Friday before Christmas. 8 Mile Plains is a park and ride station so there was no shade from the blazing sun, no shops etc. There were toilets however, for which 3 of us were grateful. Cameron had just fallen asleep on the bus and slept through being clipped into his car seat and the entire time that Chris was walking around trying to find a pay phone (twice), toilets trips, awaking just as the rental car guy arrived to collect us at 3:30pm. He swapped cars temporarily and we proceeded to get magnificently lost. We finally staggered home at 5pm having toured most of Brisbane, inadvertently with two grumpy boys in the back. We cooked a fast dinner for the boys and fled the house for Carols at Lincoln Green. The boys had a blast there playing in the playground, listening to carols and saying hello to Santa – then stuffing their faces with the bag of lollies they were given.
We also went to Logan Hyperdome and picked up some cute tees for the boys, as well as a personalised xmas ornament for each boy. They loved showing Chris where to hang them on mum’s beautifully decorated tree. On Christmas Eve Mike arranged to have the boys ride on Santa’s Christmas train – which was a big hit as it circled around streets with names like Robin court, Lionheart crescent, Archery close, Nottingham street and the like. Sweets were flung out to onlookers – to the young passengers’ distress. Cameron took note of the bucket of sweets the Fireman was scooping sweets from and snuck forward at disembarkation and had to be bodily removed from said bucket – clutching his treasure all the while. In between all this excitement we have been swimming, swimming some more, and enjoying even more swimming. Christmas went down like gangbusters. Cameron woke us at 5am while Kieran chose to sleep in :P They had a fabulous time opening presents, with only a few meltdowns from Cameron when the excitement proved too much for a little boy.
The only rain to date began at 11pm Christmas Night and petered out at 6:30am on Boxing Day. Today we plan to go to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary and then later tonight Chris and I will see the Hobbit. I am really looking forward to it. Later on we will visit Mt Cootha and the Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium, Mt Tamborine, and another visit to the South Bank – Science Centre and Kodak Beach. Kirsten arrives on the 27^th – which we are all looking forward to J