And Christmas...

Christmas day started very early. Santa visited us on the back of his ute! I finished preparing the treasure hunt I had planned for everyone – kids & adults! At 10.30 Helene, Michael & Eve, Em & Lil arrived. We got the treasure hunt going straight away. I had hidden clues around the garden – the first set of presents for the kids were in the flag pole, they had to find the candy cane patch & the adults had to play Pictionary with Play-doh, solve a puzzle for a clue and do a jigsaw. The final treasure was a treasure chest with lots of small gifts from Kathleen.
All 9 of us ate lunch after all the presents were opened. The kids had gotten a musical chairs game so we had to try that out. Lil appointed me judge ( thanks Lil! ) so I got out of the chair part…until it was girls only…
The evening was spent relaxing :o) I needed that!
Early on the 26th we drove down to Helene’s to put together the kids climbing set they had been given. At 10.30 when we arrived it was 37 degrees and even though we worked in the shade it was HOT HOT HOT! By the time it was assembled it was 43 degrees and record temp that day was 44.2 for us ( 45 was highest recorded temp near the airport ). Santa’s little helpers showed up, and although other adults tried convincing them that it was best they came back again when it was assembled, I got them into action and had them screwing bits on and holding poles – no injuries and no grumpy adults…hahaha. Apparently the same Santa’s helpers had not been very helpful the day before when their dad was trying to assemble a table football game at his house and they were spinning the players and playing airhockey simultaneously.
After a picnic lunch we drove home through the hills & bush trail. The forest is beautiful up in the hills – the vegetation is so different from Europe – you just can’t get enough of it! The bush fire was burning again, not more than 2-3 km from the house, but the wind was blowing the other way. They had closed off the motorway and were trying to contain the fire.
Today ( the 27th ) we went shopping at the sales. I bought some stuff but am limited to 20 kg on the return flight so need to try and contain my shopping gene. The motorway was reopened but 2 exits closed – for fear of embers blazing up into a new fire. The fires move extremely quickly and because it is so dry there is a high fire risk at the moment. It was clear to see where the fire had jumped over the motorway – all the grass was burned and black. Very scary!
Tomorrow we are going up to Yanchep National Park – to see the caves.