December 24th

We spent most of the morning packing for Rainbow Beach. Elray will work his last day before Christmas at the shop and fetch his son, Aaron and finish the packing and head  up later in the day.  We got headed out, I was put in charge of driving the Toyota RAV.  On the way up there we stopped in Gympie to have lunch with Robyn's Uncle Les and Aunt Fern and cousins Roger and Bronwyn.  We ate under their house.  Interesting.  It's on stilts so they use that as a sort of porch or 3 season room.  I had some Billy Tea which Les made.  It's basically tea that is made by putting loose leaf tea in a metal teapot that is boiled over an open wood fire.  I don't know what it is exactly but it tastes very good compared to regular tea.  Maybe it's the smoky flavor, don't know.

Uncle Les brewing up his Billy tea.

 Loose leaf tea- you get some escapees.

 The family eating lunch underneath the house.

 Angela and her sister, Fern having coffees

Cooper making his first attempt at an old fashioned game.  Stilts made of  tin cans.

Must have a bleating goat in your backyard in Australia. Video wouldn't upload.

We got to the Holiday house and started to get moved in.  What a shocker.  Only about half the light sockets had bulbs in them, several other key ones such as above the sink just plain didn't work.  The dishwasher was broken ( a big deal when there is 15 staying in one house ).  So easy to say not impressed when we moved in.  Not easy to get any one to to do anything about it with it being Christmas eve.  So we got to work making it our home for the week.  Children got busy swimming in the pool.  We got the Christmas tree up.  Went and took an evening walk along the beach.  The surf is very churned up and brown color because they just had a Cyclone go through up north. 

 Cooper and Tucker pretending to sleep.

 Decorating the tree.

 Prezzies under the tree.

 First trip down to the beach Christmas eve  evening.

 Cooper on the beach ( man about town ).

All children came back wet and sandy despite being fully dressed and told not to get wet. Note to self: dress children in swim suits regardless of where we go in case of beach diversion.