Five more sleeps and the big man in red will be on his way :o) How exciting!

We should be at the outdoor cinema tonight watching Wall E, but what was billed as an 'early shower' has turned into a downpour that's lasted all day on and off. Queue three very cheesed off kids and I caved in and let Adam open an early Chrimbo pressie from Nanny B which I cunningly happened to know contained a Wall E DVD! How fortunate! We even made lots of yummy things to take with us tonight, but there's no alternative other than to sit in the warm and pig them all ourselves. Merry Christmas!! I just hope the weather improves for tomorrow night as it's Carols by Candelight in Perth. Mind you, I thnk I'd wrap up and take an umbrella for tomorrow night as it's the only date in the WA Christmas calendar that feels remotely festive.

I hope you enjoyed the videos that I uploaded below. We were very proud of Sam receiving the Endeavour Award as he's had a pretty rough year at school this year. He has enjoyed music and tries really hard with his guitar and Paul's drums. Most Fridays he took his guitar in to school and played with a few friends whilst some girls sang. Nothing like a boy band for securing a few groupies! Sam got a very good report from school and even though he's been through a lot of crap with the teachers and fellow pupils, I think they have acknowledged that he's quite a bright boy underneath all the gob! Sam went to his orientation day for the new school come February and thoroughly enjoyed it. He had a taster of art (making a lovely paperweight from a pebble with a paintede christmas tree on it), IT, which Sam loves (he commented how good it was to have a PC each and not one between 2/3 as it is currently) and .... wait for it.... Japanese!! He brought home a worksheet and I didn't even know if I was holding it the right way up! Sam has done well in Indonesian, although he doesn't enjoy it as much as Darcie seems to. I have managed to pick up three words in the two years he has been doing it. My favourites are lampu (for lamp) and do-a-poo-loo (I don't know how it's spelt, but it sounds funny :o) I think that's 20).

Darcie was sad to leave school. She plods along and gets on well with pupils and teachers alike. She put so much effort into her christmas assembly item; it was lovely to watch. She's a little nervous about starting the new school, but give it a week and I'm sure she'll be in her stride. She also got a glowing report. Her teacher is also leaving Secret Harbour Primary to get married and move up north, so they were all in tears when I picked her up on Thursday.

Adam is already commenting that he misses Kindy. In my usual 'crap mother' style, I hadn't actually realised that his last day was his last day (if that makes any sense!). I thought he had another two days left at kindy until I dropped him off in the morning and a few of the mums were in tears and they all had party food. It wasn't until one of the teaching assistants commented about how sad she was that it was their 'last day in kindy EVER' that I paniced! I had a little gift for the teachers, but hadn't taken any food in for the class party as I thought it was the following thursday! I did ensure they were wrapped nicely though by the time I collected Adam and he gave them to the teachers with a hug and I was slightly redeemed. I had so much going on in my head that week, I don't know how I'm supposed to know things when I haven't even been told about them! Even I'm not that good!! Adam is already commenting on how much he misses Kindy. He really did love it there (I would liken it to Sam and his love of Mrs Peyrovi in Templewood). I only hope he grows to love his new school just as much.

Here's a photo of Adam before his school christmas concert which was held at the local performing arts centre. He always looks so distant from the other kids; he's still very shy and it takes him a long time to come out of his shell.

So, as I mentioned, we have had a busy few weeks. We went for our annual trips down the canals to see the lights the other weekend. I have to say, I think they were even bigger and better than last year (and I didn't think that was possible!!). My photos haven't turned out very well, but I'm sure you can picture the scene!

I had Christmas carols on the iPod and mince pies, so you can't say that I don't try to make it festive!

Darcie had a class excursion to watch madagascar 2 at the local cinema and I went along with Adam. It was good fun, although I admit to being a little disappointed once it started and I twigged that it wasn't the Wild - another cartoony type film that I had confused it with. Never mind, the kids all seemed to enjoy it. On the same day, Darcie had a friend over for a sleep over and I'd promised to take the girls to watch High School Musical 3 at the pictures too. Like buses - don't go at all for months on end and then twice in one day! The boys however decided they wanted a little HSM action too and came along as well. The girls sat on their own though and we had to pretend that we didn't know each other :o)

We've had a night at the dog racing with some new friends, a 40th / housewarming party, a BBQ, in fact more social outings in the last few months that we've had in the last year :o) It's been lovely. Busy, but lovely! The kids are happy as they have new mates to play with and Paul has new friends to talk about boats, cars and bollocks with (like men do).

We went to see Father Christmas arrive by helicopter again at a local store. It certainly wasn't anywhere near as busy as it has been for the last few years.

I don't know if that has anything to do with the global credit crunch, or the fact that I didn't hear it advertised on the radio as much.

Darcie and Sean waiting for Father Christmas.

We also didn't go to the Christmas Parade in perth this year. This was due to them chaning the time this year. It always used to be on a Saturday night and the floats were lit up and all the families came into Perth to make a night of it. This year, they altered it to the Sunday morning starting (wait for it), at 7.30am!! the parade itself started at 9.30! There was no way we could get into the city for that time in the morning, so we gave it a miss and watched it on the TV in th evening. Unfortuately for the City of Perth, it looked like we were not the only ones as the streets look deserted! So their idea of having the parade in the morning so everyone would hand on and do their christmas shopping afterwards went horribly wrong!

We're going to the beach on Christmas morning so the kids can have a swim and the adults can have a champagne and relax (hopefully in the sunshine! it is forecast to be 35 degrees on christmas day). then we've been invited to a friends house for christmas day and we're all clubbing together for the food and drink. We've hosting New Year, so anyone who fancies coming is more than welcome.

So in less than a month, Margaret will be here on her hols. We are off before Margaret arrives for a week up north to Monkey Mia and Kalbarri. An eight hour drive to travel three inches along the coastline of Western Australia! Makes you realise just how large Australia is! We're all really looking forward to it as we're all knackered and in desperate need of a rest. January is usually quiet work-wise, so we're making the most of it. Now we have Sue to hold the fort too, this should take a little pressure off.

I've almost finished the Christmas shopping, so am feeling about an 8/10 on the smug front. I've just got one present to collect for Adam on lay by and a few little bits to get and I'm done. All I have is wrapped and ready, so I can enjoy the last few days before Christmas.

The pool has been getting a lot of use over the last week. the water has warmed up and it's a lovely temperature. We have solar heating on the roof of the house and I think we'll have to turn this off in the summer or run the risk of having a pool as hot as a bath. Nice to see Paul getting into the water now without his nuts appearing by his Adam's apple though :o) You can see form the video clip below that Adam is getting very confident in the water now. He even got a certificate at his lesson this week for putting his face in the water. Seeing as for the last three months, he's just stood in the pool with the hump, this is a MAJOR achievement! I always said to the teachers that they'd remember him when he was on the podium getting his gold int he olympics as being the whingy little git who stood in the water with a face as long as Shergar. Maybe I will be right :o)

I hope you are all happy, healthy and contented and looking forward to a wonderful Christmas. Wish I could pop back for a week's worth of christmas cheer and a good shop, but I'll have to make due with sunshine and santas on surfboards. Keep in touch over Christmas. It'd be lovely to hear what you're all up to and maybe see some photos of you all enjoying christmas. In the meantime, love to you all. Here's wishing you a very Merry christmas and love and laughter for 2009.

Lots of love,

Ju, Paul, Sam, Darcie and Adam xxXXxx