The Andersons in Oz: Gold Coast Christmas

We arrived in Canberra (aka. the Australian Capital Territory, or ACT) on December 19, 2006, but unfortunately our air shipment did not. With only our luggage and some dishes/kitchen items borrowed from the Canadian High Commission, it didn't take much to convince us that Christmas would be better spent in the company of friends than an empty house. So on December 22nd we hit the road. Our destination was Brisbane, home of our dear friends the Barker family - Tim, Tracey, Joseph, Daniel and Dominic. We made a point of driving inland for the two day trek. It was amazing (and somewhat shocking) to watch the scenery slowly transition from completely dry and brown in the drought-stricken ACT and New South Wales areas, to green, even greener, then almost lush rain forest as we made our way to the coast and Brisbane.

Christmas day was an "out of body" experience. We had a beautiful breakfast then Santa visited and passed out all the gifts. William got a scooter! Tracey's boys got a "Sing Star" game for their nintendo and we were very entertained over the next week listening to the kids take turns singing well known pop and rock songs. (Entertaining is an understatement....!) This was also the time that William was introduced (and became addicted) to the game of cricket thanks to the Barker boys and the five day "Ashes" tournament that began on Boxing Day.

A little later we left for the Gold Coast - one hour south of Brisbane - where Tracey's brother Peter had rented an apartment for the holidays. We met the rest of Tracey's family - her brothers, their spouses, and lots of kids. Christmas dinner was an amazing spread of sea food (Morton Bay "bugs", giant prawns, crab, oysters, etc), salads and pavlova for dessert.

Then we hit the beach! To be in Australia with the Barkers and their extended family was overwhelming, but actually being on the beach in Australia on Christmas day was surreal! The Surf Life Savers thought we were crazy asking to have our pictures taken with them.....maybe it was the hats! The water was warm but there were rip tides so we spent most of our time hanging on to William. William and Ian gave boogey boarding a first try - they had a blast!