Christmas '06

Welcome to our Christmas letter for 2006!!

Our first year in Newcastle

We’ve been here in Newcastle now for 11 months – it’s amazing how the time has flown! Niall has just been to visit Bathurst (for the first time since we left) for a confirmation service for two of the young people there. Unfortunately the kids and Fiona had to stay behind – but we hope to get back there sometime soon to catch up with everyone again! We’ve had a few visitors drop by on their way north, which has been great, but we really need to go to Bathurst to catch up with everyone!

We are really enjoying all that Newcastle offers – the many activities, beaches, pools, galleries, places to eat, the lake, free bands, picnic spots, and everything in easy reach. The weather is lovely – and lots of rain. Niall has enjoyed getting a garden started (the snow peas were a hit with Connor particularly).

The house is going really well (we love our kitchen additions!) and the kids are having a wonderful time at preschool, playgroup, at nanna’s and gran’s and trying out Grandpa’s pool when we get the chance. Having family around has been so wonderful for us and the rest of the family!

Kids update…

Laura is nearly 5 and is very ready for school next year! She has been to the two orientations at Jesmond Primary School and has her uniform already. It’s a really small school, but is a great setup and all the parents can’t stop saying good things about the school. And it is just down the road – a 5 min walk. She has been attending Jesmond Community Preschool this year two days a week and several of her friends are going to her school next year, which is great. Laura loves preschool and her teachers often comment on how much leadership she demonstrates (they say she’s almost an assistant teacher sometimes!). The teachers there are fabulous – it couldn’t have worked out better for us with the preschool so close to our house too.

Laura has continued with music appreciation classes this year with 5 other girls (lots of giggling!) – they just did their music concert this week. They all did so well – multi-skilling with 3 instruments at once. And then a big party to finish. Laura’s swimming has improved out of sight this year – she is now really confident, showing us all how well she could swim near Gran’s house in the creek – freestyle for a few metres by herself! It’s a big difference from a year ago where she wouldn’t even get her face wet.

Connor is 2½ and finally getting the hang of this talking thing with strings of words now coming out! He’s as cute as ever, and adores his big sister (they play together really well!). Connor is currently going to 3 playgroups – Nanna looks after him on Tuesdays and takes him to Kotara; Dad looks after him on Wednesdays and takes him to Shortland; and Fi takes Laura and Connor on Thursdays to New Lambton playgroup. He loves playing with trains, cars and buses, so quickly migrates towards these! Connor started swimming lessons this term and has quickly progressed from the babies class to the learn to swim classes (although he cries a lot, unless he’s doing swimming!). Connor loves animals (unlike Laura) and being outside, so he loves going to Gran’s and playing with Bonnie (golden retriever) and running around the farm. Poor Yoda (Nanna’s cat) knows Connor all too well (run for your life)! Connor is getting very tall and is still eating lots of food of all sorts.