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a tree, a tree, a glorious tree

“Christmas, children, is not a date. It is a state of mind.” Mary Ellen Chase (1988-1973)

This year/last year (Christmas 08 is what we are talking about here), instead of getting a Radiata Pine from the farm, we got a farmed Radiata from Real Christmas Trees. Oh my lordy what a tree it was. It was just packed full of branches and it was shaped like a real Christmas Tree! In saying that in hindsight, we would have done some selective pruning as since the tree was so bushy, the ornaments were to a degree buried in the pine needles.

Karl, the girls and I decorated on the afternoon of the 23rd. Well perhaps it is more true to say Karl and I decorated the tree whilst the girls had fun with the tinsel and taking photos. What follows are photos, lots of photos. IF the photo has Silja in it, it was taken by Birta, if it has Birta in it, it was taken by Silja, that applies for most photos, but pretty much the first half were taken by Birta, the next half were taken by Silja and then the last handful and the first few were taken by myself and then a handful near the end were taken by Karl. Does that make any sense? probably not.

Eventually the tree was covered with ornaments and then out came the magic texters and the girls gave tattooed our legs. I went to the doctors that afternoon to see about my leech bite with one leg covered in doodles 🙂

Karl
Decorating the Christmas Tree 2008

Wrapping the tree in tinsel
Tinsel, Tinsel, Tinsel

Birta and I doing silly faces
Crazy Girls

Due to the sheer number of photos to share from this day, here is a slide show again 🙂

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Climbing with family

December 22, 2008.
Dear Diary,
Today I did something I haven’t done in years. I went Rock Climbing! I know you say, you haven’t done that in years. I think it has probably been almost ten years! Still I remembered that a) the general idea is to do your best to move up the rock face and b) take lots of photos. Karl used to do a fair bit of climbing when he lived in Aus and Al, one of my cousins from Tasmania is a bit of a climbing freak – he is more monkey/rock wallaby than human, KWIM? Erica and Ash, well they are just a poster couple for outdoor pursuits. I, I just take photos. Back to the climbing though. We all piled into my car and headed to that Gorilla looking mountain in the Glasshouses called Tibrogargan to a place called the Slider Wall for climbing, photos, mozzie bites, talking, more climbing and even more photos.

The first climb we did was Such A Nice Monster, Al walked up it first and put in the top rope anchor before Karl, Erica and Ash all followed suit. I had no intention of even trying it but I was there, I had a harness with me. I gave it a go in joggers and an infected foot, I didn’t get to the top but still I gave it a go and to some point enjoyed it. They then moved up a little and did The Most Monstrous Monster. It was really cool to see Al just walked/scamper up the face. After a little bit more climbing and more photos we moved up the Upper Slider Wall for great views and more climbing for the boys.

We managed to get to the car a few minutes before dark which was very handy, then it was a trip to the drive-throu for some beers and back to The Block for dinner with the Tasmanian crew. Sometime later when it was late, Karl and I made the drive home to Kedron tired and happy. I don’t know when I will go climbing again but I did have fun.

Helen
PS, I guess I should share some photos shouldn’t I?