Boxing Day - New Years

We had an eventful week between Boxing Day and New Years, which was a great finish to 2022. Th forecast was showing a hot and sunny day for Boxing Day so we headed to the beach (minus Andy who went to the cricket with Verge and his dad). We headed down to my favourite beach for kids - Half Moon Bay, where the water is generally calm and shallow.

On our way I received a text from Betty, who lives about five minutes from Half Moon Bay. Coincidently, her family was also thinking about heading down there that day, so we made plans to meet.

We arrived by about 10am, and the beach was already starting to fill up. Fortunately we got a nice spot to set up our cabana and beach mats before most of the crowds arrived. 

The weather was actually pretty great at the beach all day, not too hot at all with a nice breeze off the bay. Where we live in Melbourne (about 10km from the bay) it can be 5-10 degrees hotter than by the water, and on days when the temperature is over 30 degree celsius and full sun our house gets very, very hot. We have a very weak air conditioning system that just can't compete with the Australian sun!  

Betty and Jon and their family arrived an hour or two after us, and brought their stand up paddle board with them, which was a HUGE hit with the kids, Ella especially. Jon's brother, who was visiting from the UK, spent a good half hour dragging them out about 20-30m from the beach and then letting them surf back in on the paddle board. And then he even took Ella out further for a paddle, her sitting on the edge of the board while they explored. 

My parents tested out their new beach chairs, which Andy and I got them for Christmas. They fold up pretty small and weigh just over 1kg. They were a hit! Andy and I now have a pair of them as well, they are great to bring to the beach or the park and so easy to transport. 

Even Ollie loves the chairs!

We ended up spending the whole day at the beach, packing up to go home around 6pm. Everyone was tired, in that good way when you are tired after a whole day outside having fun. 

Ollie was the least tired, having snuck in a nap during the day on the beach. This kid can sleep anywhere!

The next day the temperature was expected to get even hotter, about 37 degrees. We were afraid we might melt in our house, but luckily Steve and Michelle ended up inviting us to theirs for the day. It was hot but they'd just had two new air conditioners installed before Christmas, and boy was it refreshing inside their house! It was like North American level air conditioning.

They also have a lovely big covered deck which we spent most of the day outside on, lounging around trying not to exert too much energy in the heat. The kids had a great time swimming in a (pretty big) blow up pool on the deck, playing in the back garden, and going inside to explore Gemma and Archer's new Christmas toys.

The next few days were pretty low key. We spent lazy mornings drinking coffee and having a leisurely breakfast, the adults reading their preferred news sources while Ella and Ollie played together or watched TV. We had to clean up the house after Christmas as well, which is always a boring but necessary task!

The day before New Years Eve Andy and I met up with Verge and Taryn for a rare parents night out... manageable as we both have grandparents staying with us for a few months. Andy and I tried to get a picture of the two of us before our date night but it turned into a family shot:

Andy and I went for a drink together at Arbory Afloat, the floating bar on the Yarra River, before meeting Taryn and Verge at Movida for dinner. It was so nice to go out for a proper meal for dinner. We hardly go out for dinner anymore... kids, cost of living, etc etc, makes it a not very appealing way to spend the evening. But this was fantastic food with good company, almost a glimpse of our pre-children lives!

Oh

After Movida we headed to Friday Nights at the NGV. Every Friday the gallery is open from 6pm-10pm and there is live music and pop-up bars which you can enjoy, along with the latest exhibition which is currently "Alexander McQueen: Mind Mythos Muse". Although haute couture is not really my thing, it was still very interesting to view some of McQueen's creations. I was most impressed with the headpieces for each outfit, and was surprised to learn that halfway through that they were all created by a different designer called Michael Schmidt specifically for this exhibition.

The collection I found most moving was the Widows of Culloden (2006-07) which "acknowledges McQueen's Scottish ancestry and condemns Britain's violent colonial history, particularly the brutal 1746 Battle of Culloden... (the) collection memorialises Highlander widows left behind". The music playing in this particular part of the exhibition was the soundtrack to the movie "The Piano" which added to the atmosphere. 

We also enjoyed the warm summer evening with some champagne in the NGV gardens.

On New Years Eve we decided to head into the city for the early evening fireworks. It's really great that the city do 9:30pm fireworks for families! Michelle and Steve came over the in afternoon with the kids and we had a few drinks at home before taking the tram to Treasury Gardens, one of the four designated "celebration zones" in the city for watching the fireworks.

Once we got settled in our spot for the evening my parents generously offered to watch all four kids while so the four parents could go for a drink. There was some entertainment on a stage and the kids had fun dancing and running around the gardens, enjoying a churros treat from my parents.

It’s very rare we are able to go out with Steve and Michelle without our kids around so this was a nice treat! The four of us headed to the nearby Farmer’s Daughter for some fancy cocktails on their beautiful rooftop bar. 

Steve was very unimpressed with his second fancy cocktail...

Once we got back to the grandparents and kids we got some food to eat. There were only two food trucks at our celebration zone, which wasn't nearly enough for all of the people. Fortunately the Mexican restaurant Fonda was close by, so we ordered from then instead, my mom and I walking over to pick up the food and enjoying a bit of air conditioning (and indoor toilets) before heading back with our food.

The kids, Ella and Gemma especially, were very impressed with the fireworks (though they are not nearly as spectacular as the midnight ones!) Once they were over we made a mad dash for the tram and got on the first one, taking our tired children home to sleep. 

Andy, my parents and I barely lasted until midnight, forcing ourselves to stay up to ring in the new year and watch the fireworks on TV. 

And so we say goodbye to 2022. It was a bit of a crazy busy year in terms of work and activities for the kids, as is maybe obvious by my lack of ability to post regularly on the blog. Here's to 2023, I'm hoping for a slightly less busy year on the work front at least :)