I can hardly believe that Christmas has already come and gone. Last week marked one year since we made the move from Melbourne to the Gold Coast—and what a year it has been. When I think back to last Christmas, I remember arriving at our new house on December 23rd, surrounded by boxes, trying to organise presents and meals for Christmas Day. That time feels like such a blur now, and I’m very grateful that this year’s holidays didn’t involve packing up our lives and moving interstate!
The summer break has felt very long already. Schools break up earlier here in Queensland than in Victoria, and even earlier still for those in private school - which our kids now are, as they attend the schools Andy and I work at. Ella finished on 27th November, so over a month ago, which is crazy early!
We had Andy's parents here with us for the first three weeks of December. During the first week of the school holidays, while Ella was the only one finished, Dave and Bunny helped her to set up the Christmas tree. Poor Dave had the unenviable job of sorting out the Christmas tree lights - which is never a fun job!
Along with the Christmas decorations came the elves - a relatively new Christmas tradition that I must admit is not my favourite. Remembering to move them every night is hard work, and yes, we do forget sometimes, which then requires some creative explanations for why our elves haven’t moved. Ella is starting to suspect that the elves don’t actually move themselves, but I think she loves them enough to quietly push those thoughts to the back of her mind - for one more year, at least. I do wonder whether next year she’ll still believe, or whether she’ll be quite happy to know the truth and take on the role of moving the elves around for Ollie herself. I suspect that outcome might actually be best for all of us, as Ella would absolutely love dreaming up and creating the elves’ daily adventures.
Here is the kids favourite elf activity from this year, they are all playing Uno and have the cards 6 and 7 in front of them. If you have school-aged twins you'll get the
6 7 reference, and if you don't, consider yourself lucky!
We have special elf carriers that we got when we moved last year, which meant that sometimes Ella would ask the elves at night to go in their carriers so that they could come out with us the next day. They had an eventful day with us in Labrador, first at the Ninja park:
Walking along the Broadwater:
Having an ice cream and then watching the pelican feeding:
Another day they came along with us to HOTA (Home of the Arts) for the afternoon. This was the first time we'd had the paddle board out in a while and Ella had a great time paddling around the little lake.
Ollie wasn't keen to get into the water that day, he preferred playing at the playground and then agreed to go inside the gallery with Bunny and me. They had a cute exhibition around birthdays, where each day of the year was represented by a symbol. You could then write a card to your 'birthday twin', find a little letter box with your symbol on it, and leave your card for someone else to find. You could also take a card that had been left behind by someone else. Ollie had fun writing a card and finding the correct letter box, and then even asked if we could visit the rest of the gallery. Unfortunately we didn't have a lot of time there, but it gave me hope that Ollie will join me on some gallery visits in the future, like we used to do to the NGV in Melbourne.
Bunny and I took the kids to Brisbane one day. We took the train, which is an hour, but takes you right to South Bank and it only costs 50 cents per journey for public transport across Queensland (amazing!). On the train I managed to make a deal with the kids that they would read for the first half hour, and then would be allowed to play Golf Battle on my phone for the second half. A half win I suppose, I suppose it's unrealistic in this day and age to expect that kids will go entirely screen free for an hour on a train - though I will keep trying (sigh!)
When we came out of the station, we spotted a piano, which of course meant the kids immediately had to sit down and “play.” Just yesterday I mentioned that it would be lovely to have a piano at home, and they seemed super keen. I really should have thought of this weeks ago and planted the seed for a shared family gift from Santa, but it didn’t occur to me in time! I have been doing a bit of research into digital pianos over the past week, and I’d genuinely love to get one, if only as an excuse for me to try picking it up again too.
After a bit of piano playing we headed to the big playground in South Bank, where the kids played and we had lunch. There were a few fun things to find set up around the city, like these fairy doors and giant elves.
'Streets Beach' is a man made lagoon surrounded by sand on South Bank, and is a really cool feature of the city. Brisbane city does not have an actual beach so this is really the next best thing. It's free to use and patrolled by lifeguards - things like this are what I really love about living in Australia (if this was in Europe or North America there would almost certainly be an entrance fee!).
We had a nice morning at the Botanical Gardens, with the kids riding their bikes and the adults walking. It's such a calm and peaceful place to visit.
On another day, we met one of Ella’s friends down at Tallebudgera Creek. It’s a wonderful spot if you’re looking for calmer water, especially as most Gold Coast beaches are surf beaches. The location is beautiful, with Burleigh Heads National Park on one side and the entrance to the sea just nearby. It’s also a great place to take the paddle board, which we did that day. The only downside is parking at Tallebudgera, which can be tricky if you don’t arrive early!
Andy kept his dad busy with jobs around the house, including replacing a rotted beam under the deck,
looking at the plumbing for a new fridge with an ice/water dispenser (I love our new fridge, it is SO GOOD to have the ice maker, living here where you are in need of cold water almost all year round),
and installing keyless locks on our doors (also an amazing new feature that I didn't know we needed, but makes life so much easier. It was great to have Dave around to help Andy with all of these things! Best of all Dave helped Andy fill up our new poolside bean bags. These things are THE BEST! I have a new reading spot in the back yard, and they even go in the pool.
We spent A LOT of time in the pool, with an afternoon dip a regular occurrence with the whole family, including Bunny and DAve. Around 3pm was a good time as the pool is mostly in the shade by then. We got a new volleyball net (Andy's Secret Santa gift from Bunny) which provided quite a bit of entertainment.
Andy took his mum and dad for a walk and coffee along Main Beach, which has really come along since they were here in April/May this year. The city has done a lot to repair the beaches since the cyclone and Main Beach is almost back to its former glory! Bunny and Dave also appreciate the surf life saving clubs, where you can get a fairly priced meal with the most glorious view.
One day trip I missed out on (I believe I went Christmas shopping) was to Cedar Creek Falls in Tamborine Mountain. It's a gorgeous location, although Andy and Ella were the only ones brave enough to swim under the waterfall in the ice cold water.
We have done a good few days at the Theme Parks since school has ended, splitting our time between water parks and roller coasters. Ollie has been game to try more and more waterslides, which makes it a much more fun day out for everyone. Ollie and Ella have also loved the wavepool, spending hours in there playing together happily - I've even managed to just sit on the side reading my book! Andy has managed to get Ollie on a small roller coaster on their last trip to Dreamworld, so we are slowly getting him to try more and more on his visits there. Now that we are in the peak Christmas holiday period the theme parks are super busy, so I reckon we'll avoid them for the next few weeks!
Both kids love playing with dad, and the soccer pitch outside has gotten it's fair share of action over the past few months. Ollie received a premier league sticker book from Dave and Bunny, direct from England, where you get sticker packs with players - kind of like cards but in sticker form. This has kept him totally occupied throughout the holidays - he is never happier than when he is sticking new players in his book or organising the duplicates.
I was planning on including Christmas and the last week to make this a whole December recap, but I think this post is long enough already - so I'll save that for the next one!
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