Christmas Pictures

Hervey Bay, The day after Christmas





Australian "snow ball" fight about to begin




R.T. hitting Abbie with a big "snowball"





a true aussie





The best Christmas Present. A Care package from home


No explanation needed

Merry Christmas

For those of you who do not have an insanely busy Christmas and are able to catch up on some blogs.....MERRY CHRISTMAS.
We have come to terms with having Christmas in shorts and are looking forward to celebrating Christmas with some traditions from home and also some newly adopted traditions.
Our children will open stockings tonight (Christmas Eve). This is American. The tradition here is to open a huge "santa sack" first thing on Christmas morning - alot of times prezzies are opened on Christmas Eve. Instead of attending a Christmas Eve service, we will attend a Christmas morning service. We will have our traditional fancy breakfast and a big dinner in the evening. An Australian tradition that we are looking forward to is having plum pudding. We have been invited to a friends house to "fancy our tastebuds".
The kids will be surprised with their final gifts. They get some squirt guns. They get to go outside with dad and grandpa and "cool off" This is an Australian tradition. Supposibly it is against the drought rules, but it is not strictly enforced on Christmas :-)
We will leave on Friday morning and will head to the beach for a couple of days. This is what most Australians do for the holiday.
May God bless you all this holiday season with good times with friends and family and a closer relationship with Jesus Christ.

Clubs

O.k. there is a club for everything. I would say in our town alone, there is probably 25 or more clubs (i.e. woodworking, swimming, autism etc). Most clubs require a gold coin ($1,$2)donation to participate. I have been part of the "go getter girls" for about 6 weeks now. We are a running group. We meet at 5:30am on Mon, Thurs and we run 5k's. On Tues and Sat. we meet at the same time; but on tues, we do cross training and Saturday, we run between 10 and 12k's.
This morning was our last run for the year. When we arrived, we found that we were going to have a party. Our coach started by saying that a surprise guest travelled from a far to attend. Little did I know, I was the surprise guest. They introduced me to an Australian Christmas, including beach chair, cooler, and a decorated beach hat. I also learned to play backyard Cricket. The party ended with an Australian snowball (a cup of water)being thrown at me.
It was a very nice way to curb some of the holiday homesickness blues. I have said before...Australians have to be some of the friendliest people around.

Carols in the park

Carols in the park is a tradition that occurs in towns all across Australia. We were very excited to be a part of it. Ours was not in the park, instead it was in front of the town hall. We enjoyed this outdoor event in our shorts in about 75 degree weather. It started at 7 p.m. with the moderator telling about the true meaning of Christmas. This was followed by the scripture about Mary and Joseph travelling to Bethlehem and finding no

room in the hostel (inn)

After this some public school children sang carols and Christmas songs. The audience also joined in on singing many carols. We then had another scripture reading and another precessional .

After singing and hearing more carols, we enjoyed the highlight of the evening. This was the scripture reading about the wise men visiting Jesus. The wise men arrived in style. What a treat!!!

After the arrival of the wise men, a good friend of ours (a great Christian and a recorded musician) performed a few songs. The evening ended around 9 with the presenting of the gospel message. We were in awe that this performance could be had in front of the town hall. What amazes me even more is that this town of 10,000 has fewer people attending church on Sunday morning than what attends First Baptist WP on Sunday morning.

Even though we miss home, the american traditions and all the snow that West Plains is getting, we feel humbled and blessed to be here and experience Christmas in Australia.

The Messiah

Dressed up WITH some place to go. On Thursday, Dec. 4th, we were blessed to be able to hear the Handel's Messiah performed by the Sydney Philharmonic Symphony Chorus, Philharmonic Orchestra and the Philharmonic Messiah Chorus. There were about 50 in the orchestra and there were 500 voices. There were also 4 soloists.
I have always been in awe of the Messiah. I think that it is one of the best written Christian pieces. Not only are the instrumentals incredibly melodius, but the words to the songs are incredible. Being able to hear this piece performed in such an awe-inspiring place, made the Messiah that much better.
While listening to the performance this time, I kept a copy of the words in front of me. Words like...."surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him" and "Why do the nations so furiously rage together;...the kings of earth rise up and the rulers counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed" and "Hallelujah; for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth..He shall reign forever" Lastly...."I know that my redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and though the worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God."
I was listening to the words about nations fighting and people rising up against God and I was just reminded up all the filth that is around me. I was feeling a bit burdened by the economic times and about our future leadership. Just as I was feeling a bit depressed, I was jolted back into the reality of the performance when I heard 500 voices sing "Hallelujah: For the Lord God omnipotent (all powerful God) reigneth." I went from a feeling a despondensy to elation in a matter of minutes. I feel so blessed that I do not have to worry about the stress of the world around me. I feel completely at peace knowing that God knows the past and He knows the future...He is in control of the future....I really hope that during this holiday season that you can also feel the only true peace that comes from God. Hallelujah !!! my God reigns.

Sydney

We can tick Sydney off the list. We arrived home from Sydney yesterday (friday) after being there for a week. We took a ferry to Manly Island, explored the Military reserve (now home of the Biggest Loser - Australia), went to Bondi beach (the side where there are no tan lines and the family side), we ran several mornings in the botanical gardens, went to the zoo, shopping....and yes.....we saw the Opera house. I was not too impressed at first, but on Thurs. we took a tour. That place really does deserve the praise that it gets. It is amazing!!! It is a building within a building. The roof is actually made up of over a million little tiles with 5 varing colors. This allows the building to change from white, to pink, to tan, to yellow. When standing on the side that faces the harbour, it feels like you are on a ships bow. RT actually felt like he was moving. On thurs. night we went to hear the Sydney Philharmonic Ochestra and Choirs perform the Handels Messiah in the Opera House. More on that in a different blog.

We are now back home. We set up our Charlie Brown Christmas tree this morning. The temperature inside of our house is 85 degrees. We heard that West Plains had snow this past week......ahhh must be nice....week......ahhh must be nice....

Thanksgiving in Australia

Bondi Beach

Flowers at Botanical gardens(pic for Dr. Laurie)

sitting in the botanical gardens overlooking the Opera House

On holiday, poll results

We will be leaving for holiday (vacation) tomorrow (saturday). We are going to see the Sydney Opera house. I will not post any more blogs until we get back.
R.T. was somewhat saddened that people do not think of him as a "relaxed kind of guy" :-) There were two of you who thought that he would wear shorts - two who thought that he would wear them when the thermostat reached 100. the other 12 votes thought that he would not wear them. I will keep you updated......he does wear jeans (with dress shoes) a couple of times a week.....so just maybe the shorts will become reality......