Christmas 2011 United States

When we made our plans to head to Virginia for 3 weeks for the holidays, it seemed like a long time.....it is amazing how fast that time flew!!   We stayed with Pops & Dede for a week, Tutu & Grandada for a week and Aunt Woo & Uncle D for a week.  It was an amazing Christmas.   You appreciate time spent with family so much more when you only have a few weeks!  We also LOVED seeing SADIE!!!!  

Train ride to the airport!!

Cheers!!

The original Santa in Richmond, Virginia.

The massage chair was making Courtney "shimmy, shimmy!"

Family pictures below......

And it wouldn't be Christmas without Pops playing the accordian...

Hobson Family photos...

Thanks for the silly string Aunt Jennifer!!

Bowling fun...

Our BIG send off at the Richmond Airport!!!    WE LOVE OUR FAMILY!!!!!

Christmas 2011 Australia

Decorating for Christmas in 30C weather is a little hard to grasp.   It felt very weird to have Christmas decoration up with the girls swimming in the pool!   

The elves managed to find us in Brisbane and created some havoc in our new home!!    

We left for the US on the 16th of December and returned 8th of January.  The girls must have been really good this year because Santa visited them in the US and in Australia!!

Rainy Day Fun

We had a bit of rain one day and the girls took the opportunity to enjoy!!

Fun in the Pool

Troy & Taylor having fun in the pool!

GOMA

The girls and I visited GOMA (Gallery of Museum of Art) on a beautiful day in December.   GOMA is located in South Bank which is on the river not too far from CBD.   The first exhibit we visited was the Obliteration Room.   Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama is one of the most significant and influential artists working today. When she was a small girl she started seeing the world through a screen of tiny dots. They covered everything she saw – the walls, ceilings and even her own body. For 40 years she has made paintings, sculptures and photographs using dots to cover surfaces and fill rooms. Kusama calls this process 'obliteration', which means the complete destruction of every trace of something.  When the exhibit was first opened, EVERYTHING in the room was white.   As each child entered, they received a page of colored dots.  They were allowed to put the dots ANYWHERE in the room.   It was pretty amazing.   As you can see, we were there several days after it opened.

The next exhibit was Pip & Pops “We miss you Magic Land”.  Pip & Pop are from Perth, Australia.   Adopting the expression 'more is more', Pip & Pop have transformed hundreds of objects and craft materials into beautiful, glittery worlds for 'we miss you magic land!'. Using cake decorating tools, they funnelled rainbow-coloured sugar crystals, fine sands and glitter to create lacy patterned hilltops and valleys, dotting them with artificial flowers, plastic trinkets, crystals and sequins. The finished result is a series of delightful magical worlds where make-believe becomes a part of reality.  It took them weeks to set up this exhibit.

Household Visitors

Here are a few “friends” that have come to visit us in our new home.

The one in the pool is a Cane Toad....these guys come out in the rain and like to go swimming in the pool.   The cane toads have poisonous glands and are highly toxic to most animals if ingested.  We will have to keep a close eye on Sadie when she arrives.  

The possum, Polly, decided that she liked living in our attic.  Since they are noctunal animals, this did not fair too well with the family!  We had to call Pesky Possum to have her caught and removed.   No, you cannot kill them in Australia...they are protected and have to be relocated.