Keeping my fingers crossed Sam!

Time sure goes quickly

Its 10pm Sunday night. The boys are having their Tiger Woods Wii rematch for the 3rd time (?). Its nice having another guy around to give someone for Jim to play with. They have played wii every night since we got back from Terrigal. Just something I don't tend to do with him I guess.
Can't believe in 13 hours Sam will be on a plane back to Alaska. I know he can't believe it either. Time just blew past. But I think in the whirlwind trip here he has managed to see quite a bit -- Downtown Sydney on day one, Melbourne and the Yarra Valley days 2-4, Terrigal days 5-7. Then back to Northbridge for Christmas Eve through now. Despite the dreary weather since we returned from Terrigal, we managed to celebrate Christmas with the outdoor mass at church. They tried fishing a couple of times from the dock. And this afternoon we even snuck in a Captain Cook Cruise so he got to see the fancy shoreline all around Sydney. Not bad. Not bad.

Tomorrow is going to be a sad one. The kids will be saying goodbye to their fun uncle -- the one who plays wii with them and laughs at all their jokes. Daddy will be heading back into work.
And it will be just the three of us. -- hoping mommy doesn't blow her top with the kids. Will just have to practice breathing. Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, Breathe out.

Merry Christmas

The stockings are hung in the hallway with care
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon will be here.
Just knowing we're the 1st stop
Of many he'll make...
Sets the kids' excitement levels
Waaaaaaay past earthquake!
Through the gusting winds of Australia
To the blizzard in the Midwest
We know he'll deliver pressies
For those marked with good and the best.
Our thoughts go with those
Who aren't with us this day
But we know that our love for them
In our hearts it will stay.

So, Merry Christmas to you
And to you and to you
From Nikki and Jim,
Emmalee and Andrew

We will miss you

On Friday we lost a treasured member of our family. My Gramma Millie passed away after bravely battling with heart and kidney problems for the last few months. She was so full of love and life and will be missed by everyone who knew her and especially our family who spent the most time with her.
Although I wasn't able to be with her in the hospital, we did get to Skype on Wednesday. The kids (her great grandkids) sang Hark the Herald Angels Sing to her and it was beautiful to watch her face light up when they did that.
Its times like these that it again is so hard to be away from family. It makes me treasure the time I have together with them when I can get it. And we were fortunate enough to spend a few days with her this past July. I am so thankful to Becki & Jim and Bryan for driving her out (and Gramma Shea). Having that time to spend with her means the world to me. That visit will probably stay with Andrew who got to play Scrabble with his great grandma and with Emmalee who got to show her great gramma the apron she sewed all by herself.
I could go into a list of the memories that I have of her, but there isn't enough time or space to do her justice. Just knowing that she is with Grandpa in heaven and looking down on all of us in peace will have to do. I love you and miss you so much Gramma. 

He's Here!!!

Three sleeps and counting

Until Uncle Sam visits. The kids are soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo excited.

So until then, we are keeping our fingers crossed, touching wood and whatever else brings good luck to him so there are no storms to delay his flight or anything else turbulent that can happen!

Presentation Day

This afternoon I attended my first presentation day ceremony at Northbridge. I got a letter from Mrs. Donlan, the principal, on Friday requesting my presence since Emmalee would be receiving an award of some type during this ceremony for students in years 3-6. Having not attended one before I didn't know what to expect. Or how many kids would receive recognition.
Well, let's just say Jim and I are very proud of Emmalee. She has grown alot this year, both socially and academically. I think she is finally getting into the groove of school and her teacher has publicly recognized it. She received an award for consistent effort in her class of 3P. She was one of 5 students from 3P to receive individual class awards.
So, hats off to her! And well done!!!

Emmalee's Dance Performance

Quick videos from Saturday's performance. Emmalee is in the silver sequin top, black shorts with puffy pink hair and a pink sequin hairband...

"Freeze"

From JDS Dance Performance

"Release Me"

From JDS Dance Performance

"Mom doesn't know the name of it"

From JDS Dance Performance

"Step in Time"

From JDS Dance Performance

Christmas Carols Concert

Emmalee was part of the band AND primary proms for this year's Christmas Concert at school. The training band played a few songs and her proms group sang 3 songs. It was very good. Only disappointing part was that the audience was rather chatty and kids kept running around and it was very distracting. But the performers were great.




Videos will be added shortly with video versions of the musical numbers....

Beautiful Music

We decided to treat ourselves to an early Christmas present. One the whole family can use and enjoy before Christmas and then all year long.
Since we put our piano in storage when we moved to Sydney, Jim has been music-less. For someone who enjoys music and has it just ooze out of his fingertips when he is near piano keys, its been a long 3 years.
After much research we decided on a Yamaha electric piano. It is encased in a pretty wood cabinet and doesn't have all the bells and whistles of an electronic keyboard, but it has more than we need.
Just see how the boys are already making beautiful music...

From Beautiful Music

From Beautiful Music