Category Archives: Christmas Notes

2015 is ending and it’s Christmas again…….. it’s been a while since I put up one of these but here we go.
Well 2014 finished with Christmas at Tony’s for a grand gathering and monumental feast. Then once again we travelled to Anglesea with Paul’s family for our Christmas holidays and to celebrate the New Year. How can we resist those markets? This year we also visited the Nightjar market for a bit of food and free entertainment from local bands Kite Machine and Residual. The girls were instant fans and collected autographs and photographs.
Consultant jobs big and little kept Cath busy for the early part of the year as her fears of having no work as a consultant turned to fears of having too much work. Busy times and quiet times followed as Cath settled into a pattern that seemed to suit her idea of working for herself better. The garden make over is now well in progress and many other projects around the house have been started.
Come Easter it was time for a family trip up to Sydney to catch up with Paul’s relatives and visit the Royal Easter Show with the MacSweens. Sheep, goats and pigs, dressage and woodchop, stunt cars and crazy bikes tricks. It was all there! We also met Paul’s latest grand-nephew Travis who had us besotted, naturally.
We were hardly back from Sydney when we were flying up to the Gold Coast for a grand O’Dwyer gathering for the marriage of Cath’s nephew Matt and Laura. All those cousins dressed up and on show was quite impressive. Cath and her siblings also scrubbed up well. There were a few other relatives present too we hear.
While the middle of the year settled into a routine of work and school, the September holidays burst into a flurry of activity.
Once more we were talked into going Alpaca Shearing, though took the easy path this time and stayed in a motel for night. How long can we keep doing this and what are they doing with all that fleece?
After that we travelled to Griffith for a reunion of Cath’s maternal family – Harrison. Cousins & second cousins refreshed old bonds and created new ones in the wonderful hospitality of John & Karen Harrison.
Meanwhile Paul’s sisters Sue and Liz were off to Europe for a tour down the Rhine and we volunteered to mind cousin Josh for a week. This entailed trips to Werribee Zoo, Science Works and the David Bowie Exhibition.
Siobhan is working regularly at bakery now. She is becoming a valued employee and financing her tastes for clothes, make-up and concerts. The big news is her braces are off!!!! Year 11 subject selections caused stress for a while but now we will settle down and see what happens. Siobhan has turned into a top Psychology student and a new career option seems to have taken her interest. She continues to develop her guitar skills and is on call for every college performance. We’re not sure how her blue hair will go down when she gets back to school next year…
Kiara still netballing strongly though she is finding it a bit more challenging moving into division 1 of U/15. New found friends are bringing fresh smiles and lots of parties. She is looking forward to Year 9 and the chance to do subjects of her own choosing (Robotics and Electronics, Visual Communications, Food Tech and an Outdoor Ed based subject). She is also helping up the Alpaca farm whenever she can and is ready to take over anytime now.
While Siobhan and Kiara hit their own concerts, Cath and Paul have been reconnecting with live music through regular trips to Caravan Club on their own or with company.
Til next year and stories of our further adventures.
Paul, Cath, Siobhan & Kiara.

2012 ending and time for another Christmas letter……..

While a quiet Christmas passed at home in Melbourne we gained a new addition to the household as we finally committed to getting a dog. Hence Cookie entered our life from the RSPCA shelter with some trepidation and a little fanfare. A nervous, if cute, buddle of energy with some issues which we hoped to overcome.

We also dragged out the camp trailer again and headed down to Wilson’s Prom for a week end of quiet contemplation and energetic walks with a splattering of the Melbourne cousins. Though a little chilly this didn’t stop the girls jumping waves.
This year also marked Siobhan’s entry into High School and she started Year 7 with great gusto and a huge bag. The big excitement was when she found she would enter the digital age and get a laptop to cut down on the books she needed to cart around. In reality she now had two bags to take back and forth and a sore back to go with it.

Kiara was also enjoying the freedom of being the only one at Primary School and blossoming in confidence. Netball continued to keep her busy throughout the year with her trying out for the club rep team. While she didn’t get selected she did make it to the final trials and showed great energy. She is certainly going to try again next year.
Come Easter we realised it had been too long since we visited Sydney and so headed up to visit the family and see how mum was getting on. Michelle and Steven were kind enough to put us up and we had a great time visiting cousins and the Harry Potter exhibition. We even managed a few days at Bateau Bay to catch up with Sue & Steven and Chris & Reg.

Winter holidays found us at home for once which was fortunate as we could celebrate Siobhan officially becoming a teenager with her thirteenth birthday. Part of the reason we were at home was that Siobhan was in the school production of Guys and Dolls so part
of the holiday was used up with rehearsals as she became one of the Crap Shooters. BAFTA award material if we do say so ourselves.
Unfortunately midyear also saw Auntie Margo, who Cath had been looking after for a number of years, starting to go downhill and in August she passed away.
September holidays were very busy, first with elephant hunting, then alpaca shearing and finally a visit from the MacSweens. I’m not sure how we fitted it all in two weeks.

Kiara also had her own brush with the theatre when her school put on the Lion, the Witch and the Walk in Robe. While a bit shy up front, she found her niche in the prop department.
Unfortunately despite much effort our little four legged visitor couldn’t overcome his stressed past and we found we couldn’t handle his fear/aggression. So with much tears he had to go back to the shelter.
As the year came to a close it came time to reflect on the progress of our two lovely daughters. Siobhan continues to grow and is now as tall as Cath. She achieved excellent results at school with a number of academic awards for English, Maths, Religion, History, Health and PE. She has also taken up guitar and the house echoes with music plus the odd mist note. Kiara has also had an excellent year produce some great results at school. She has also taken a liking to the eReader Paul got for his birthday and we struggle to get her to stop reading at times.
Cath has been busy pottering in the garden when she can and renovating the house when not in demand at work or amongst the needs of the extended family. She has been at the Alfred now long enough for some long service leave. Paul finally got some chooks though just on loan. Fresh eggs were very nice in our omelettes so they might be back soon.
This Christmas we will be spending in Sydney so I am sure there will be lots of exciting stories to come out of that. As well we are planning for our first long service leave break with a trip through central Australia and down the west coast.
Til next year and stories of further adventures.

Paul, Cath, Siobhan & Kiara.

New mum’s party, pre-Christmas family party and then the street party all on one weekend. How will we survive? Did we survive? Photographic evidence might be needed.

2011 seemed like such a quiet year, though on reflection ……..
The year started with some mixed feelings. Jean had finally had to take the big step and move into a nursing home after her illness before Christmas. So with the need to clean out the family home, the McGlynns gathered for one last BBQ at 40 Wilson Street. What a sprawling, rag tag collection we have become but it was good to see lots of face in those familiar surrounds one last time.

On returning home Cath finally succumbed to my persuasion and we purchased a camp trailer which we promptly christened on a very hot weekend camp at Waratah Bay. This was followed by a more relaxing week camping by the Murray at Easter at Barham were Kiara earned her steam boat license. Alas while great fun this precipitated our next big adventure for the year as a blown muffler on the wagon propelled us into the purchase of “a new car”.
A mighty saga this became as we hunted hi and low for the perfect replacement. Having settled on a Sorento we thought we had the car by June only to be told it was on order and so we patiently waited. Meanwhile the Apollo had one last fling with some miscreants one night, much to its (and our) regret, coming home a few days later much the worse for wear. And so we became a one car family. Meanwhile we waited for the new car.
As a bit of a distraction Cath decided she would have to turn 50 this year and a party would be needed. A gathering of family and friends was commanded and much fun and frivolity was had by all. Champagne flowed and Cath never looked more beautiful – or are we bias?
And still we waited for the new car.
Come September we decided it had been too long since we saw Cath’s sister Fran and hubby Guy, not to mention Michael and Lena, so a trip to Queensland was organised. So up to Atherton for a few days. Then a few days in the Daintree camping in tent cabins by the beach was extremely invigorating.
A croc spotting tour of the rivers, a tropical fruit farm visit and a bit of canopy surfing made it an exotic trip for all. We also managed to do a bit of walking even if the girls weren’t keen.

Then back to Atherton to watch Geelong thump Collingwood in the Grand Final with Fran and Guy. From there it was down to the Gold Coast for a week. Lots of lounging around, the required trips to Movie World and Wet and Wild plus dinner with Michael & Lena and some other friends made for a good time. Finally we (Paul) listened to Manly beat the Kiwis in the other Grand Final.
What a trip. Coming home was a bit of a shock.

And still we waited for the new car.

October saw Fran and Guy down in Melbourne for Guy’s birthday so we all needed to get dressed up and head off to Darby Day and celebrate together. This was enough of an occasion for Cath to invest in a new dress & a hat as well as a new suit for Paul – only his third ever!
Finally the wait was over and the new car arrived! Was it worth it? Hope so. It is so shiny with lots of new buttons so it should be fun running it in.
Around and through our family adventures the girls have continued to blossom and grow.
Kiara is turning into another book junky and we have to remind her to turn off the lights at night. She has graduated to her own iPod, celebrated her 10th birthday in style and her First Communion with grace.
Kiara is also developing well with her netball enjoying the sport and the group of friends she is playing with. Having moved up a grade, success is not as easy but the challenge is helping her development, this season she winning the coaches award.
Siobhan has now finished Grade 6 with excellent reports and looks forward to the challenge of crossing the road to high school. While a bit daunting, at least most of her friends will be with her. We are a bit worried though as she expressed disappointment that she will lose touch with some of the boys. She even invited some to her twelfth birthday, though they mostly stayed in separate corners of the house. She also celebrated her Confirmation and is growing into a confident young lady, What challenges the future holds for us all!
Til next year, which I am sure will pass all too fast.
Paul, Cath, Siobhan & Kiara.

It is hard to imagine another 12 months has passed already.
Life has settled a bit into a routine with work and school, though we did manage one excursion to Tasmania in September. The scenery was luscious and the weather mixed.

For the girls first trip we hit most of the landmarks, walking in Cradle Lake National Park, cruise up the Gordon River, tour of the Cadbury’s factor and a walk on the beaches of Freycinet National Park. We had rain, snow and sunshine and a relatively calm trip there and back on the Spirit of Tasmania so all was good and the girls really loved it, except the rain.
Cath and I also had the pleasure of going to Hanging Rock for the Leonard Cohen concert along with about 12,000 others. While this pretty well overwhelmed the transport system, leading to an interesting trip to and from the concert, the event itself was impressive. We missed Dan Sultan but saw Clare Bowditch, Paul Kelly and the inimical Leonard Cohen himself. It is amazing how many of his songs we knew and he is still an amazing performer at 76. There is still some hope for me.

Siobhan has now finished Grade 5, quoted as one of the highlights of her year, and high school beckons in the near future. Still very much a home body, she has formed some strong friendships amongst her school mates, though a couple will be tested as friends move to different schools. She really enjoyed her 11th birthday with a movie outing and sleep over with some of her close friends. Siobhan has also developed all the trappings of a teenager with iPod grafted to hand, morning sleep-ins and clothes creatively scattered around her room and the house.

Siobhan has once again enjoyed a successful year at school with excellent reports and she continues to develop her tennis skills. Tennis also gave Siobhan her first experience with competitive sport when her coach managed to talk her into playing in a local team. Getting up early on Sunday morning turned into a bit of a drag particularly in the depths of winter but we both survived with some success though the strange grading system meant some funny mismatches. Alas she could not be talked into a second season.
Kiara has also enjoyed her school year and was most pleased to have a number of her friends in the same class. Her creative side has come out with much cooking and building going on. Most importantly with much help from her teacher this year her reading and spelling have come on a treat. This is most pleasing as we were worried we would have another engineer in the family. Though if the train she built to play in over last summer is anything to go by, this may still be the case.
Kiara has been most active outside of school as well. She has now played two seasons with great enjoyment, success and much squealing. This also gave dad a bit of a chance to get involved with coaching and do some polite and constructive encouragement from the side line, usually. (I only got told off a couple of times, honest.) She is still getting tennis lessons and has been learning hip hop dancing. She really enjoyed the dancing particularly her end of year concert.

Cath has now survived my first year of full time teaching since the girls were born and while it has been busy and stressful at times it was not too bad. The main issue is fewer jobs seem to get done around the house and the small increase in exercise that was happening is once again on the back burner. So the bike gathers cob-webs, I still haven’t made the boat I got for last Christmas, built the book shelf or put in the extra water tank. We do have some pets now as I got some stick insects for my birthday .
Cath has allegedly cut back on her hours of work to finish renovating the house but the evidence is not strong as she still seems to spend many hours working on all sorts of other projects. Some of this is a bit of private contract work; some is supporting her mum, Judy, as she copes with growing old and being alone following Joe’s death 2 years ago. A major part of her “free time” early in the year was looking after her aunt Margot after a knee replacement and eventually helping her settle into a nursing home.
Meanwhile my mum, Jean, is not travelling so well. Her dementia still means her memory is almost nonexistent but at least it remains fairly stable. Physically she is not as good this year. Her knees have gradually got worse so that she had started to use a walking frame and had quite a nasty fall in November. She is currently in hospital being assessed as she is now unable to walk at all. Once this is finished she will need to move into care at some level or another as alas she is no longer to be cared for at home.
On a more positive note the year ended with another successful, if slightly damp street party, and while we didn’t win the lights competition we are getting closer. The street kids are also getting better at their carolling which is a great relief.
And next year we need to plan Cath’s 50th.

Paul,Cath,Siobhan & Kiara.

A little posting on the news from 2009 as sent in our Christmas Letter.
As in the previous year, 2009 has been an eventful year for the Melbourne McGlynns. We began the year plotting and planning for our European perambulation. Cath spent many hours cruising on the internet for accommodation, travel tips and places to visit as we built up an itinerary. Meanwhile Siobhan joined the Australian Girls Choir, continued her tennis and keyboard lessons and started preparing for her First Communion. Kiara also took up tennis and was progressing with her keyboard. Dad’s taxi was getting quite the work out.
While the Europe trip seems to dominate the first half of the year we did manage to celebrate Siobhan’s First Communion, though a little earlier than everyone else because of our planned trip O/S. This seemed to suit Siobhan as she managed to avoid most of the attention and fan fare and most importantly the dreaded white dress.
We also finally managed to get a builder to start on the renovation of the old bathroom and of course the start time was about 3 weeks before we were due to fly out of Australia. Fortunately Cath’s brother Joe offered to help out and manage the job while we were gone. So we crossed our fingers and let it start… I also finally managed to find the time to replace the weatherboards on the North side of the house. Could all our renovations be nearly done?
Finally at the beginning of June our grand trip began. First stop Bangkok for a week with Therese and her family. A nice bit of wind down after all the hectic build up and some family bonding with the cousins. We managed a little trip up to the Royal Summer Palace and to the Grand Palace in Bangkok to see some marvellous Buddhist temples. From Bangkok it was on to Vienna for 10 days were we visited Cath’s friend Jacqui and her family, which entailed much play between our two girls and their two 9-year-olds, plus visits to various ice cream parlours, cathedrals, palaces and art galleries. The girls were rather impressed with their first taste of European culture but more so with the ice creams and Jacqui’s twin daughters.
From Vienna we went to Halstatt, a picturesque village by an alpine glacial lake. Truly magical. In Salzburg, it rained a lot but we still managed a medieval festival (great fun!) and a “Sound of Music” tour. Austria gave way to southern Germany and the Romantic Road where Cath braved driving the Autobahns and I hid behind the maps. She’s a brave and patient girl.
Onward we travelled to Padua & Venice, where Siobhan celebrated her 10th birthday with a gondola ride complete with spunky young gondolier who actually sang. From Padua we visited romantic Verona. Then a too-brief stay in Turin, home of the “Mole” and the museum of cinema. Must go back there some time. We had a few days in Lyon with its amazing Fourvière district and the traboules before meeting up with Cath’s brother Paul and his family for a brief stay in a little village called Sarcey outside Lyon. Ah for the country life, marching in a Bastille Day parade, visiting the most picturesque medieval village in France, smelling the cows as they come into be milked, fighting off the !@###@ flies!! Finally it was on to Paris for some serious culture and several fairs to keep the kids amused. Kiara and Siobhan were mainly interested in playing with their cousins and we in sampling the French cuisine. Still we saw the Mona Lisa, Sacre Coeur, the Paris Sewers, the Arc de Triomphe and the finish of the Tour de France (just 2 hours before the riders got there!).
Finally it was back home via Paris airport and a bomb scare (watch out for Barbies with pink bags), a midnight transfer at Vienna and an over night stop in Bangkok. Megabytes of photos and a blur of memories but still so worth it. Siobhan loved Italy and Kiara loved ordering ice creams there. They can now order ice creams in four languages.
Having got back home after 2 months away we now found we had a beautiful new bathroom and hallway. We finalised the installation of some solar panels to do our bit, and feeling we had a bit of free time started planning a belated 50th for yours truly.
Once again Cath was a tower of strength and planning skills, even organising a live band for the big day. So with people coming from near and far, including a few repeat party animals from Sydney in Sue and her family, Mum and Liz a great time was had by all. It has been suggested that I may have got a bit merry on the night, but I don’t remember any such thing. BTW thanks for The Beatles set – we’re all enjoying it.
Siobhan came back feeling a bit ambiguous about Australian Girls Choir until the end of the year concert in which she performed at the Arts Centre. It was a fantastic show & a great experience for her. I’m not sure she has come down from the buzz yet. Tennis and keyboard also keep Siobhan busy as she continues to improve.
Not to be left out of the excitement Kiara has been enjoying her keyboard and is progressing well. She also seems to be enjoying tennis and having had a taste of NETA (pre-netball) has signed up to play Netball next year. She is also trying to work out whether to do singing or dancing classes if she can fit them in. Meanwhile she sings morning, noon & night and in her sleep as well! We all love that.
Paul has accepted a promotion for next year & returns to full-time work for the first time since Kiara was born in 2001. Cath will cut back a bit & is looking forward to some more time at home and a chance to get some painting done.