We had an interesting experience in the tent overnight, Seth still occasionally sleep walks - which is fine when he's at home and knows where he's going. Not so good when he's in a tent with his sisters sleeping on the floor next to him in a small enclosed room. We were woken up with howls of complaint from Jayde and Jewel as Seth tried walking over the top of them, trying to find the exit out of their room. Seeing as the exit had been zipped up, he was never going to find it whilst sleep walking. Elissa went into their part of the tent and managed to settle Seth back down again without too many injured sisters.
The morning was a bit of a mixture of activities. I looked after the kids so that Elissa could go to the Temple. We'd originally hoped to be able to go together but the logistics of trying to find somebody who could look after the kids was too difficult. Instead, whilst we waited for Elissa we did some shopping, browsed the Nativity display at the temple, looked in upon an art display on the life of Christ at the Visitor's Centre, and then sat in the gardens playing Monopoly Deal.
Much of the Nativity display was missing or covered though. It was vandalised on Christmas Eve - vandals set fire to three of the displays. Again, another sad example on this trip of mindless vandalism that make me feel sad.
Whilst we were waiting for Elissa, I also got a call advising us that our Salary Sacrifice for a new car looked like it was going to be going ahead, and that the dealer would pay us for our old Kia Carnival. We got the Kia new in Aug 2005, and have done nearly 210,000kms in the last 6½ years, so it's on its last legs - happy to get some $$$ for it.
After Elissa had finished, we'd decided that we would take the kids to the beach, but we wanted to do something different and go to the northern beaches, and up to Barrenjoey Lighthouse. Unfortunately, the drive took us a lot longer than expected - the beaches, and therefore the roads were popular. I've always thought of Sydney as a slum, without any redeeming features, however some of the beachfront suburbs we saw on the drive were rather scenic.We only made it as far as Avalon Beach, where we bought ourselves a late lunch of Fish & Chips, which we ate on the beach. The kids then changed into bathers and explored the rocks and sea pool. I tried not to get sunburnt, and not to look like some kind of pervert whilst on the beach, fully clothed, whilst using a large camera with telephoto lens.
As the afternoon passed we started the long drive back out to the suburbs (via 7-Eleven for Slurpees of course) out to Jon & Glenda (my brother and sister-in-law). We caught up with them for a belated Christmas get together. They had friends from Perth - the Joses, whom we also knew staying with them. They put on a delicious BBQ dinner for us, and we exchanged Christmas presents for the kids. It was a nice relaxing evening to finish off the holiday with family.
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