The days leading up to Christmas are fairly uneventful. We have friends coming on Christmas eve, Tynan, his brother Blair and his mum Jan. Bette doesn’t want to have a Christmas this year, which Rowan and I are fine with. However we do head up to Dungog for a quick overnight stay just to see Heather, Katie & the boys.

We head off Wednesday morning. It is a four hour drive, which is down the road in Australia terms. We reach Dungog mid morning and grab a cold bottle of bubbles. Knock, knock… Heather & Katie are not home. So we head to their new house to see if they are there. No luck, no one is home. We call them and they are an hour away. Oh well we find a wine glass in the back of the car and drink the bubbles we got. We give ourselves a tour of the new house exterior and before we know it they are home. After a chat Katie heads off to the hairdresser and we head to grandmas land to swim in the river. I entertain Ben while Rowan and Heather swim (Huntah is at pre school). The river isn’t inviting to me, we are spoilt in NZ.

A good cool down and we head back for dinner. They haven’t moved into their new home yet and we get to be the first ones to sleep in the house. I think they want us to check for ghosts. The next day Rowan cooks a big breakfast and we head out to the Commons. The Dungog Common Reserve is 650 acres that was donated to the council to be used by everyone. We all went for a short walk.

After lunch we headed back to grandmas to cool down. This time I got in the water which felt really warm in comparison to NZ rivers. It was a lovely swim and great to cool down before getting in the car and heading back to Sydney.

Chrissy eve is here and I have made a potato salad with edamame beans, mint and no mayonnaise. Instead it has a side tzatziki sauce. I also make a big jug of mojitos and for desert ambrosia. Our guests arrive and we start with the mojitos and some fresh bread with balsamic and olive oil. Then we all head off to the pool. We don’t really have lunch till about 3pm. It is the perfect meal for such a warm day. A few bottles of champagne later we are all quite full. The day ends and everyone goes home.

Christmas day is here and we pretend it is not a thing and we all just settle into a fairly normal day and of course we eat leftovers. The next two days fly by with nothing new to report. New years eve will be another non event. Every first of anything is going to be really hard on Bette and the family. I don’t blame her for wanting to act like it is another day.