The team keeps getting bigger!

The best time of year to be in Bangkok is December and January.  Magnificent Christmas decorations fill every store and span every street in an annual attempt to remind millions of Buddhists to buy numerous gifts and eat too much with their family and friends.  The weather is relatively cool and the city takes on a relaxed holiday atmosphere.  And every year at this time we leave Bangkok and go to Sydney.

Artistic talents are obvious when making the Christmas cookies

Because despite the attraction of Bangkok during their festive winter period we have more important things on our mind – the company of family and friends, the smell of the tree in the lounge, the taste of cold Aussie beer, the backyard barbie and cricket on the tellie.  Bangkok is good, no doubt about it, but when it comes to this time of year there’s only one place to be – home.

Christmas also means celebrating Julie and Anna’s birthdays

Christmas at the family camp seems to get better and better each year, proving that it’s not only young kids that have all the fun.  We stick to all our traditional stuff like decorating the tree until it practically falls over (or in this year’s case, until it does fall over), family and friends coming over to make colourful Christmas cookies, Christmas stockings packed with goodies and the extended process of opening the presents on Christmas day which involves considerable eating and talking and sharing along the way.

But the real essence of this time of year is the family, and these days it’s more like a family reunion.  Will and Gemma have just returned from a holiday in the UK, Zach and Janelle are off to Melbourne soon, Anna and Carl are working shifts and living the dream in their beautiful home in the Blue Mountains.

We disturbed a goanna while spraying

A huge group of strange caterpillars cling together on a tree trunk

Spraying blackberries in the summer heat and full protective gear is great fun

Yes, tradition is good.  And after Christmas tradition means we head to the property for a few days camping and spraying those dreaded blackberries.  The property is at its best this time of year, stinking hot but vibrant with all its flowers and magnificent with its surrounding escarpments.  This is our happy place, where Julie and I sit around a fire with others and thank our lucky stars.  And there’s a vast sky above us with endless stars to boot!

Julie and the mighty Pajero resting in the shade

The lads have a beer after a tough day

And this Christmas, like no other for sure, we are all planning the big event of Anna and Carl’s wedding in March.  Well, some of us are participating in the planning more than others but we’re excited about the upcoming nuptials and officially confirming Carl into our family.

The important thing is that we’re all together

All too soon the family reunion ends and some of us have to get back to work.  Back to Bangkok, back to the grind, back to a stream of visitors staying at the Family Hotel, back to the new normal.  But we’re rejuvenated, recharged and refreshed for another big year after another great Christmas.

Our happy place