The happy couple at the best time of year

The Christmas holiday period is a busy time of year for most families in Australia, especially with the warming summer weather, school holidays, traditional family reunions and exchanging of gifts.  This year we had all of that plus a milestone birthday celebration, a family wedding and a big week of work at our country property.  Those couple of weeks were a fun and rewarding period which we thoroughly enjoyed, barely survived and were totally exhausted by the end.

The team photo for 2013 with the proud parents in the middle

Christmas for our clan seems to get bigger each year.  Julie’s traditional Christmas cookie-making session brings out the artistic best of four generations of cookie makers in our family, followed by a long Christmas day of slowly opening presents, eating far too much food, playing with new toys and soaking in the special moments of the day.

Decorating the Christmas cookies is great fun for everyone

But this year we had a very important day to celebrate – Julie’s milestone birthday – which was another good excuse for close family and friends to congregate at our place and raise a glass (or two) to honour and cherish her.  A great night and great fun!

Friends and family gather to celebrate with Julie

The following week, which was also the following year, we all went out to the regional town of Orange, about four hours’ drive west of Sydney, celebrate the wedding of our nephew James and his beautiful bride Keryn.  A few months earlier we had visited James and Keryn when they were working on a remote cattle station in the Cape York area of northern Queensland.  Our visit there is at https://www.ourpangaea.net/?p=4448.

Weddings can be thirsty work so we fortify ourselves at a local pub before the ceremony

Now it was time to see them exchange vows in a beautiful old church, followed by the unique reception at Bruce’s estate amongst the vineyards outside Orange.  And to top off the memorable event we all camped on the grounds which meant the walk to our bed early the next morning was short and easy!

Camping amongst the vineyards at the wedding venue – how perfect is that!

The bride and groom looking glamorous on their special day

But no family holiday period is complete without a trip to our property for the annual working session, usually involving spraying those pesky blackberries during their peak growing season.  Julie and I spent a week on the property as other family members came and went, putting final touches on our new shed/toilet, spraying blackberries, cutting down unwanted trees and other maintenance tasks.  It was hard hot work but we love the opportunity to spend extended time there, especially the evenings around the fire with a blanket of stars (or sometimes clouds) hanging above us.

Spraying blackberries is a tough job but we enjoy our time in the bush

With a holiday period like this one we’re going to need another holiday to recover!