December Newsletter 2025

 

I get later and later getting round to writing this annual newsletter - last year it was on the 13th December - today the 20th!! My 'to do' list is getting shorter though...

I notice I started last year's Newsletter with a picture of the blow up rainbow lorikeet in the front garden. It has survived to grace our yard again - but now it overlooks a bit of 'yarn-bombing' I did on the poles across the road.

I continue to spend my time crafting - usually making cards and ATCs and junk journalling. I take part in lots of swaps of these which means our post box is often full of happy mail!

Kevin's hobby is the ukulele - he teaches it to a U3A group once a week and also participates in several 'hum and strum' sessions each week... A lovely picture appeared of him in this little magazine...

In the run up to Christmas he has participated in quite a few carol concerts... he has many 'ukulele outfits'!

And he regularly takes part in open mike sessions - I even got roped in to help with this concert. I was trying to add a video of Kevin playing - but the files are too big.

We celebrated Kevin's 75th Birthday last weekend with a family barbecue - 75 seems an awfully big number - he had to make do with 7.5 candles!

It is now a year since Tom and Clare, and Sophie, moved into their respective new houses and we have been in ours just over 3. These are photos from Tom and Clare's deck at the beginning of the year. Dan and Aiden are sitting on the hanging chairs.

Currently Sophie is very proud of her beans

Kevin has had great success with our veggie patch - at the moment it is full of yellow courgettes amongst other things. But last season we had excellent sweet corn.

Every Tuesday, while Dan and Lizzie are at work, we pick up Ollie from day care and look after him overnight and then through Wednesday. He is now four and we have great fun with him...here he is with the Advent calender that has been going up every year since our boys were little. His interests are dinosaurs, Hot Wheels, Spiderman, Ninja Turtles, Marvel characters, Lego...

We haven't  looked after Jas and Isa so much this year as they get older and Matty's routine has changed. However they were here one Wednesday in July when we took all these three to a free workshop...

In June Kevin and I took a couple of weeks driving from Victoria to Queensland - 4000 kilometres. We were taking Matty's car up so he had it for a month while he was up there. We flew back and someone else brought the car back. 

On the way to Airlie Beach we stayed in many places and saw many things of interest.

This is at Cactus world where we arrived in thick mist...

Kevin and I and Sophie have been on various trips this year - in particular she wanted to go near Cactus World as she was envious of our earlier trip. This time it was in brilliant sunshine.

One of the things we missed on the way up to Queensland was the giant Murray Cod. So that was something else we had to go see.

 Australia has many 'large' things. This is the giant mango...

In January we went camping at Apollo Bay - this was memorable as I tripped over the groundsheet and fell on a finger. This swelled up and I ended up in the little hospital having my wedding ring cut off.

 

Another trip was to Bendigo as I wanted to see the Frida Kahlo exhibition.

We decorated as usual for Halloween - and now Christmas is 'up'!

It is still strange to see Christmas decorations in bright sunlight!

 We are very fortunate to live next to the Botanic Garden here in Cranbourne. It is lovely to walk through there in the changing seasons. The picture shows wattles in full bloom.

We are very close to bushland so it was not surprising to see this echidna down the road the other day.

Well that is a snapshot of our 2025... so much that I haven't mentioned! I was granted Australian citizenship in May and now have my Australian passport. On the same day there was frost on the back garden!

Kevin too has now been granted citizenship - he had to wait longer to apply as he needed some info from Egypt. He is just waiting for his ceremony, then he too can apply for an Australian passport.

Healthwise we are both OK - Kevin is having to watch his sugar levels and I am still limping along. I am having another course of 12 injections in my knees and hips over December which injects a lubricating layer into each joint. They seemed to work pretty well 18 months ago so I am hoping for good results this time too.

So, here's wishing you a very happy Christmas and let's hope 2026 is a good year!

 love Sue and Kevin xx

Cheers!!