Christmas/New Year in Moama

We decided to go to Moama later this year. As mentioned in the post below, we had Christmas at home with Adrian's parents. Then Adrian went with the boys motorbike riding for the next 3 days. He went along with Darren Fox, Scott Graham, Marty Peters, Steve and David Overdyk and a whole bunch of other people. They were meant to go to Licola but because of the fires ended up going to Tallanghi (not sure of the spelling), which is up near Kinglake. I couldn't wait for them to get home because that meant I could start my holiday as we were leaving for Moama on the 29th.

It was great leaving a little later because that meant our New Years party was at the beginning of our holiday instead of the end, when we are all thinking about packing up and going home. So with it only being 2 days into our holiday we were all ready for a party. And what a party it was. It was a black tie, cocktail party. But all that meant was you had to come to the camp fire wearing a tie. Us girls went to a little more effort dressing up than the guys. Adrian had a flashing bow tie, Scott made a cardboard one and wore it around his waist covering the fact that he was only wearing his jocks (for a little while anyway). Tania wore a tiara that ended up on Micayla's head and I wore half my costume from the 1920's Murder Mystery night in the Hunter Valley.

The night started off pretty slow with cocktails being made here and there while sitting around the fire. Then the rain came. Luckily we were on the edge of it and only got about 20 mins of rain, but we had an awesome nature provided firework show with the lighting. Because of the rain it made us move to under the blue tarp where all the cocktail ingredients were and this is where it got pretty messy. Cocktails were being made one after the other and then we started making our our concoctions. We started adding different coloured liquers to the Cowboy shots, making them cowgirls, a green one we called cowhoofter and one that turned out brown we called cowshits. We were having so much fun we were falling over because we were laughing so hard. We were drinking shots from unusual places and we were dancing the conga and lots of other "dancing" around the camp fire. Lets just say I don't think I want to see the video. We finally crawled into bed around 3.30am.

This mess was early in the night. I don't think I was capable of taking a clear photo by the end of the night but the table was definately not this neat by the end of it all.

Unfortunately when this photo was taken Bailey was fast asleep in bed so it's just the 5 of us. We are with Adrian's parents, Micayla and Bailey's Oma and Opa.
I just love this photo of Micayla and her Oma.

Christmas Over for another year

The kids got spoilt yet again. Our Christmas started on Christmas Eve with lunch at Rohan and Wanda's (my brother and sister in law). We did the usual, each family packed their own picnic lunch, and each supplied some nibblies. Of course there was way too much to eat but you just never know when to stop. The kids unwrapped their presents before lunch and that was over as quick as it started, but at least they had their new toys to play with. It was very relaxing sitting out under their pergola, chatting and laughing while the kids played. Lochy, as usual did an excellent job of entertaining Bailey. Bailey just idolises Lochy. They spent most of their time on the trampoline. Bailey would jump off it and Lochy would have to get off to help him back on.

This year we had Christmas morning at home. It was nice waking up in the comfort of my own bed rather than the caravan and opening the presents on the comfortable (warm) lounge room floor instead of the cold hard annexe. The kids were very excited unwrapping everything Santa brought them, even the stocking pressies were wrapped. Then Adrian's parents came for lunch. We handed out more presents then had a yummy roast dinner of beef cooked in red wine, ham and chicken, followed by the traditional plum pudding and brandy custard. It was very relaxing remaining indoors on such a cold Christmas day and not having to go anywhere else.

They got way too many presents to mention so I won't. Micayla's favourite was the Polly Pockets Quick Clix Limo and the Over the Hedge DVD and Bailey's is the Thomas the Tank tracks, puzzle and Cars DVD. Of course they got lots of lollies, which are nearly all gone.

The Hunter Valley Gardens

Here are the photos of the Gardens. The explanation of our visit is below in the Iscar Christmas in the Hunter Valley Post.
The Oriental Gardens
Then from the Story Book Gardens
Hansel and Gretal Mad Hatters Tea Party from Alice in Wonderland. Of course Darren is MAD too!
Jack and Jill Humpty Dumpty Waterfall The Rose Garden/Expressions of Love

More photos of the Murder Mystery

Check the post 'Iscar Christmas in the Hunter Valley for more photos

Photos of Iscar Olympics

These photos didn't work in the other post. Read below for more information about these photos.

Iscar Christmas in the Hunter Valley

After dropping the kids off to Adrian's parents on the Thursday night, we left home at 5.00am Friday morning to catch a plane to Newcastle and then a bus to the Hunter Valley. We stayed at the Tallawantha Lodge at the Hunter Valley Gardens.

The boys went into Iscartech (conference) all day Friday while the wives and partners went out to lunch, wine tasting, a bit of shopping and some of them went off for the "fluffy" (as they called it) afternoon having massages.

Friday evening was a BBQ smorgasbord on the Shiraz Terrace. It wasn't a late night for me. I was shattered from some late nights previously and an early morning. At about 9.30pm I went back to my room for a luxurious bath with a hot chocolate. The bathroom was very inviting. The bath was a large oval, sunken, under a glass roof with a rock tiled wall. Just gorgeous.

Saturday morning was the Iscar Olympics out on the oval. The teams rotated around playing Volleyball, Bocce (spelling???), Croquet, and racing on skies and building towers. I didn't play because I was still recovering from surgery but I umpired.

After lunch we went for a walk through the Hunter Valley Gardens with Darren and Mel. Darren's arm was twisted to be there. I was really impressed with the gardens, there was a lot to see and they were very well kept.

After the walk in the gardens, Mel and I went on a winery tour with the rest of the Iscar employees and partners, but Adrian, Darren and Phil chose to stay behind and drink beer in the spa. When we returned we could hear them laughing from our rooms. Then I wished I had've stayed behind with them, they sound like they were having a great time. But I did have a great time on the winery tour and bought myself a nice bottle of red from Ivanhoe Vineyard. We also visited Lindermans. The guys running the tour were very entertaining. I think they were still drunk from their Christmas party the night before.

Then it was Saturday evening and we got ourselves all dressed up in 1920's costume for a Murder Mystery evening. We had to answer trivia questions and do silly things to gain more clues. One of the tasks was a girl from each table had to get on the dance floor and perform a dance. Mel ordered me to get up there and she put a chair out on the floor for me. There was no getting out of it so I got up and did a bit of a lap dance on the chair. There was lots of cheering and Adrian missed it. At least I gained us some extra clues; one of them sealed it for us. We ended up solving the murder correctly along with 2 other tables. After the murder mystery was over they put on the karaoke. I was disappointed by this, I just wanted to dance and not to a couple of people singing badly into the mic. So I figured if we had to listen to karaoke then we all might as well get involved. So I suggested to Jason (the boss) to make everyone join in by having a play off against states. Instead it was a playoff between tables, with us being the first. I guess seeing that I suggested it I had to get up and do it. It ended up being a great success with lots of groups getting up and of course Victoria had to get up and perform 'We are the Champions'. A couple of other songs I can remember doing were The Proclaimers, 500 miles and Rednex, Cotton Eye Joe. This one got everyone up dancing. We had a ball and the last 5 minutes of the night was just dancing. Adrian and I got up and did the 'Jive'. Well so called anyway, Adrian knew what he was doing but I had no idea. He was giving me a crash course on the Jive right there on the dance floor. It didn't matter if I made a fool of myself because I was having fun, and had a few too many red wines anyway.
Is that a gun in your pocket, or .....................?