Christams day with my daughter, boy friend and his family then flying up to Townsville to be with my other daughter and her family and my little granddaughter for a week, can't wait to see the little one again. Ooops, it's my daughters boy friend, thought I had better clear that up. Merry Christmas to all and have a safe 2012.
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Live Life On Your Terms
DOUGChief One Feather (Losing feathers with age)
TUG.......2014 Holden LT Colorado Twin Cab Ute with Canopy
DEN....... 2014 "Chief" Arrow CV (with some changes)
The family agreed (i.e. I was dictated to) that we buy presents just for the children...........humph, I hate it. Love shopping, and its not about the cost of the gifts. At least I managed to avoid (outright refused) to do the secret santa rubbish. I'm a bit traditional and see the gift as a tokin of affection, not an indication of wealth.
Years ago a niece of mine asked what I would like , and I said, "Just be nice to me for a year, that's all I want." She thought for a minute and said "No, that's too hard, I'll buy something."
Christmas is difficult enough as my dad died christmas eve, so it always comes with mixed emotions for me. However, I stay home and have a great time with the young ones and family.
Hello happy wanderer and merry xmas when it comes to you hope you have a wonderfull day.I will be in albany wa, boys will be there one from darwin and other from perth and x from cooloola cove qld,sounds strange about the x being there thou,but thats another story, we all have storys to tell wont go in to that,could start a some thing. rvtraveller2
Thanks Neil very kind of you. I have been thinking I might arrange to get a cleaner in to give my daughter and her hubby a top shelf clean of the house for Xmas. Not sure how much it would cost but since having the baby and with all the health issues I think they deserve it. She hasn't been up to any major housework for some time and hubby working hard and in between going to and from Melb Childrens Hosp. It must be taking its toll on them, in fact I know it would be. They were down there again today for Deegans 3 month check up, Bad news, he has to go into a more secure hip brace with shoulder straps as he is so strong he pushes his legs out straight and not getting the hips right. Has to have this one for another 6 weeks. Which now means finding more new clothes that will fit over the brace. Anyway, thought it might be nice to shout them a A1 house clean for Xmas.
-- Edited by Happywanderer on Friday 25th of November 2011 05:51:44 PM
As I said on another thread, I'll be having Christmas with a couple of dozen Guinea Pigs, about the same number of Caged Birds, 2 Pigs, about a dozen Silkie chooks, a couple of dozen Goats, 3 large dogs, and 6 small house-dogs.
I don't give it much thought. My girls are all over the place geographically, emotionally and physically. So am I. It's all too hard. I might organise an orphans' Christmas in the park for all of us who don't have family close by. The park has a great swimming pool, shady barbecue areas, and we all have comfortable sites. Why not? Work goes quiet for a couple of weeks, so who knows.
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20ft Roma caravan - Mercedes Benz Sprinter - SA-based at the moment. Transport has no borders.
Management makes the decisions, but is not affected by the decisions it makes.
Well, strange as it may seem, Mrs D and myself will be at Perth airport. Flight leaves at 2am Xmas Day (yes, you read that correctly) for Singapore and on to Saigon to go on a week's cruise up the Mekong to Cambodia.
We did the reverse trip two years ago. Spent that Xmas Day touring the killing fields in Cambodia (Phnom Penh). Very sad, eye-opening day. We all came back from the tour to the boat and went straight up to the top-deck bar. A quiet, subdued evening as we reflected on the horrors we had seen. As a Vietnam war correspondent, I had a fair idea of what had happened, but seeing it all documented and photographed and presented in such a matter-of-fact way really brought it all home. Won't go on the tour this time, but have a look around the city. Cambodians are lovely, friendly folk who deserved a hell of a lot better than they got from their rulers at the time.
Cheers, Tony
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If you don't stand behind our troops, please feel free to stand in front of them.
One half of my family gives to charity each Christmas instead of presents and the other half buy/make presents. I'm one of the charity donors - one year it was Oxfam Unwrapped which involved "buying" an animal such as a goat or chooks or something like manure for farming, etc on behalf of a person or family - e.g. a couple of chooks on behalf of my sister and her family (they actually have a few chooks and other animals in their 5 acre backyard); another time it was the Smith Family - this year no decision made yet.
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Esmeralda
It aint over until the fat lady sings, and I dont feel like singing just yet!
Hello again hope is going well with you.The house clean sounds like a nice idea. I can help you with the costing estimate cost,i worked 10 yrs as a cleaner with my sister and bro inlaw,they were charging $37 p/p p/h,thats from top to bottom hope will give you some idea rvtraveller2 neil
As a Vietnam war correspondent, I had a fair idea of what had happened, but seeing it all documented and photographed and presented in such a matter-of-fact way really brought it all home. Won't go on the tour this time, but have a look around the city. Cambodians are lovely, friendly folk who deserved a hell of a lot better than they got from their rulers at the time.
Cheers, Tony
That must be hard to go back to having been there during the war.
I got very emotional when I was at the Canberra War Memorial in the Vietnam section. Very graphic atmosphere.
The tour sounds very interesting as well. A time to enjoy the region without the conflict. A time to refect on how far we've come since then, or not.
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20ft Roma caravan - Mercedes Benz Sprinter - SA-based at the moment. Transport has no borders.
Management makes the decisions, but is not affected by the decisions it makes.
I am in Orange looking after the family of a very close friend who is in Sydney in hospital nearly 4 weeks now and we don't know whens she comes home. Husband spends half in Sydney and other half here with kids and I play mister mum. Do the cooking cleaning, and look after the Kids when Dad is a way and try and keep everyone up to date with proceedings. , She has been a pillar for everyone else and now she needs us so travel is taking second fiddle for a few months.
At least I will spend xmas with friends as they have good friends around them and we will either spend the day here if she gets back or in Sydney if need be.
Just another case of enjoy what you can while you can because you don't know what is around the corner.
Regards Brian
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11 Mtr house Boat based at Mannum hoping to travel up the Murray as far as I can get then drift back again
Hello happy wanderer and merry xmas when it comes to you hope you have a wonderfull day.I will be in albany wa, boys will be there one from darwin and other from perth and x from cooloola cove qld,sounds strange about the x being there thou,but thats another story, we all have storys to tell wont go in to that,could start a some thing. rvtraveller2
Hi Neil,
could link up some time whilst you are in Albany, if you want to. Can avoid Xmas day it will be too hectic for you.
One half of my family gives to charity each Christmas instead of presents and the other half buy/make presents. I'm one of the charity donors - one year it was Oxfam Unwrapped which involved "buying" an animal such as a goat or chooks or something like manure for farming, etc on behalf of a person or family - e.g. a couple of chooks on behalf of my sister and her family (they actually have a few chooks and other animals in their 5 acre backyard); another time it was the Smith Family - this year no decision made yet.
I do charity donations in lieu of presents for some of the family, too. Lost Dogs Home and the Australian Wildlife Conservancy are the ones I favour.
Some of you may remember, I have a large close family, so we love Xmas.
This is our 'away' year. We have turn about, so this year my eldest and family are off to d-i-l's family in Vic. If daughter and other son are around on Xmas day, I'll have them here along with their Dad and his partner. My rental flat is fairly small but there's a pool, so a small number is great!
I buy for my own family of 7, limiting to $20 or thereabouts.
Extended family..ie: sister, and 2 brothers, and their families...we do Secret Santa to a value of $20. It works well for us and we'll have a big family Xmas party on the first weekend of the school holidays..this year the 11th. All those Secret Santa presents go under the tree and someone plays Santa and gives out all the presents. There'll be 28 of us including my ex and his partner.
The venue this year is my eldest son's near Ipswich, so it'll be hot hot hot. They have a small above ground pool for the littlies and you can bet there'll be water guns etc for the big kids. Luckily, they have a big house with a big deck, and it's on a hill so hopefully there'll be a good breeze.
-- Edited by Beth54 on Thursday 1st of December 2011 11:51:16 AM
-- Edited by Beth54 on Thursday 1st of December 2011 11:53:29 AM
