Boxing Day
Ok, so Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were hardly traditional by any standards. Would Boxing Day be more normal?
Nope.
The morning started fairly normal with breakfast outside, but by 10 we had filled our Esky with cold drinks and food, packed the car with wetsuits and lifejackets and went to Anne and Kels for a day on the water .... along with 30 other people !
Essentially, we all took it in turns on Kel's boat, being pulled along on all manner of inflatables such as rubber biscuits and a hot dog that sits four people. I shared a ride on a hot dog with Rhiannon and Joe, while Gina was at the back of the boat to check for hand signals from us to give the pilot. Unlikely as it may sound, she got busy gabbing to Rhonda and forgot about us being towed, and was beautifully unaware to my gesturing to slow down as poor Rhiannon was being bounced up and down like a kangaroo on heat. Too late, we were flung off good and proper into the middle of the lake - Rhiannon got a small fright but I swam to her in a couple of seconds and as she had her lifejacket on she was fairly happy. She even started laughing in the water when she realised that her swimshoe was floating away, good 'ol Uncle Joe rescued it for her! It was quite an experience and she was bragging about it afterwards so hopefully she isn't too mentally scarred. 
Sian and Gareth also had turns, they are all much more confident in the water recently, Sian must have swam 50 metres to a pontoon and then back again! Gareth was more than happy bouncing on a floating trampoline.
We ate a great lunch next to the lakeside and decided to leave the party and go for a drive as we were getting a bit too much sun. We drove to Nobby's Lighthouse, Newcastle, which is about 30 minutes away. It has a fantastic beach with tremendous surf, but an ice-cream was all we needed - you can have too many beaches sometimes...
Looking at the lighthouse from the cafe, we decided to take a walk along the peninsula towards it, and it was well worth it just for the views.
That's it then, Christmas is over for us here, and it's been quite an experience. New Year is next, bring it on!
