Christmas Down Under

This was our first Christmas overseas and it was definitely fun to spend it in Australia. We haven't had many Christmas eves like this:

We spent the morning at Leighton beach with several other families watching all the boys enjoy the warm sun and cool water. It was a postcard perfect day! Here is Ben hanging with his buddy Malcolm.

Later that evening we were so excited to pick up Aunt Amanda at the airport (no pictures, unfortunately) so she could spend a week with us here. When we got home, all attention turned toward Santa's big visit that night. The boys left some cookies, M&Ms, and a carrot for Rudolph. After answering some serious questions about the size of our chimney, we put the boys to bed and got busy playing Santa ourselves!

All the loot!! It was so exciting going to bed knowing how much they'd love all the surprises in the morning.

Hooray!! Santa was here! And this is the sunlight at 6am on an Australian Christmas morning.

The big surprise was downstairs...

The kids jumped their little hearts out but had to get back upstairs to all the exciting new toys.
It was really great having Amanda here to share in the Christmas joy with us but we also got to Skype with Grandma and Grandpa Kirkham, Grammy and Grumpy Shepherd, and Jason, Stacey and little Reid. The boys opened the rest of their gifts with the family watching, so we all got to spend some time "together" on Christmas.

We had a lazy Boxing Day (26th of December) and lounged around at the beach on hot, perfect day. There was not a wave in sight and the ocean was as calm as a swimming pool.

Happy faces!

The boys got to swim out as far as they wanted for the first time since there were no waves, but I learned the hard way that there were jellyfish out there!

Today we started taking Amanda around to some of our favorite places. First stop - Margaret River Chocolate Factory. It's easy to find Ben and Alex there....they'll always be right next to the sample bowls!

We did some wine and cheese tastings at several vineyards in Swan Valley. Also did a little buying :)

The vineyards look beautiful right now and they're just bursting with grapes.

We're having so much fun with Amanda and look forward to all the other activities we have planned this week.