OZ Christmas

Here's wishing you all a very Merry Christmas. Our Christmas Day is quickly coming to an end. Santa managed to find us in Australia which made one of us VERY happy. He left us a note detailing the trouble he had finding us--having to check Cincinnati, Rochester, Singapore and then finding us in Australia. He appeared to do much of his shopping in Austalia so we got many fun gifts.

We spent part of the day at the beaches of Coff's Harbor. Then found a terrific restaurant that was serving a traditional Aussie Christmas dinner-- turkey with all the fixins. We felt it was the Thanksgiving dinner we missed when we were in Phuket, Thailand.

We then went to an interactive sea animal park. All of the animals were rescued from the waters in and around New South Wales. Each has injuries that would not allow them survive on their own in the wild. The park has just started a rehabilitation program that will take some of the less injured and help prepare them to be released back into the wild. We started at the dolphin pool where we all could pet the dolphins-- but you can only pet them on their bodies as the top of their head is very sensitive.

We got to feed penguins, sea lions, seals, and snapping turtles. We got to talk to each of their trainers and learned a lot about all of the animals. We then got to watch a sea animal show-- most of which was very interactive. Both Cailtlin and Connor got to go on stage to feed the dolphins. At one point, several sea lions came up into the audience and gave everyone kisses. Now granted the park on takes in a limited number of people but the sea lions literally kiss everyone who wants to be kissed. While nearly everyone gets one kiss, the sea lion that went up to Shannon kept giving her kisses-- she must have gotten eight kisses or so- the whole audience was roaring. He just didn't seem to want to stop. We hope we caught at least one kiss on film but it happened so fast and the multiple kisses were so unexpected, Sean's not actually sure what got captured on film.

Everyone got a professional picture taken shaking the flipper of a dolphin-- they turned out great and will be a terrific memory of our Christmas down under. We hope you all have a special day enjoying time with family. Tomorrow we are off to Byron's Bay. Byron Bay started as an old "hippie town" to use Aussie lingo, but now it is an expensive artist community.

Speaking of Aussie lingo, we are starting to get with the program-- mosquitos are "mossies", truck drivers are "truckies", and Christmas is "Crissy" as in "are you excited about Crissy" which took Connor a bit by surprise the first time he was asked. All are now accustomed to "G'day," "no worries" and "Good on you" which translates to "Good for you." Thanks to all who sent Christmas e-mails. We enjoyed receiving them and reading them on Christmas evening-- a nice way to bring a bit of family to Australia. Love to all!! . Deb, Sean, Caitlin, Connor and Shannon