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| The Twelve Apostles along the Great Ocean Road that led us to Melbourne!!! |
| Erin's Journal 12-26-02 Victoria The day after Xmas is a holiday here too. We're not sure what Boxing Day is for, but in the Anderson family it's also a birthday. Jen was planned for Christmas day, according to Elaine, but came a day later. Which is probably slightly better for her, in my opinion! What a jip, having a Christmas birthday as a kid! Nobody has money to fully appreciate both occasions on the same day! That's why I wouldn't want to get married too close to my birthday - such an easy out for the hubby! 'Happy Anniversary/Birthday, Honey!' So the tradition here is to have a birthday brunch for Jen with the family, as Boxing Day is also a big day for cricket fans. Brunch is early enough that the guys can still skip out and catch the cricket before it's too far along, but not as early as Christmas morning, to allow for those with hangovers to take some meds before showing up! :) Glenn got up early as usual, and was talking to his brother when he came into the bedroom to wake me up. He had a strange look on his face, and I quickly learned why: his brother had some huge news! By cosmic coincidence, he and Dee Dee had become engaged a mere 1 day before we did! They didn't announce it, because our own announcement came out just a day later, and they didn't want to steal the spotlight. But even bigger than this was the news that we'd be auntie & uncle by the end of 2003! Dee Dee is pregnant as well, and we were gleeful to learn that we'd have some time to be practice parents on their child! What a busy year 2003 will be! And lots of wonderful events for the Roberts clan. With that happy wake up call, I was ready to get ready for the day. I showered and helping to arrange the brunch fruit when the Anderson clan started to arrive. We wished Jen a happy birthday, then shared in a delicious feast. We've felt so privileged to be in on the family events for the holidays, especially when we're so far from home. Just 2 days ago, we both felt like it wasn't Christmas at all! Now it's real for us. After brunch had split up and everyone had gone their separate ways, we helped clean up and then headed out to the back yard to lay in the sun for a while. Both of us had Fiji in mind, and my dress is strapless, so I was focusing on avoiding tan lines on the shoulders. It didn't take long to get all hot and sweaty, but we were smart enough to wear plenty of sunscreen, and didn't get burned. We went back in and showered again, then checked out the movie times. Lord of the Rings, the Two Towers, was starting today in Australia, and I'd been anticipating seeing it for a long time. It was playing at the mall where we'd done our Christmas shopping, and we headed out to the car with about an hour to spare. Fate stepped in and said NO. The car battery was completely dead. Not even a flicker of the dashboard lights when we turned the key! We went back in and asked John to jump start it, in hopes that we could charge it up enough by driving it around that it'd at least start up again after the movie to get us home. I drove it around for almost 10 minutes after a difficult jump start, but when we turned it off and tried it out, the engine didn't even try to start. So we ended up staying home. This was ok, actually, as Elaine pulled out a jigsaw puzzle, and we ended up staying up till 1am to finish it. It was a good collaborative effort between Elaine, Glenn and myself, and 1,000 pieces went quickly. |