So Christmas and New year were a bit different for us this year, even Christmas eve was different, none of this going out to Fareham till 3am and stumbling in after a kebab to rip open the presents…oh no!!!! When we asked Michelle what they do for Christmas eve she said, we have a family dinner, drink eggnog and get an early night????? We were a bit shocked, but it turned out to be a great night in the end, as we used it as an opportunity to phone home.

During the day on xmas eve we were taken to a place called Stoney Creek for the day (of which photo’s have just been added to the xmas album, but they’re not really worth a look!) Basically it’s a huge creek, funnily enough, with BBQ’s set up and picnic tables etc etc. So with all the family, about 25/30 of us, we had a BBQ and a dip. All the kids were there and there was a huge water-fight and the lads played footie as well. Afterwards we went to Dean’s house at a place called Cooee Bay, where for the afternoon Dean, Andrew and the both of us stayed and listened to music from Dean’s band and had a few drinks. We then went back to Michelle’s for dinner….funnily enough it was turkey, no roast potatoes though, just salad and veg . Michelle’s Mum and Dad Cheryl and Terry came down, and Henry was put to bed really early! We had planned to go back out to Dean and Andrews place but it was too late by the time we finished our phone calls so we went to bed to wait for Santa!

Gem was up at 5am Xmas morning, much to Chris’ dismay, but Michelle had told her she had to wait to one of them was up, luckily she didn’t have to wait long for Henry to get up?? By 6am all our presents were opened, a few phone calls were made, and by 7am we had headed up to Cheryl and Terry’s for brekkie, along with Michelle’s brother’s, their wives and children. All their kid’s opened their presents from their Nana and Grandad, whilst we get stuck into a few (alcoholic) drinks, and Terry cracks on with the BBQ breakfast. By 10.30am there has already been a huge water-fight, mainly because Michelle bought us both a water pistol for xmas! We head back to get ready for dinner, which we’re having a relative called Mel, who we haven’t yet met - Michelle’s cousin. We make some roast potato’s to take with us, its just too strange this xmas so we’re looking for at least a little normality. Xmas dinner consists of prawns, cold ham, salad, potato salad, roast potato’s and for pudding trifle and pavlova. Again, as you can see from the photo’s another water-fight breaks out, this one on a larger scale than before, and by 3pm everyone is sopping wet! We head back about 4pm and as no-on is really doing anything in the evening we head out with Dean and Andrew as one of their friends is having a house party. We’ve forgotten the wallet with the money in, (Chris’ usual trick!) so it’s no taxi ride home for us, so we decide to walk. It took us 2 ½ hours to walk home, and we got lost on the way, let’s just say it will definitely be a xmas to remember!

On Boxing Day Michelle arranged for us to go to Great Keppel Island, which is just offshore of Yeppoon (it’s a bit closer than the Isle of Wight is to Lee-on-Solent). Her friends Cass and Graham have rented a house over there for Xmas and their kids are off visiting other relatives so they have invited us over for 2 nights, as well as Michelle’s friend Veronica and her husband Kirt, who are at the moment visiting from New Zealand. Graham takes us over there in his little speed boat, in which we get drenched, but it’s a really hot day so it doesn’t matter. Graham and Cass have bought the kids a ‘doughnut’ for the back of the boat so he lets us all have a go around the beach as the kids aren’t there. Veronica manages to do a major somersault as she’s catapulted off the ring and bruises all her back and twists her knee…whoops. And when Gem has a go with Chris she manages to lose her bottoms completely when she is thrown off, to the extent that they come up floating beside her, how embarrassing. After both being thrown off the second time, Gem tries to climb back on the boat and notices one of her boobs hanging out, after rearranging and getting on the doughnut, Chris is like ‘Gem your boobs hanging out’….. and it was the other one!!!!! The lad’s got a bit of laugh to say the least.

After our escapades on the beach we have a cocktail party as everyone has brought with them a bottle of spirits, a mixer and some fruit. It’s not long before ‘Singstar’ comes out on the play station, Chris is a hustler when he tells everyone he’s crap at karaoke, and he ends up belting out Roxanne and getting a top score! When we play battle of the couples we perform an amazing rendition of ‘Laura’ by the Scissor Sisters. It’s such a cool game, we’re definitely buying it when we get back. We also play a game of ‘Scategories’ which turns out to be hilarious, before we all realise we’ve had too much to drink and it’s time for bed!

The weather is shocking for the next 2 days, no sunbathing on the beach for us, so the lad’s decide to go out on a fishing trip whilst the girls stay and drink cocktails in the hot spa all day! In the evening we finish off the bottles of spirits along with a massive pizza before heading off to the nightclub just down the road from us - think Prague but 10 times worse!!!!!! We head back to Yeppoon the next day dishevelled from the cocktails! We’ve managed to bag a place to stay for the last 4 days of our trip in Auckland, New Zealand, as this is where Veronica and Kirt live, so when we drop our camper off they’re going to pick us up, and then drop us at the airport for our flight to Fiji. Kirt said he might even have 2 days of work for Chris if he wants it! How jammy!

The next major event over our crimbo period is Ben’s birthday (a rellie from Tasmania). Marty and Narelle decide to hold a fancy dress party. As you can see from the photo’s Gem goes as Pocahontas and Chris as the legendary Mrs Doubtfire…classic!!!!! Not much goss from the party, oh only that everyone got a very good dousing in fart spray, thanks to Michelle, so we stank for ages after the party!!!!

And finally on to New Years Eve…. we were invited around Cass and Grahams for the night for a BBQ and what-not! The evening started off very civilised but that soon changed. Gem was on ‘shot-control’, so there was the inevitable tequila, we had some cowboys, and also Gem and Michelle’s disgusting concoction that curdled, and probably pushed everyone over the edge! We got introduced to some Aussie games, and of course we taught them a few! One of the Aussie games was called ‘when the penny drops!’. Basically, you have to insert (outside the clothing) a 50 cent coin in between your bum cheeks, and waddle across the course set out to drop the penny in a cup on the floor. Sounds a lot harder than it is. Chris nailed it first time almost beating the guy Joseph who invented the game! Gem, despite her large bum failed miserably!!!!! Apparently Joseph has some very disturbing footage on his video camera that he kept rolling throughout!!!!! We also played the cereal game that Chris taught the Aussies how to play - where you have to pick up the box with your teeth without putting your hands down. Slowly the box becomes smaller and smaller until its on the ground. Funnily enough all the boys sucked at this game, oh and Gem too! Finally we taught them ‘the dance off’ man we ruled the circle, we taught them a thing or too, plus we’ve picked up a new move!

We saw the new year through with a count down and ‘play that funky music’ playing in the background. By 1pm everyone was wilting so we managed to score a lift off Joseph and Katie and went around to see Dean and Andrew, where we stayed until 5am, and then had a very long stomp home. After stopping at the petrol station to get a sausage roll (munchy time!) we rolled in at 6am, where we found the door locked!!!! Michelle and Stu had stayed at Graham and Cass’ so Chris had break through the tiniest window, and on route we broke their fly screen, but we eventually made it to bed at 7am after making some more drunken phone calls back home!!