Woke up to Boo screaming "Santa's been, he found us!!!". This was at 5:30am so we knew it was gonna be a long day. Was great though to wake up to Boo's excitement as to tell the truth wasn't looking forward to Christmas that much...reminds me of family and miss mates this time of year especially.
Anyway we waited for Meg to wake up and then headed outside the caravan to the Christmas tree to all the pressies and handed them out. Boo was so excited when she unwrapped her bike from Santa! Meg was also jumping up and down when she unwrapped her Dora doll from Santa. I was glad to get my kindle book reader as was itching to finish a book had started reading in Townsville and it is going to be the greatest thing for the car travelling. Marty got his socket set, bit boring but was what he needed. Anyhow after this we had coco pops for breaky on the kids request, they only get this for a treat, even passed up pancakes for them to my disgust. The morning was spent sitting under a tree on a picnic blanket where Marty and the girls played with the toy story Lego and on their Nintendo ds's whilst l read my kindle and did some sticker book activities with the girls also.
The sun was hot with the temperature hitting 32oC but we decided to get the camp fire going and cook a potatoe bake for lunch with steak and salad. Marty sweated over the fire but it was well worth it, it was delicious. We had the carols playing to help with the atmosphere and the girls sang along which was cute. After lunch we decided to head off to the Emerald Dam down the road for a swim, do surprised when we got there that it was packed. Was sort of good to see other people and to know that Christmas is spent doing whatever makes people happy instead of the traditional get togethers. There was music coming from a 4WD which added to the great atmosphere and we all had a few hours of cooling off which is what we needed.
In the arvo we headed back to our camp and got the fire going again for our dinner. We were having roast lamb with potato bake and veggies. God what was l thinking? It was so hot...but luckily it was delicious. Next year will definitely rethink the meal thing pending the weather. Might even go out for lunch!
Overall not a bad day, better than anticipated. Girls had a fabulous day and didn't even want to be anywhere else but with Marty and l. The heat getting to us a little, even though dry heat there's not much breeze around.

The 'Higher Ground Homestay' has been a great place to be though, quiet and Kath the owner is lovely. The girls have loved patting the horses and riding their bikes around the dirt tracks, except when Boo falls off on the sandy bits and Meg gets bogged!! Emerald also a nice town but nothing special. Did visit the Botanical Gardens and got eaten alive by mozzies on this monorail ride we all did, we had to get off half way around as we couldn't stand them, they were the size of bloody five cents piece!!! We also went to check out the huge Van Gogh sunflower painting which is the largest canvas painting on an easel in the world!!! Looked pretty cool, stood as tall as a two to three storey building! Other than that not much to see, be good to set off to Carnarvon Gorge tomorrow. Have been looking forward to this, the pics l've seen are spectacular!!
Bell Xx