Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Can't believe 2009 is coming to a close already, but sure enough here we are and what a year it has been. A year that saw me graduate from teacher's college, saw Leah get half way through her masters program and included a lot of travelling on our part. On top of all of those highlights, Christmas will for sure be added to the list.

Our friends Luke and Tamara from Port Lincoln in South Australia (approx. 24 hr. drive) made their trip home for Christmas at the beginning of December, and the four of us had been planning our Christmas together for quite some time. We arrived at Luke and Tamara's the afternoon of the 23rd,

and jumped right into the seasonal eating! We stayed there until the 27th, and the 4 days were flooded with delicious meals including barbecue, pierogies, cinnamon buns, green bean and roasted pumpkin and philly salad, stuffing, rhubarb pie and the tastiest chicken you could imagine for lunch on Christmas day... and of course the beverages were plentiful! We will always remember our first Christmas away from home, not just for the food, but also because it was an amazing time with our closest friends here in Sydney.

On Christmas morning we opened our stockings, and then enjoyed a scrumptious breakfast of cinnamon buns and fruit salad. The tiniest Christmas tree in the history

of Christmas trees, with a star big enough to guide you anywhere, was perched in Luke & Tamara's living room, and looked even smaller with all the gifts around it! Santa was good to everyone - new earrings for both Leah and Tamara, Luke got his wish for cricket tickets, Luke and Tamara received a brand new barbecue from friends of theirs, but only one of them brought out the video camera... my darling fiancee goes above and beyond yet again on Christmas and chose to encourage the rock star in me by getting me my first guitar! You will all get the chance to see the glorious moment on camera upon our return home, but for now you can just brace yourselves for a whole new side of me haha!

We are in the midst of putting together a New Year's plan and are very excited about the world's biggest fireworks display. We'll fill you all in on how that goes... until then, take care and have a wonderful time ringing in 2010... we know we will!!

Take care,

Jeff & Leah

xoxo