Happy 2010 Everybody!

Hope you all had a wonderful time ringing in the new year and also that you've recovered nicely fron all the celebrating. We spent New Years Eve with Luke and Tamara at one of the several lookouts in Sydney. This one in particular was called Mort Bay Park, and was on the west side of the bridge, a little further down the harbour. We got there extremely early trying to beat the crowd, and we were more than successful! Despite the weather not looking the greatest, we packed a cooler full of food for the day and went to stake out the best view - and since we were one of the first groups to arrive, we had all the options! We set up our blanket and chairs to ensure the best view of the fireworks with the iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge as our backdrop.

While we were waiting for the sun to set, we spent a lot of the day just talking, playing cards, reading books and magazines, napping and anything else we could do to make the wait not seem so long! As I said, the weather wasn't the greatest and we did get drizzled on a little bit, but not enough to spoil the excitement of waiting for the greatest fireworks display. The park got progressively more and more busy as the day went on, as people set up their tents, frisbees were being thrown, a game of cricket off in the distance, barbecues were in full force all just waiting for the show to start.

Once Luke got off work around 4, he showed up with some pizzas for dinner, and we continued the wait. At 9.00pm the wait was over ... sort of. The 9.00pm fireworks display was mostly for the kids; it was still a very nice display lasting around 10 minutes, just a warm up to the real

deal. From then on, we had a couple of drinks, discussed some New Year's resolutions and other plans we have for 2010. At 10.00pm, 11.00pm, 11.30pm and 11.55pm there were some short blasts to keep everyone on the edge of their seats and well in tune with the countdown in anticipation of the real deal at midnight! A new year has never been so bright and so loud! The show was really fantastic and we're hoping the pictures and video all turn out fine because it really was spectacular. After fighting with the traffic, we headed back to Luke and Tamara's to finish celebrating and ultimately crash for the night.

Since then, we've mostly just been getting the apartment ready for the arrival of Mom and Dad (Keith and Karen), doing some shopping to cash in on all of the post-holiday sales, and of course relaxing because after all, it is summer here down under!

Hope all is well with all of you in the freezing snow!

Take care,

Jeff & Leah

xoxo