Congratulations Buehlmann family! We have been in Australia for a little bit over a year. This marked our second Christmas down under.
But let's start with first things first. At the beginning of December Christy and Thomas attended several "holiday" parties. The most prominent among them was the work Christmas party. We both dressed up as can be seen from Christy's picture.
We also got a chance to attend Sydney's Kindergarten Christmas presentation. Neat presentation by the kids.
Then on the 20th we headed up to Brisbane where we first stayed a week in the Marriott. It brought back memories of when Summer and Jay got married in 2005. Sydney loved the ability to go up to the Executive Lounge and have a soda, ok "cappa" as she calls it. Tyler visited us for Christmas day. Together with the rest of teh Australian family we spent the morning together and exchanged gifts. The Whatleys also joined and participated. Good lunch, memorable day.
The second half of the trip we spent in Mooloolaba in the Nautilus. The weather was predominantly grey and we had almost all the time rain. (This is the year, with the massive floods in Queensland.) Still, it was nice to be up there. We still could go to the beach, but had to stay for a short time as Sydney got cold. She enjoyed warming up in the hot tub after time at the beach.
For New Year's Eve we headed back to Brisbane. Tyler was returning to the US. We met up with some of the family members and watched the fireworks. We had a good time, but had to return soon to Melbourne.