. Christmas was a special day - Isobel was a bit more animated and involvedthis year, but still doesn't quite get the whole present-thing yet. She did enjoy pulling ornaments off the Christmas tree at every opportunity though! Every present under the tree was for her, apparently. She is definitely enjoying her spoils this year - lots of wonderful new books to read and some special ones for bedtimes, plus a toy piano from Mummy and Daddy. Santa even brought her some little toys and books, as well as a mini-'magna-doodle' pad so she can draw without putting crayon on the walls
.Craig and Teena invited us to post-Christmas drinkies at their house during the week - it was nice to catch up with some friends again, and hear how everyone's holidays were going. Isobel was her usual shy self to begin with, but soon warmed up to the other boys and girls and was off playing happily. It's nice to have her at an age where she can 'play' with other kids, but she's still learning the concept of sharing ... and allowing other kids to have a turn with the toy she wants RIGHT NOW without just taking it from them. Playgroup with Isobel is going to be a challenge for me for a while, I can tell
.We watched the New Year celebrations telecasts in three timezones - fireworks on the Sydney Harbour Bridge, dropping 'the ball' in New York, and 'New Year at the Needle' here in Seattle. The local event was a bit of a fizzer this year - lots of hype leading up to the night about a new and improved fireworks show, set to movie themes as a tribute to the 80th year of the Academy Awards. It all looked good until a couple of minutes into the show, when the fireworks suddenly stopped ... and then started again ... then stopped ... then started again. By this time they were completely out of sync with the music, and the last three minutes or so had no soundtrack at all. Apparently the computer system controlling the show crashed and had to be restarted - twice. Very ironic that a computer glitch ruined the show in the home town of companies such as Microsoft and Nintendo
.Andy has another week off before returning to work next week - we have all the Christmas decorations to take down and pack away, and we should start some planning for our visit home in the next few weeks. Not looking forward to arriving home in the middle of summer - we're well and truly acclimatised to the colder weather here, and it's been a long time since we've suffered through 40degC temperatures!!
