2016 ends - 2017 begins

So today is the last day of 2016 and 2017 beckons.

For us back here in Numurkah, in the middle of Victoria, Australia, it is hot, very hot and since our return to the house here and work we have been spending more and more time just wishing the next few months gone and that we were on SOL. It is so very hard to be enthusiastic about a job when you'd rather be somewhere else. 

We have had a super Christmas, with all our children home for the last Christmas here at Melrose. The stockings were hung, just like the poem says, on the mantle with care - with carrots and milk for the reindeer and beer and cookies for Santa.

Lilly preparing a feast for Santa and the reindeer

Phil, Dolly and Lilly drove over from Adelaide, Marnie and Dylan came from Wangaratta bringing with them Dylan's parents, Kim and Jay who are over visiting from Tennessee, America for a few weeks down under. Amy drove up from Melbourne with Wal and the children's cousin Benny who has moved here from New Zealand, and Grace and Cal came up from Tatura. So the house was full, noisy and fun. Jamie and I sure love having all the kids around and in a sense that will be one thing we will miss terribly when we move aboard, but there will be visits of course.

We had enough food and drink to feed and water a small African country but we somehow managed to get through it all as is usual at this festive time. The Christmas family board game this year was "Taboo"  and this was a great success with everyone joining in around the table after we had finished eating. 

The pool was, as always, a huge hit - Lilly having a ball with everybody there to entertain her and to be entertained by her. She was even in the pool at 7 in the morning on Boxing Day!!! Wearing her new life jacket of course. Christmas Day we had temperatures of nearly 40 degrees Celsius!!! So everyone was in for most of the day - only out of it to eat.

Lilly showing off her new life jacket with her mum and dad

Sadly everything comes to an end after a few days as normal life calls our children back to their homes and lives and Jamie and I are once again just the two of us here in the big house that seems to echo with silence until we get used to it again.

Now after the New Year passes we must get ourselves into moving mode, to decide what we want to keep and store, to donate, to give away, and what we feel are essential items to take with us onto SOL. This is not an easy task of course, with over 30 years of collected possessions to go through and is a very daunting, challenging prospect. We have a couple of months to do it before settlement day, but with each day that passes the hurdles seem bigger. Everything I have read does say it is liberating to get rid of all the stuff that we have acquired but the problem is where to begin...