Christmas & Boxing Day

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The heat of Sunday acclimatised us quickly so that when we drove down the Fleurieu Peninsula on Xmas Eve, the drop in temperature and the sea breezes made it feel almost chilly at times. We had rented a house at McCracken Country Club and it was a monster:

Chris' Mum & Dad and Uncle Colin came over to meet us and we all popped over to the clubhouse for supper.

On Christmas morning, we headed over to the Steele's house in Port Elliott for our first Aussie Christmas. David and Lorene had prepared cold seafood starters - shell-on prawns and crayfish caught by David. Colin - Lorene's brother - had stayed overnight and we were joined a bit later on by Chris' brother, Matt, his ex-wife Amanda and their daughter Abigail.

Lorene had worked so hard to get everything ready - even the tree was home made:

The wreath was home-made too:

as was the Gingerbread house:

but not the trout in pastry, which Chris had bought:

Some traditions, however, span continents - the trifle was classic - and alcoholic:

After all that and the buffet meal, most of us felt a little bit of exercise wouldn't go amiss and so we headed for the cliff and beach walk - here's some of the scenes:

So that was it - a lovely day.

Boxing Day was time to pack up and leave our rented house and head back to Adelaide, but not before Kelly and Chris took the opportunity to take us to lunch for our Ruby Wedding Anniversary at the beautiful Star of Greece restaurant, sited on a clifftop overlooking the beach.

We had a couple of pit stops on the way - firstly for coffee in the pretty little town of Willunga, where the only place open on this holiday was a rustic little organic coffee shop:

We also re-visited the Coriole winery in McLaren Vale and sat in our favourite corner again:

Chris had bought a special edition bottle - Australia's National Wine Poet, Andy Kissane had a different poem on the back of each bottle:

After lunch, we went for a stroll on the beach and paddled in the water. The sea rescue/shark helicopter had been hovering around but eventually thought it was safe enough to come in and land and do some PR with the kids:

This morning (Thursday), Chris, his brother Matt and Jo and Ross all headed off to the cinema to see the Hobbitt. Kelly and I weren't interested and so she walked me down to the park where I read my book for a while as she headed off for a hike with her pal.