On Friday evening we spent the evening at King's Park - a park high on a bluff overlooking the Swan River and the city of Perth. It covers a huge area, with gardens, forests, bush, and scenic lakes. In one open section of the park an outdoor cinema is created over the Christmas holiday period and it here that families gather with their picnics in the early evening, to enjoy time with friends and family as the sun sets, and then, as darkness falls, to enjoy a family movie. The movie we saw was the new film from the creators of 'Shrek' - 'Frozen'. The film is a wonderful fairy tale set in the depths of a cold winter, with two princesses, a handsome, but poor young man, a reindeer and a snowman. The snowman draws much of his character from the donkey in 'Shrek', and is probably the star of the show.
Well worth a family outing as it is released soon after Christmas.
On Saturday the Tilson family went in all directions - shopping, Christmas celebrations at the Yacht club, practice for the Carol service, etc.
The Junior Joblings visited old university friends south of Perth and turned the trip into an adventure by catching the bus from the bottom of our road to the local train station, the train into the city, and then the train south to where they were met by their friends.
In the evening Sarah and I drove to Mullaloo Beach where we had a good walk along the cycle and walking path. The wind has been blowing quite a bit and so the sea was choppy, which did not deter the kite surfers from taking to the water - they were amazing as they travelled across the water at great speed, flying over waves and spinning round at speed to change tack.
Yesterday, Sunday, Sarah and I started the day by going to the early service at St Phillips, Cottesloe which is the church that Gavin and Amanda have been attending since they came to Australia and where they have made many good friends. Most of the rest of the family went to the later service.
Sarah and I were on lunch duty and so, on the way home from church, stopped in at Coles (the supermarket that provides all the groceries for Australian Masterchef) to do the shopping , before getting home and facing the challenge to prepare a pork roast, complete with roast potatoes, carrots and broccoli, and a chocolate cheesecake to follow. Cooking for ten is quite a challenge, but most satisfying to see that even the most hungry is completely sated!
After a rest in the afternoon we all drove back down to Cottesloe for the Carol service. This service, organized by St Phillips, has been running for the past eighteen years in the gardens of the Cottesloe Civic Buildings where there is a huge lawn which has room for well over a thousand people doing the typical Aussie thing of having a picnic as they prepare for the evening. There is a stage set on a terrace at the front of the lawn and from here, as the sun sets, the carols are led and the tableaux and plays performed. Josh was playing in the 'orchestra' with his great buddy Matthew. Their job was to play the triangle - Josh holding the triangle and Matthew tapping it!
Gavin played the store-keeper in the little play 'A sweet Christmas' ......
....... And Caleb played Joseph in the Christmas tableau.
It was a lovely evening, although surprisingly cool.
Today is Amanda's (43rd) birthday and we are all going down to Kings Park to enjoy a birthday brunch.
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