Baby's first Christmas

Riley's first Christmas surpassed all expectations! We had a fantastic few weeks in Sydney catching up with all our friends and family and generally enjoying the silly season. The festivities kicked off with putting up the old family Christmas tree at Nan and Grandad's place which Riley loved. He kept grabbing all the decorations and loved to pull on the branches. In early December I decided to make my own Christmas cards for friends and family which involved dressing Riley up in red, donning the reindeer antlers and covering him in tinsel. It made for a very amusing photo shoot with about 60 photos to choose from. In the end two made the cut but there are some most amusing outakes you can see via the My Photos link. They were, on the whole, very well received although I got a few comments like ' how could you do that to your child?!'... easy, they'll be good fodder for his 21st!

For me, Christmas Eve was spent at the old Heathcote pub (once Riley was in dreamland of course) and it was nice to catch up with friends. Although the fact that we were placing bets on when the first fight would break out probably eludes to the type of crowd that place pulls (and for the record it was at 10:30pm with Mel Sneddon taking the prize pool). Christmas Day was one of the best ever. Riley is obviously too young to understand what was going on but he definitely picked up on all the excitement and was a very happy little chap. He was showered with so many gifts (enough toys to open a toy shop!) and loved pulling on the paper and chewing the ribbons on other people's gifts. We enjoyed opening presents with Nanny and Grandad, Mike and Leonie in the morning and then headed to the Navin's for a massive Christmas lunch with both our families and the Paynes. It was so much fun but needless to say, Riley was very well tuckered out by his bed time. Boxing Day was spent out at Picton at my Aunty Carol's place with lots of family around us which was so great. There were lots of kids for Riley to play with and he even had his first ride on a horse! We also caught up with Nana Jann and Pa Terry and Joan in the following few days for more Christmas cheer and Riley was even more spoilt with gorgeous gifts. I really hope all Riley's Christmases will be this wonderful. We truly are blessed to have such loving family and friends. There's loads of Christmas pics at the My Photos link.

Off to Manyana

Mum and Dad have a lovely holiday house on the NSW South Coast at the quaint little town of Manyana. We have been visiting as a family since they bought the house almost 20 years ago, and in early December I decided it was time to take the little man for his first visit to this lovely place. We spent 6 nights there from 11 December and were lucky to get a few nice beach days in, including one which was just perfect! It was so lovely to spend the day by Lake Conjola with the water clear and blue, and not a cloud in the sky. It really was magic. And no matter how cold the water was, I just couldn't stop Riley from being excited about swimming. Each time we approached the water he flapped his little arms around in excitement. It was great to head to the beach for the day, set up the sun shade tent and spend hours swimming and relaxing. The poor little mite was so buggered one particular day that he fell asleep in my arms as I carried him across the sand. He definitely enjoyed the place and Im sure he will spend many happy holidays there throughout his life.

Water baby

Once again, apologies for the lack of posts lately but being away I have been without internet access yet again. Some updates from the world of the little guy...what a busy couple of months! With the warmer weather upon us Riley has become a real little water baby. After initially crying at the touch of the cold sea water, I finally encouraged him with a swim at Cronulla's Shelley Beach in late November. He now loves the ocean! Here's a pic of him with Aunty Leonie having a swim at Gunnamatta Bay on Saturday 6 December. His little swimming outfit is so cute! We had spent the day watching Corey racing his boats down at St George Motorboat club which was lots of fun, and after enduring the day's heat decided to cool off!