Christmas Wrap Up!

Well Christmas has come and gone for another year.  We had a rather "different" Christmas Day here in the Valley.  

We awoke to the sounds of palm fronds crashing onto the roof and vertical rain pelting against the louvres.

And then........

"Cyclone Tasha" swept in from the Coral Sea

We lost power (electricity) for 2 days!

The mighty Mulgrave flooded leaving us no access to the outside world!

Ah yes, this was certainly going to be one of our more challenging Christmas Days.......

First things first - we needed to assess the situation and see what damage had occurred.   Fortunately for us Cyclone Tasha was only a Category 1 cyclone so the wind damage was minimal however the RAIN was torrential. 

So much so that our access bridge across the mighty Mulgrave was 9 metres over the railings!   Between these 2 clumps of trees is where our bridge usually sits.  

Somehow I don't think we will be making the Boxing Day Sales!

Resigned to the fact that we were not going to get out for a couple of days we headed back home (safe and sound high on the hill) for the opening of gifts and a bit of "creative" Christmas breakfast cooking.

This year we had Kendall's Irish boyfriend joining us for a typical Australian Christmas.  I'm sure it will be a Christmas he will never forget!  Here is the little Christmas stocking I made for him.  Note the cute little shamrocks I included  (just to make him feel at home!)



Here's Kendall's Country Angel stocking.  I couldn't resist including the cowboy boots.  Very Kendall-like!

Thank goodness for my Gasmate portable cooker!  It's amazing just what you can do when faced with the prospect of preparing a Christmas feast for 6 (with no electricity).   It reminded me in some ways of what Christmas must have been like for the pioneers - Christmas turkey cooked in a camp oven over an open fire.   How amazing is it that in the 21st Century we are still at the mercy of Mother Nature.

After countless games of "Celebrity Heads";  "Name that Tune";  and a clever little Christmas Quiz that Alan managed to whip together - we were well and truly over all our family bonding time and kept looking longingly at the fairy lights on the Christmas tree just hoping (once again) to see the twinkle and sparkle of those lights.  "When do you think the power will come back on?"  I wish I had a dollar for every time someone asked me this question......

Eventually the power did come on and the river height dropped and my children (and their partners) hastily made their way back into civilisation (vowing NEVER to cross the mighty Mulgrave again if ever there was the likelihood of them being marooned together again under the one roof with no electricity!) 

Ah yes ......  Christmas 2010 - certainly one I will never forget.


PS - I did invite them back again for New Year's Eve for another family get-together.  Somehow it seems that they have ALL made other plans - funny thing about that?