Melbourne

It has been a bit longer between posts this week but that is because we have been very busy! On Christmas night, Jeff and I boarded a sleeper train to Melbourne. Jeff had the week off and we took full advantage!

We just took so many pictures, walked the entire city and ate enough food for an army! We truly fell in love with Melbourne!

I will post more when we have a few more minutes. Right now, we off to get ready for the fireworks tonight at the harbour!

Christmas Celebration

Merry Christmas! Today we celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ!

We have been getting ready for the big celebration all week. We first started with Jeff's work celebration. Jeff (I) was in charge of cookies for the office potluck and decided on an easy one this year. Since I did not want to buy flour, sugar, baking powder and all the other essentials when baking from scratch, I opted for this Sandra Lee recipe with a few alterations.

We made the peppermint snowball cookies but instead of the powdered sugar we did regular sugar. They were yummy!

We also received our package from my mom and dad for the holidays! They sent us a US goody bag for the holidays full of favorites from home that we can't get here! The most important was the fried onions we needed for the green bean casserole! And of course the Rotel and Velveeta we will use to make the all important queso!

It took about 3 weeks for it to get here, thanks to the Australian Quarantine and Immigration Services who had to inspect our package. Luckily everything passed and made it to us!

The view on Christmas morning!

Ready to open presents in our matching Qantas PJs!

I got a really cool iPhone and passport case!

Jeff got a new shirt!

We both got Texas Lottery scratch offs from our family friends the Croziers, but no winners!

Then Jeff started working on the Christmas meal. One of Jeff's favorites is potato casserole made with frozen Southern style hash browns. Unfortunately, they don't have that there so Jeff cut up frozen french fries to make the casserole perfect!

It was a great feast, full of potato casserole and green bean casserole WITH fried onions!

Merry Christmas!

Off to the train to Melbourne! Will post more soon.

Merry Christmas

Just got back from St John's in Parramatta. The church itself is over 200 years old and still looks great. Having a nightcap with the missus and watching a Christmas movie. About to go to bed and wait for Santa.

Christmas Eve Aussie Style!

Christmas in Australia is known for its beach time and barbecues so we had to participate. It has been unseasonably rainy this year here but today we had a break in the clouds!

It was beautiful so we decided to celebrate Christmas Eve Aussie Style at Bondi Beach!

It was perfect weather and the beach is amazing!

If you close enough you can see Santa joined in the festivities too! He is being pulled by the jet ski! I love it!

So happy on the beach!

Several people decided to honor the holiday by wearing their Santa hats. This couple even brought there tree!

There was also a large tree the lifeguards put up.

After a few hours laying out we decided to venture out to the rocks on the side of the beach

The waves were crashing over the rocks - it was beautiful!

I decided to jump in at one of the little bays at the rocks. There were even a few dogs and their owners who were in there too!

Check out the cool green algae! I just liked how it looked!

We had a great Christmas eve at the beach, but don't worry - we did make it to church!

Christmas Break

Jeff and I are officially on Christmas break. Today was his last day at work and he does not go back until January 3rd.

Because we were so far away our Christmas cards never made it down under! So here is our Christmas card for you to enjoy!

I hope you all have been very nice this year! There are only 2 more sleeps till Santa comes! (This is how the Aussies count down till Christmas!)

Merry Christmas!

Bowling

Congratulations to the TCU Horned Frogs on winning the Poinsettia Bowl yesterday 31-24 over Louisiana Tech (referred to as "pesky" by the ESPN geniuses, you can read the writeup of the game here)

It took the Frogs about 3 quarters to realize they were even in San Diego and not Pasadena like last year. However a win is a win. No need to trash talk the various Bulldog alumni that follow this blog (you know who you are).

With the win the Frogs go to 11-2 on the season (no need to mention to whom those losses were against), their 7th 11+ win season in the last 10 years (overall record 103 wins and 23 losses since 2002). Not bad for a young team that I predicted before the season could have up to 5 losses this year.

A shoutout to Casey Pachall, aka "The Sleeve" our QB...

Featherdale Part 2 -Koalas

There is not much for me to say about this post except - I have a new obsession and it's Koalas!

They are so adorable and the ones at the Featherdale Wildlife Park were so active! Most of the time when we saw Koalas they were sleeping. These guys were up and about. Some where even wrestling around and trying to climb out of there enclosure!

Hello!

I love how they can sit in the most awkward positions and look so comfortable!

This is three different Koalas snuggling as they sleep - so cute!

I made Jeff take several pictures with the real Koalas we got to pet. Apparently it is illegal to hold a Koala in New South Wales( the state we are in) and we don't know why. But you can pet them!

These three guys were the most active of the day - they did take a moment to pose for us but they were just running all over their exhibit!

You can see one of them ready to climb up!

My second time to cuddle up with a Koala! This is Austin sleeping!

Third times a charm - Austin woke up!

Clearly I was excited!

I am going to miss this so much!

Strike a pose

Most of you college football fans will know this but Baylor was honored this year to have our quarter back, Robert Griffin III, win the Heisman Award!

For you non-football fans this is the award given to the BEST football player of the year!

At Baylor, we have had a recent history of not doing well in football until he and Art Briles (our coach) came along.

Before the award was given, a Facebook page was started for RG3 for Heisman. Since he won, people have posted pictures of themselves doing the pose in celebration of the win.

So without further ado....I give you my pose!

Charlie's 1st Christmas

When we left on this journey, we had to send Charlie down to Houston to stay with my parents. We were really sad that we would miss our first Christmas with him. So we decided to order him some Christmas presents he could open with his grand puppy parents!

Mom and dad let him celebrate early and opened his stocking last night!

Here is his stocking all full of goodies!

Digging in!

Mom showing him a reindeer treat - looks yummy!

Licking his lips to get ready to eat his treats!

After he hid his big crocodile, he was off with his gingerbread man! So fun!

Merry Christmas Charlie!! I can tell you had a great first Christmas.

Thank you so much mom and dad for all the pictures and taking good care of our little man!

Ash and Jeff

Featherdale Wildlife Park - Part 1

Since we realized we had to step things up a bit, we decided we better get over to the Featherdale Wildlife Park. When we tell everyone how much we enjoy the Zoo and the other exhibits, they tell us we HAD TO GO!

You are much closer to the animals and you even get to pet a Koala (which we all know by now that I am completely obsessed with.)

All of the animals are found in Australia and we had a great time.

They park is a filled with several types of animals and they are so close to you.

This little guy is a blue billed duck - the blue is hard to see but it was so vibrant in person.

These little guys are the common wombats and they are so little and shockingly cute.

Of course here is one of the Koalas! Because of my obsession, there will be a second post just on them! There were so many of them when we got there I just couldn't handle it! :)

After seeing the Koalas, you walking into a little area that is filled with Wallabies and Kangaroos. You can walk right up to them and even feed them. It was crazy how comfortable they are will humans.

Some of the bigger Kangaroos were wall about relaxing and not the people!

Here is a larger Wombat - just waking up from a nap in his little cave.

Then we saw the little penguins!

Here is the Tasmanian Devil - I was so amazed by this guy. All he did was run a lap around his exhibit. Every once in a while he would stop his lap and turn in place! Just like the cartoon Tasmanian Devil. It was so funny!

Then we walked past this Crocodile. The first time we walked by he was halfway in the water and halfway out but not moving and HUGE. We thought he was just a statue and were a bit sad not to see a real one. The we came by again and he was in another spot - IT'S REAL!

At the back of the park, there were peacocks in an area with some Kangaroos. We were so lucky to see one of them open up their feathers! It was beautiful!

There is even a white one but we only saw him briefly.

There's a DINGO!

(Jeff thinks he just had eaten a bird - see the feathers!)

We loved being so close to all the animals. They were fascinating to watch!

Right before we left we had to see the Koalas and Kangaroos again. We got a big kick out of the Wallabies here just eating their carrots as they watched the keepers clean their area!

Just like me when a maintenance man comes!