Woke up at 6 am - Rowan was excited to see the presents under the tree. He crawled over to Ellis's door to pry it open (it's a sliding door - one day there is going to be a finger disaster).
"I'M STILL SLEEPING" yelled Ellis.
"Santa came." I said.
"Really?" - Ellis inched his way out into the living room.
We set up video chat with mom and dad and Susie and RJ to make it feel a bit more Christmassy. Ellis plowed through all the presents - the favourite was Rowan's walker.
We finished opening presents and then packed up Ellis's Dora bag with toys he needed and headed out the door to the airport.
Our cabby gave us the history of Brisbane on the way to the airport and I actually learned a lot. He was better than our bus tour.
At the airport (after Cyp spent about 30 minutes wrapping the car seats and stroller) we hit the Qantas club - woo hoo! All the raisin toast you could eat. This was actually really good and we felt like we were on vacation.
The flight was not fun for me. It was only two hours, but I was tense. I don't know what happens to my brain when I get on a plane, but I start thinking of all these things. Wouldn't it be ironic if our plane went down on Christmas Day? It was a tad bumpy and I freaked out at every one. Two hours of tension for me. It was exhausting. The kids don't sleep on the flights either - why is that? Oh - until about 10 minutes before landing when Rowan crashed and Ellis decided he had to pee.
"here!" I said as I thrust Rowan onto Cyp. "Take him!" at the same time yanking down Ellis's shorts and underwear and putting a diaper on him all while seatbelted for landing. There were two distinguished looking Asian men sitting across the aisle that had been looking at us askance the entire flight - this sealed the deal as I was trying to plaster the diaper onto Ellis. I got it though.
"you're a superstar" said Cyp.
"yes"
We landed and got our car and headed out. How did people get by in the old days without GPSs? Did you actually have to plan your route? Sue says there used to be more divorce.
The GPS didn't save us from Ellis who screamed obscenities in the back the entire way to Sue and Bob's house. I swear (pardon the pun) I have been watching my language lately. Ellis was horrible. This was his commentary
"**&#$%(*^^*#*$&*#`ing"
"I'm going to rip all my skin off and then I'll be just bones"
"I'm going to gouge my eyeballs out and they'll be bleeding - I won't be able to see."
This was punctuated by shrieks at 100 decibels.
I realized he was extremely sleep deprived, but this is what kept going through my mind - "he's 3. what is he going to be like - how do I respond to this.
In the end I decided to laugh.
"Why are you laughing mummy?"
That seemed to work.
We got to Sue and Bob's - again - preconceptions of what something will be like from looking at pictures were shattered. I had imagined Melbourne would be like Brisbane or I had a little picture in my mind from Bill Bryson's book.
I really like Melbourne - it is very green (even though it looked brown as far as the eye could see from the plane) with really nice old brick houses. It feels very different from Brisbane and there was a nice cool breeze. It felt familiar - maybe like England (though I've only been there for 3 days) - It is like what I imagine England would be like from all the books I've read that have taken place in England. It seems much more like home too. Maybe that's because we are with Sue and Bob.
We had a great Christmas Dinner - the kids seemed happy to see each other - Ellis seemed to turn into a happy child again - phew -it is nice to be with friends - especially at Christmas!
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