All Things Christmas

Since I have been slacking and need to catch up, this entry will include a number of this and that.
Friday night, the 12th found us at the Parks Christmas party. It was a typical staff get-together... lots of socializing, eating a delicious meal, more socializing and drinking with a trivia quiz thrown in. Trivia quizzes are big here. The Sunday before Christmas, the Cricket club had a bit of a Christmas get-together with a sausage sizzle and a quiz night. We are thinking we will have to host a Canadian quiz night before we leave.

The second last day of school, Wednesday the 17th, was spent at the school helping Aiden's class do Christmas crafts. In the morning, the kids each made an angel ornament, a Santa decoration and a gingerbread house. It was great fun! The afternoon was spent at the local church where the Halls Gap school along with the Pomonal school did a Christmas service as part of their religion education class.

Thursday, the last day of school, Aiden's class had their big day out (see next blog). That evening I went out to Pomonal with the Roz, Daryl and kids to Carols by Candlelight. We were all hoping to go and take in this Aussie Christmas tradition but both Sean and Aiden were feeling under the weather with colds. Carols by Candlelight is a very community orientated event. The local choir was there to sing a number of carols and there were a few individuals that also preformed as well, and the Stawell brass band was there too. It was an enjoyable evening spent singing the traditional carols and some not so familiar ones.

On Friday night we toured Stawell searching for Christmas lights. They were far and few between. Definitely not the specky views and sites we see at home. Rather disappointing to say the least, although there were one or two that would rank high on Canadian standards. They even have house light competitions here but Stawell, a town of 6000 only had 19 entries.