It was Christmas in Australia!

Christmas Eve night we went to church. It was so crowded but so pretty. Iris and I loved the music and I sang "GlooooOOOoooOOoooOOoo - ria" for the next few days. Here we are driving up to the church.


Afterwards we went into another room and saw a pretty set of statues of the baby Jesus and his family. They had animals. I liked what I saw so much that every time someone else came into the room, I gave them a tour and explained the whole scene to them so they would understand. I sure was proud.


After church we all went back to my house and had dinner together. Iris really liked her uncle Matt. Here he is having dinner with her.


We set out santa packs and cookies, and while we were asleep Santa came! Even in Australia! He filled my pack and Iris' pack with all kinds of stuff, look at all the toys he gave me!


Later on we packed up and went to the park for a Christmas picnic. It was so much fun! There were all kinds of birds we saw and heard kookaburras and carrawongs and magpies and ducks. There was even a big friendly peacock and some peahens and htey made the coolest noises. Here is the peacock by the duck pond.


Here's his big tail up. It was huge! He let me touch his tail feathers. They were shiny. That's me and grandma next to him on the picnic table.


In the duck pond there were black swans! We have geese at home, these are like geese but they are all black with red beaks. They made funny noises and nipped when you got too close. I'm trying to talk to them here.


This park also had emus, but emus are a nuisance so they are kept in a big cage. Here is what an emu looks like very close up.


And a little farther away.


Daddy taught me how to play cricket and I LOVE cricket. I like most sports but cricket is really good. I played with daddy and grandad and my uncles. Later on I played bocce and thought that was great fun too.


There was a kookaburra that liked the look of our picnic and it sat in a tree branch only a few feet away the whole time. Eventually he got brave and started stealing pieces of cheese from us! We heard his funny call. He says "Kooooo-koo-koo-koo-kaa-kaa-kaa!" I pretended to be a kookaburra and flapped my wings and made lots of noise with him.


We had more presents and Christmas crackers that made a loud noise when you pulled them and they had stuff inside! I had so much fun with my family playing with toys and relaxing.


We were so tired by the end of the day but Christmas sure was fun. I can't wait to do it again!

I think I'm really getting the hang of this laid-back Aussie life.


So much has been going on this week! One day my uncle Mick took me and Iris to the park. Here's me.


And here's Iris in her stroller.


This is Uncle Michael and Willow's dog, Lola. She's so cute! I love to play with her but Iris is a little scared of her. Which is funny because she's a miniature fox terrier and Iris is about 4 times her size!


One day I got to meet my great-grandma Wood when she came over.

She looks cheerful, doesn't she?


This is me hugging my grandma. I love her!

Another day Grandad took us over to the beach. Where daddy grew up there sure are lots of beaches! This is one by the city, near the mouth of the harbour.


Iris used a spoon to eat a lot of sand. I built lots of sandcastles.


This is my grandad walking me down to the water. I love being with him, too!


This is daddy and Iris by the waves. I was scared when the cold water hit my legs but Iris sure loved it. She wanted to go out farther and farther into the waves and when no one was looking she kept trying to sneak off and crawl into the water. This is after dad rescued her once, she's pretty mad.

We're having lots of fun and tonight Santa is coming!! So far Australia sure has a lot of good things in it.

After a few days in California with Grammie and Papa we got on another plane and went for a long long long time. I mean a LONG time. It was late and we were crowded and uncomfortable. But we made it and finally the plane landed and we were in Australia!

We had to wait in lots of long lines to get through immigration and customs. Sure glad we got those new passports. Here I am waiting in the airport enjoying my camera.

After that, we picked up our bags. Mommy and daddy's big suitcase with all their clothes didn't get on the plane with us and was still in California. They were sure frustrated. After that we waited for my Australian family to find us. There were so many people in the airport! I took lots of pictures of them all.

Once we found them we all sat down and had something to eat together. Grandad brought me the coolest teddy bear! This is me eating my first Aussie sausage roll. I wasn't real impressed. After that we took a long ride on a train through the country to where Grandma and Grandad live. I saw lots of trees mommy called gumtrees. I told her I saw one called a Minneapolis Flower tree. She said probably not in Australia. Then I said yes it was, because it had tiny apples on it - so it was a Mini-Apples tree. Ha ha ha.

This is my auntie Julia in the airport. Mommy thinks I look like her.

This is my uncle Michael. He lives close to where we're staying so we see a lot of him. Iris and I were scared of him at first but now he's our favorite person. He's VERY silly.

This is our living room in our apartment where we're staying. It's really nice! Iris and I have our own bedroom with beds you can jump on. We also have a balcony and when we go outside we can see birds in the trees. I saw a "egg-pie" (Magpie) bird and really liked it. I also saw a pigeon and tried to feed it eucalyptus leaves, but it didn't eat any. This picture is Iris tackling me underneath the dining room table.

This is the pretty planter outside our front door. The cross street behind it is Beaumont, it has lots of neat shops and food to explore.

This is when we first arrived. It's Julia, my grandma, and uncle Michael. They were so nice to help us feel right at home and I LOVE playing with them! We're having so much fun with them - more pictures to come as soon as we get a decent interne tconnection to upload them!

Mommy called our neighbors at home to check in today and heard we got lots of snow. It seems strange to think that Ludo is hanging out in snow while we're running the air conditioning and going to the beach. Tomorrow I'll try to post pictures of me and Grandad at the beach - I found shells!

We started out going to the airport and I took pictures of the airport.



We had to wait a while, but I watched the planes and sat with Mama and Iris.



And after we were on the plane we went on a train around Denver airport before we got on another plane to California.



We had to wait for Grammie and Papa to pick us up at the airport. There were lots of cars and taxis that went past while we waited.



But we had snacks to keep us going while we waited.



Finally, Grammie and Papa arrived to pick us up.

This is my Grammie.



And this is my Papa.



While we stayed with Grammie and Papa we had a Christmas party.

Iris got presents...



Daddy got presents...



Mama got presents...



And I got LOTS of presents...

My Auntie Kysa, Iris and I all got tiaras to be princesses with.



The Christmas party was LOTS of fun.

Hi, I'm Amy and I'm 3 years old.



For Christmas I got a camera to help me take pictures of my trip to Australia.

This is the first picture I ever took. It's my Dad. It's my Dad without his head. See the suitcase behind him? That's my suitcase.



I had to practice with my camera so I could take good photos on my trip.

I practiced by taking a photo of Mummy.



And then I practiced by taking a picture of Daddy and my sister. My sister's name is Iris.

(I'm getting better at taking photos.)



I'm going to take pictures of my trip and everything I see so that I can share my trip with all my friends.