Christmas 2005 was spent in Brisbane where we live now. Rita came from Tasmania to spend the holidays with us. As usual we got together with the Cagis, Rita, Hugo, and our friends Bill and Marion Rodgers from the nearby Bribie island.
Christmas evening and Miguel's Birthday and Christmas day was spent at Erica and Bruno's house in Birkdale. As usual we had the traditional Xmas cakes, plenty food, lots of fun and some drinking.
On the Boxing Day the men (less Hugo e Miguel) went fishing (?)...we are still to catch a legal size fish...and later on the rest joined us for a day on the beach at Coochiemoudlo Island, one of the many islands in the Moreton bay.
For the rest of the holidays we had a few trips around Brisbane as you can see in the Boxing Day section of this site. In the following pages we will attempt to give you an idea of the good Xmas we had.
Since Miguel was born our Xmas Eve tradition changed a bit. We started by having a little party to commemorate the birthday. We still make the cod fish for supper and the traditional Xmas sweets such as rabanadas and sonhos must be present.
As usual our friends Bill and Marion come and spend the holidays with us. They live on Bribie Island some 40 km from Brisbane. This year Bruno dressed up as Santa Claus and it looks as if Miguel and Daniela believed in it as they were very nervous when he knocked at the door.
The distribution of the presents is always the highlight of the night. I cannot stop thinking about my childhood days em Xmas as far as presents were concerned meant one present from Santa and one from the company where my father worked ,CFB.
Xmas day is usally the first day of the Xmas holidays and a day where we rest from the excesses of the night before. The kids ...and the adults... play with the new toys and the rest of the day is spent enjoying the company of the family.
For us was no exception but we had a bit of exercise around the pool to burn the extra calories of the night before
On the Boxing Day we started very early and went fishing. We did not catch anything legal size and returned with lots of stories of the big ones that got away. After that we all met at the Coochiemoudio Island and had lunch and spend the rest of the day enjoying the sun and sea.
We had a trip to Coolum beach, one of the popular beaches in the Sunshine Coast and spend a fantastic day there. We normaly catch lots of pipis in the sand but none on that day. The next day we went to the Pine river in Murrumba Downs and spend some time water skying and trying to teach Rita.
We also commemorated Bruno's Birthday. We were expecting to have pipis for a special meal but the pipis did not cooperated.
