After seeing endless images of snowy Christmasses, we spent our Christmas afternoon in 33 degree heat splashing in our backyard pool.
Those people who have cold Christmasses don’t know what they’re missing. A BBQ for lunch, a nice long swim, what could be better?
Today is forcast to be even hotter so we’ll proabably be back in the pool at some stage.
Today is Boxing Day. I know exactly what that means because I heard Emily (7) telling James (5) in the back seat of our car.
Apparently, because a lot of our Christmas gifts come in boxes, now that we’ve unwrapped the gifts, Boxing Day is the day that we throw all the boxes out.
Makes sense to me.
I musn’t forget to say thank you to my Secret Santa. I don’t know who you are but you certainly helped to make my Christmas a little more wonderful. Thanks ever so much.
Merry Christmas.
I’ve had about 5 hours sleep and I probably won’t get to bed until late tonight. Mmmm.
It was made all worth it though to see Emily and James open their gifts this morning. They opened a number of parcels and were absolutely over the moon with their gifts – and then there was a ring on the doorbell. We got new bikes for the kids and I popped them by the front door before hitting the bell and running back in through the back door. They were gobsmacked.
Afterwards I was saying to Emily how wonderful it was that they were happy with the smaller parcels, thinking that was it for them, and then they got the biggest gift of all, their bikes. In true Emily style she said, “But the best gift of all is a family hug.” So we all got together for a big squeeze.
I have been really surprised at how little the kids have bought into the ‘give me give me’ mentality of Christmas. Even when people have asked them what they will get for Christmas they’ve shrugged their shoulders and said, “I don’t know.” They are very happy kids. They are very beautiful kids. I am biased. 🙂
I like what the Catholic Archbishop of Western Australia has to say most of the time. I reckon he’s one of the good guys when it comes to making public statements on matters of faith.
In this morning’s West Australian newspaper he has an ad that promotes the church and the true menaing of Christmas. Great message but I was a little bemused to see that almost half the ad is a taken up by a picture of the Cathedral in Perth. Surely after 2000 years we have something better than the front of a building to symbolise our faith. Maybe they didn’t want to go with all the cliched Christmas type pics but I reckon they could have found something a little less cold. Even if the pic of the Cathedral had people in front of it welcoming others.
Rodney is a husband, father, cyclist, blogger and podcaster from Perth Western Australia.
He has worked in radio at Perth's media ministry Sonshine for over 25 years and has previously worked at ministries such as Compassion Australia and Bible Society.
The views he expresses here are his own.
