Back in the USA

   It was wonderful to be back in the land of wide roads, pennies and small quarters, refillable sodas with lots of ice, big box stores where you can buy everything you need cheaply but where sales tax isn't included in the price, and Starbucks on every corner selling average coffee. And the land of Rubios and Haus of Pizza, both of which we visited our first day home. Most of all, it was great to be back in the company of family and longtime friends.

   The first event was the annual Bui/Gray/Ransom Christmas Fondue Party. Yum yum yum. We have truly perfected three delicious fondue courses! Only thing missing was Andy, whose trip home was delayed five days due to work.

Yes, it's a sign of the apocalypse that Alexi is drinking
white wine  (NZ Sauv Blanc) and Quan is drinking red!

Six friends

Also on the agenda was a trip to South Coast Plaza to see Santa and get the girls' ears pierced. The line to see Santa was too long, so we postponed that. As promised though, the girls got their ears pierced. Unfortunately for Aliya, it didn't go through the first time on her left ear, so they had to re-do it. She wasn't a happy camper.

Earrings!

Pap and Gram arrived three days after our arrival. We hadn't seen Pappy in over a year, so it was quite a reunion at John Wayne airport.

Unpacking some of the 90+ books they brought

   We made it back to the mall for a quick Santa visit. I think Aliya asked for a Smiggle set (stationary from Australia) and Alanna asked for "Harry Potter stuff." Guess the girls were good this year because Santa met both requests.

   We were very fortunate to be able to stay at a house in Corona Del Mar for the entire visit. Friends of a friend were traveling to India, and rented their  house and cars to us, which worked out perfectly. It was right across the street from Steve and Lynn, and walking distance to the beach (and Golden Spoon!)

Hooray for Cali beaches

Also, the owners of the rental house paid the girls to water the plants, feed the fish, and take care of the two chickens. Please note they have just two chickens, unlike the infamous Goldenrod Six just down the street! The owners even left their Christmas tree stand, so I took the girls to Home Depot and bought a $25 tree. 

Decorated with borrowed lights and homemade ornaments

Christmas Eve Day means brunch and volleyball at the beach with friends.

Normally Christmas Eve means going to Mass, but not this year. We planned to go Christmas morning. That freed up the evening for other traditional activities, opening some pressies and playing cards (aka poker).

Some friendly Texas hold-em

One of the highlights of our visit was meeting cousin/nephew Fletcher! Andy's brother John, his wife Carrie, and six-month-old Fletcher flew in from Ohio a few days before Christmas. They were able to arrange for his baptism to be held in their childhood church on Christmas Day, and Andy and I were honored to be Fletcher's godparents. The girls were quite honored to be his god-cousins.

Happy Baptism Fletcher!

Girls didn't want to stop holding their adorable cousin
(until he needed a diaper change, that is)

Christmas Day we had a lovely dinner at Marjo's house with Andy's family.


Because we simply didn't have enough time to go and visit everyone we wanted to see, the Ransoms were kind enough to hold a New Year's Eve Eve party for us on Dec 30th (it was a New Year's Eve in Australia after all!) I was so busy visiting with friends that the only picture I took was before the party started:

Party essentials

Unlike last year, the Fenians didn't have a gig on New Year's Eve. So instead we had a nice quiet family evening at home, resting up for another day at the beach. Brunch, volleyball, and the Polar Plunge were on the schedule:

Sure, we'll swim in the freezing cold Pacific!

Needless to say, our three weeks went by far too quickly. Andy was able to get some golfing in with friends, I got to play Bunco with the usual group, and we were able to visit our old neighborhood. We inspected our house and were quite relieved to see that the renters are actually taking pretty good care of it. Andy had lunch with work colleagues, and I made a trip to Temecula to visit Opto. Made me really miss that place, but I am looking forward to doing more consulting projects for Opto this year. The kids went to birthday parties and had numerous playdates and sleepovers. Aliya was able to run the model trains at the Balboa Train Museum with both of her grandfathers, much to the envy of the other kids watching at the train museum. With such a busy schedule, other than having to remember to drive on the right, it was almost as if we hadn't left. And we couldn't believe the spectacular weather we had. In three weeks, I don't think it rained once. And while nights and early mornings could be cool, the days always turned warm and filled with sunshine.

Of course, we had a lot of restaurants to visit, and a lot of shopping to do. I still can't get over how expensive Australia is. A friend of mine, who is also an expat living in Oz, did a nice blog post about that topic so I'll just link to it in case you're interested. Spent quite a bit of time at Kohls (smaller size clothes for me, whoo hoo) and Payless (eight pairs of shoes for the girls!) We saved a fortune compared to shopping in Melbourne. Unfortunately for us, we flew Air New Zealand which only allows ONE checked bag per person. The extra baggage fees put a bit of a damper in our savings, especially since we had to pay the fees twice (once for LAX-to-Auckland, and once for Auckland to Melbourne). I've made sure my parents fly another airline when they visit us in September so they have plenty of room to bring books and Z-Bars!

We left the US on the 7th of January. Ironically, that was just a day shy of the one-year anniversary of our departure. Thankfully, it was much easier emotionally to leave this time. Yes, there were tears. But we have so much to look forward to back in Melbourne. We have a nice house, a nice school, and great friends. And, before we even got to Melbourne, we had an eight day vacation in New Zealand to enjoy!

Huge thanks the Ransoms, the Buis, and the Winners for all their help and hospitality during our visit. We are very grateful for your friendship.