Preparing for Christmas

Since there is no Thanksgiving in AUS (of course) we are already busy preparing for Christmas. I have to admit it seems a little odd to be celebrating Christmas in the summer but Evan is excited for Santa and Christmas trees so we are doing our best! Anyways, we wish you a "Happy Thanksgiving" 2007 - I'm sure there will be enough food consumed to make up for our absence! This picture shows the closest we will get to Thanksgiving while in AUS . . . we have many wild turkeys that roam in our neighborhood park, as well as in most zoo and wildlife areas.


On Friday Angie, Paige, and Christian Leibfried and Evan, Kaden, and I traveled to downtown Brisbane via the Oxley train (above ground subway) to see the annual city kickoff Christmas parade. It was located at the Queen Street Pier shopping center. I think the parade lasted about 10 minutes total but was quite the sight. Children were in different groups singing Christmas carols and each group was dressed in bright and unique costumes. Santa Claus brought up the rear, riding in his black Mercedes. The parade lead up to the Myer shopping center in the Queen Street Mall where there was an interactive Christmas window revealed. We didn't get to see it because of the time and the number of people but we will get back downtown before the holiday is over to take a peek (and get a picture.) Angie and I enjoyed the challenge of navigating to the city via the train (something we hadn't done before) and trying to manage 4 kids in the rush hour city traffic.