It’s been nearly two years since I’ve seen my Adelaide brother and his family, and since they have increased their number by one and aren’t able to join everyone else at Christmas, I decided to pay them an all-too-brief flying visit.
My new niece is gorgeous (as new nieces and nephews always are!), and after some initial scepticism about this rather peculiar stranger who claimed to be a relative, she was generally happy to treat me to a smile and allow me to hold her. She even deigned to fall asleep in my arms at one stage. She’s now five months old; no doubt she’ll be much bigger when I see her again next Easter.
Her older brothers and big sister were much more relaxed and excited about meeting their aunt. Elias was especially pleased about beating me at Monopoly. I have to say this is not my most favourite game in the entire universe, although we had lots of fun playing it. The phrase “Welcome to the danger zone” has now entered our lexicon, since I held all the properties on the richer edge of the board, and this was my little chant — complete with silly expressions — each time Elias approached. Of course, my teasing backfired: he kept missing just about everything, and somehow he ended up thrashing me. How did that happen?! Did I mention that I hate Monopoly?! Fortunately this was not the only game we played … although I wasn’t much good at Cluedo either! At least I managed to hold my own when I joined Elias and bigger brother Ethan for several games of handball on the back verandah.
Caitlin and I enjoyed some good chats during the course of my visit; she’s growing up into a delightful person. In short, I had a great visit, including when Dave and I took the three older ones for a trip to the beach and coast and we played beach cricket and got wet to various degrees.
Just before I said goodbye on my last night, we had an hilarious time when I taught the three eldest kids the words and zany actions to the “Loo la” song. If I can teach the other nieces and nephews, then, when everyone is together at Easter, we should be able to have a crazy fun performance with all the cousins (except perhaps the newest, who may struggle with the actions!).
What an amazing and great looking family you have in Adelaide…
So nice of you to come and say so!
😉
Sounds like fun – and you even got in a couple caches!