Is it just ours or do other families have this noise factor going on? 6 weeks of sultry summer, high decibel action as the two boys scurry, squabble and scream their excitement and frustrations.

Screen time. Silence. End of Screen Time = Scream.

They had their access liberally curbed which was like witnessing kids having drug withdrawals.

Aragon with his ladies, Salt and Pepa

Both sides of the family descended on us for Christmas to celebrate at our new home. There is nothing quite like my crazy family. I know everyone says that, but honestly mine are next level.

Enter stage left, ‘The Three Wise (Wo)Men’. One Woman, her ex-husband and her current partner. They originally planned to travel 1000km in a campervan together with a neurotic dog and my father’s ‘handicap’ of needing to empty his bladder bag every few hours (he had a stoma op last year). Rugged campers and making sure nothing is wasted nor left without being properly recycled, my dad’s urostomy bags went missing and probably ended up cross-contaminated with the banana skins.

My mum can talk…and talk…and talk. It is not unusual to hear her partner Dave saying, ‘We forgot where you started Kay…’, and the story climax never gets reached. And if that’s not happening, they are bickering. By the end, the three of them were sledging one another, 2 vs 1 for sport.

Thankfully they weren’t staying with us. One night they stayed at an alpacca farm in a nearby valley. A former gambler turned Korean minister has an airbnb business in a shed cum church. It was quite obviously a place of worship even complete with a sign ‘No drinking, No smoking’. The two wise men with beer in hand and my dad lit up a cigarette, as the minister comes in to greet them. He wasn’t impressed but left them to their own reckoning.

On Christmas morning, mum calls hysterically from the bathroom, ‘Dave…DAVE!”. She’d been too liberal with the H202, hydrogen peroxide whilst trying to whiten her teeth for the turkey. These two are evangelical when it comes to this wonder cure using it on everything from skin cancers to nausea to sore throat gargles.

My in-laws have their own quirks and they were here too. My father in law loves to be busy. Despite the 35+ degree heat, he was outdoors mowing, racking or picking up sticks having only suffered heat stroke the week before. When he is indoors, he loves a good BYO jigsaw puzzle. I found myself spinning circles in the kitchen with both mothers as we wrestled a delightful Christmas lunch into existence. There is something sentimental about toiling over English food on a hot Qld day imagining how many generations have done the same thing, but every year finds me wishing for a singalong around a campfire with no washing up. The champagne flowed and like clock work, after lunch the house feel into a snooze with loosened belts.

Woodford Folk Festival was on our radar this year. Tim worked on the build for a month before and was out there on Boxing Day, prepping for the crowds. A big time commitment with a great vibe, we were pumped to get there. Car packed and housesitter sorted, on the eve of our departure we have a family bounce, all 4 of us weighing in at over 250kg. Quinn goes sky high after a double bounce from Dad and lands like a sack. He’s down and out. A trip to the hospital confirms a nondisplaced fracture, complete with crutches. We still went with Quinn getting pulling along in a trolley.

5 weeks later, he has 1 week to go. Water, Swim, Ocean are calling.

Daily scratch ritual

School’s back in the swing. And I’ve had enough time to finish this post and press send.

Wishing all of you a happy year full of fuzz and frivolity oxo