Holiday season - was it silly?

So 2008 has been and gone in a blink! We spent giftmas with family in Sydney on xmas eve. A great feast was had - as always! And then on giftmas day we jetted off to the wilds of Tasmania to stay in an unpowered, unplumbed shack, about half way between Port Arthur and Sorrell. At the very bottom of the island basically. 

The holiday was a brilliant natural learners trip! We had to use gas lights and candles, and it was freezing so we had a wood fire burning in an AGA style oven 24/7!  The wind was so wild it was almost frightening at night. It howled around the shack like a tornado and kept temperatures below 18 or 19 most days.

The kids Stylish and her three cousins and Spikee) went fishing with Uncle Richard everyday and we had fresh flathead in copious amounts - sooo good! We also sent the kids mussel hunting off the jetty a couple of times, the mussels were huge and delicious. Most of the vegetables were home grown in Grandma Anne's garden, and there were even home made kangaroo sausages - kangaroo once again provided by Uncle Richard.

The kids spent many hours, which ran into days, playing cards, running around squealing, fetching water from the tank (brilliant conservation lesson for our city slickers!), rowing the canoe about on the water, and generally being kids all together. It was lovely watching them play and get along together. Some of the activities children come up with when they don't have a tv are so clever. They spent an entire evening drawing faces on partially inflated ballons and playing games with them.