School's Out, Summer's In

This week is the first week of holidays -- Anya has finished her first year of school.  Anya and Callum have still been going off each day, Anya to vacation care (a whole day at the pool! another day at the movies!) and Callum to his daycare (same old same old, but with tinsel on top).  This being Thursday, it's "Grandma Day," when my mother-in-law looks after Callum.  It's been a long time since Anya has stayed home for a Grandma Day, so both kids have been looking forward to it a lot.

This morning I heard Callum running down the hall, yelling joyfully, "Yay!  It's Grandma Day!"

Yes, Grandma Day is celebrated with as much enthusiasm as birthdays and Easter and Christmas, round these parts.  Meanwhile, here are some exciting bits that happened from an adult viewpoint:

• Our old house was knocked down in early November.  It was sad to see it go, but we'll have a bigger house in a great location as a result (and custom designed by yours truly!)  We had hoped to see construction start before Christmas, but apparently the plans have still not been approved by council.
• We had our first summery beach weekend a while ago, and our friends Wayne & Jacqui came up to join in.  Finally, sun and sand!  The weather has stayed unusually cool for this time of year until recently.
• Bronwyn & I won Runner-up in the Overall Winner category, at the Annual Artforce Awards for the traffic signal box we painted this year.  I made sure to acknowledge Anya's contribution to the TSB design (the little creatures by the dreaming woman's head).  She was quite pleased that I got her to stand up for the audience, I think.
• I attended a conference dinner by the dolphin enclosure at Sea World -- not only did we have dolphins swimming next to us all through dinner, they performed before and after the meal!  It was magical...  I was rapt for days afterward.
• My company's tenth anniversary luncheon was held at the Sydney Opera House -- our global HQ is in Denmark, the Opera House was designed by a Dane, and the Danish ambassador came to the luncheon to celebrate with us.  I believe even Oprah (who apparently is now in Australia) didn't stage her event at the Opera House, but at a nearby location.  However, she did have Russell Crowe swing in... as well as Hugh Jackman... (I would have liked that!)