We made it! 52 weeks of portraits of my kids (and I didn’t miss one!). I started out this year’s project with portraits of just Moose (and on another blog too!), with Little R yet to be born! A lot can change over the course of a year.
To finish off the project for 2014, and seeing as we’ve just come back from a beautiful Christmas week in our favourite holiday spot – Nelson Bay in the Port Stephens area of NSW – I’m going to super-size this entry with some additional photos from our week just past.
Moose:
So happy to finally be at the beach
That smile is pure joy
Posing in front of our festive cabin
My breath – taken away
Little R:
First time with feet in the water – a special moment
Hard to tell whether he liked or disliked the beach, I think overall he was just curious
Opening presents on his first Christmas Day
Surveying his winnings
When we arrived at Nelson Bay, we learnt that the weather forecast for the week ahead was storms, rain and more storms. We woke up on our first morning to grey skies and scattered showers, and I was devastated. This was the first proper family holiday we’d had in a couple of years, and the first with Little R, the thought of our week at the beach being marred by bad weather was almost unbearable. But then miraculously, the clouds drifted away to reveal a bright, beaming sky and we were treated to sunny, warm days for the rest of the week. Cue lots of swimming and splashing about in the ocean!
Little Beach – Nelson Bay. Our special place.
The view from the Nelson Bay lighthouse, looking out over Shoal Beach and the islands in the distance
Christmas Day was wonderful, we opened presents together before cooking up a big barbeque breakfast – bacon, eggs, sausages, tomatoes, hash browns and toast. Then it was time to hit the beach as the cars just kept rolling up, I’ve never seen our little beach so busy before! Families were arriving in groups with their gazebos and tents, their picnic chairs, their eskies and barbeques, their blow-up rings and jetskis. Spending Christmas Day at the beach was such a treat, so much fun and so great to be with not only our own family but so many other families, enjoying a wonderful day out by the water. After a light lunch and nibbling on cheese for afternoon tea (accompanied by Shandies! You can’t go wrong with a Shandy on Christmas Day in Australia), we cooked up a delicious Christmas dinner – barbeque chicken, garlic prawns, salad and rolls, and then as we lazed about contentedly in our food daze we watched a big angry storm engulf the skies and the sea. It was heaven.
The secret pathway to Shoal Beach
Some frequent visitors
I hope your Christmas Day was just as magical and happy as you could have wished for! Will you be joining in with The 52 Project in 2015? I definitely will, it’s been such a great tool for remembering to take more photos of the kids, for finding the beauty in our everyday moments, and for creating a lovely keepsake over the year.
And that completes one year of The 52 Project at Practising Simplicity, but I’ll be back to do it all again in 2015!
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