happy new year everyone! 2011, the year of the rabbit. i hope you all brought in a new decade with smiles on your faces and love in your hearts. we celebrated the new year on the rooftop of a friend’s apartment just down the road. we had great views of the sydney harbour bridge and the opera house, which meant that we got to see those famous sydney fireworks in all their glory. it was a very festive gathering of tenants and friends, and we ushered in 2011 surrounded by new friends and kind-of new friends. nayou stayed up until 1.30am before throwing in the towel! here we are on new year’s day eating our grapes. its a tradition in latin american countries to eat twelve grapes at the start of the new year.

i had every intention of preparing a bunch of traditional japanese foods for the new year, but i didn’t have the chance to get to a real japanese supermarket before everything closed for the holidays. so we made do with some mochi and some miso soup. next year i am determined to do it right though. there are so many yummy dishes that only come out for the new year!

due to financial constraints and poor planning, we’ve laid low in sydney this holiday season. although it would have been nice to capitalise on the time off, it has also been nice to be mellow. this past week we have been doing all kinds of tourist-y things like going on the ferry, visiting the wildlife center and going to the australian museum. oh, and of course spending time at the beach. we’ve discovered this awesome little beach called redleaf pool just a ten minute bus ride away from our house. there is no surf, but that means that nayou can play in the water as much as he likes without having to watch his back for rogue waves. the beach is surrounded by beautiful gardens, and a library is nestled right in the middle of them. something tells me we are going be coming back to this place many times over the summer!

we also finally got around to checking out the playground at sydney park. every parent we’ve spoken to since we arrived has raved about it, and with good reason. the place is laid out really nicely, with sandpits that have built-in water features, huge slides and scooter/bike courses ringing the whole thing. since becoming a parent i’ve become really into playground design and you can tell this one has been carefully thought out. nothing makes me sadder than a playground where someone has just plonked down some random swings and jungle gym.

christmas kept on going for a bit as well with the arrival of some parcels that didn’t make it in time. hana sent us an awesome package that included the world’s cutest tea set and some mindblowing art from the talented people at nobrow.

here are some random bits and bobs. notice that nayou has taken to busting out the peace sign when he is having his photo taken. this makes my japanese half very happy. especially because he says “peesu!” while he does it!

we turned into fully fledged tourists yesterday, riding the ferry to darling harbour and visiting sydney wildlife world. our original plan was to go surfing at manly beach, but we were met with a ridiculous line at circular quay (about a ~90 minute wait!) and were forced to go to plan b. apparently everyone else had the same idea… which was understandable given the perfect weather. we ended up taking a scenic ferry route to darling harbour where we wandered into sydney wildlife world and saw some crazy animals. it was fun to be a tourist for a day!

i love the way this kangaroo is just slumming.

check out this 6.5m (~14ft) saltwater crocodile they have in sydney wildlife world. these crocs are the largest living reptiles in the world and they are truly massive! the wildlife center also has a bunch of native venomous snakes and spiders on display. i forgot how many things in this country can kill you. 12 of the 30 most venomous snakes are in australia!

today was a bit of a rainy day so we scrapped our plans for the beach again and went to the australian museum. its a bit of a shame that you can’t spend your time checking out all the exhibits when you have a kid because there is a lot to see and do. but at least they have plenty for toddlers to do, including some great dinosaur stuff.

the highlight of our visit for me was seeing nayou in these capes. brenda found them in one of the kid corners of the museum. i don’t often get overwhelmed with cuteness, but this was definitely one of those moments. peesu!

merry christmas everyone! i hope you all had a wonderful time filled with many smiles and fun. we kicked our celebrations off on christmas eve with a family dinner at my aunt adele’s house. she went all out with her preparations, cooking a turkey and a ham, plus all of the fixings that go with it. the house looked amazing and it was nice to share such a beautiful space with all of the usual suspects from my mum’s side. nayou is really comfortable with everyone now and made himself at home immediately. although sometimes i think the only reason he likes to go to adele’s is because he gets to use their vacuum cleaner. this kid is obsessed with vacuuming!

grandma got an ipad which is great because now she can check all of the family blogs easily. she even got herself an email address!

the dinner went on way past nayou’s bedtime. the excitement kept him in good spirits though, especially when he got to watch maisy mouse in uncle colin’s arms. we think these two must have been super close in a past life because there is a very strong bond between them. nayou’s reaction when he first saw colin that night will probably go down as legend in the family annals!

here are some photos from a couple of days ago. we didn’t get a tree this year and so brenda decided to get some art supplies and make some decorations and a paper tree instead. kim, gordon and sarah came over and we went to town with our cutting and pasting. brenda also sewed some stockings for us which are amazing!

this was the first year that nayou really understood the concept of santa claus. he wrote him a letter asking him for a blue scooter and was fascinated by the fact that he lived in the north pole. after we got back from the party at adele’s, we put out a carrot for the reindeers and a cup of tea for santa and then nayou passed out cold. when he woke up in the morning i was expecting him to be amazed at the fact that the presents had magically appeared, but he was very nonplussed. i think because we had explained to him what was going to happen so many times, he just took it for granted that that was what was going to happen. there were some funny moments with the reindeer droppings though!

we celebrated christmas day in true aussie style with a trip to the beach. the weather was amazing – a beautiful sunny 27C (81F) day with a light breeze. we went to coogee beach because we had heard good things about it but hadn’t visited yet. we definitely were not disappointed! it wasn’t too crowded, but not too deserted and the water was perfect.

we even found santa and one of his helpers drunkenly wandering the beach. apparently they missed their last sleigh home.

santa hats were probably the most popular accessory at coogee. i found a stray one while i was swimming in the water and bought it back with me.

our boxing day has been super mellow – just skypeing with family and taking some strolls around the neighbourhood with the scooter. i’ll leave you with some cute photos we took of nayou on christmas eve. he’s looking much older and mature in them… perhaps its the tie? ho ho ho!

so here it is, at long last – a quick tour of our new digs! i finished up work yesterday and have been enjoying my first day of a two week break. we don’t have any real christmas plans, except for a big family dinner tomorrow night, so i expect we will be relaxing a lot at the park and at the beach. which isn’t a bad thing at all given that the weather has been super duper awesome. if theres one thing you can’t complain about sydney, its the weather!

anyways here is the video. i was trying to get nayou to be the tour guide but he was too busy playing with his ball. and brenda was out of commission sorting out her visa stuff. oh well. enjoy!

so we finally got internet at home today! in honour of this momentous occasion, i thought i would share my favourite video of late. the bum wiggle video! brenda made some super cute skinny pants for him last week, and nayou liked them so much he decided to put on a little show for us.