Once again, not breaking with tradition, I'm late with my 'Christmas Greetings'. ;-) At least this year I have a half decent excuse! :-)
Well here goes. After many years of tooing and froing, Spike and I decided to take the plunge and do something about our rapidly aging house. It had served us well these past 19 years, but we realised that we either had to sell up and move or renovate. We chose the option to renovate, and after a few months of living in a construction zone, with very early mornings and late evenings (the family painting sometimes till 10 at night), we finally ended up with a home that could comfortably house 4-5 adults. A driving force behind the renovation, at least for me, was creating a home that would give us the ability to host exchange students. Both Zoe and I benefited hugely from the generousity of other families on our exchange programs, and so it's always been a dream of mine to be a 'host mother'. So in early November (3/4 of the way through our renovations) we welcomed Chisato, a young Japanese exchange teacher at Grant's college, into our home. She has slotted into the family nicely and the kids have made her feel like one of the family.
Our home has been transformed from a very dark, modest 3 bedroom house, to a spacious and very open and light, 4 bedroom home! Although technically and according to the bank, the house is now 'finished', we still have quite a bit of painting to complete over the summer holidays. Our amazing builder moved heaven and earth to have Chisato's room finished as soon he could for us, and we have totally loved our first Christmas in our 'new' home with our extended family! :-)
The year has once again flown by and was again a year of big changes for the kids. Zoe returned from her year in Tokyo and though she misses her 'family' and friends in Japan, she has settled back nicely into life in OZ and reconnected with her friends here too. She started her first year at uni (at ANU) and worked hard to achieve some great results. She was also very excited to find work as 'Santa's helper' at the local mall, wrangling children and taking Santa Photos. This suited her down to the ground as Christmas is her favourite time of the year! For her interview in November, she was so enthusiastic and dressed up in all things Christmas, that they had no alternative but to give her the job! ;-)
Grant's year saw him move from high school to 'College' where he also put in a sound effort and was rewarded with some good results. His futsal also moved to a new level, having successfully competed at the Nationals in January, he was chosen to compete in the National Futsal League Although half his games were in other cities, we were able to watch all of his home games, and caught some of the away game highlights online.
Spike took on the position of Deputy Head of Admin at ADFA and though Admin isn't his natural leaning, he has really grown into the position and as in all things, has done a stellar job! He also continues to play soccer and maintains his physical fitness, surprising players half his age on the soccer pitch! I continue to support children with special needs at our local school, growing and learning from my charges each year and finding it more rewarding every year! I also try my best to keep fit and healthy, but suffer the usual 'age related niggles' which I try to ignore most of the time.
Anyway, at this point, I'd like to wish all of you a fantastic New Year and hope it brings lots of love, laughs and especially good health!
Love Maria and the extended Barlow Clan! XXX
PS Here are a couple of links to 1 min videos documenting our new home going up if you're interested! :-)
