CHRISTMAS 2013

Sandie and I never thought we would ever live at Moe. She grew up here and I grew up in Sale, about an hour's drive from here. But here we are. And it's all good. We are settling in to the Moe New Life Christian Centre, where we have lots of old friends.
Our new home has 3 bedrooms, one of which I've claimed as my study, and one of which Sandie is using half for a sewing room. We still have room for guests in the other half of that room!

God has blessed us in all sorts of amazing ways. The timing of things, unexpected provisions, serendipitous meetings, etc. Life isn't always easy but God has His own unique ways of bringing things together for good!
In the 34 years we've been married, we've never hosted Sandie's family Christmas gathering. Well, that's about to change in two weeks. It's going to be a challenge for Sandie, because she still has a daily battle with chronic pain, but we're looking forward to it. (Until 26th December - then we'll be looking backwards to it!)
I have pretty much finished the initial draft of a very ambitious 80,000 word novel. What lies ahead is a somewhat daunting process of reviewing and re-reviewing, then submitting it to publishers.
Writing is not something that comes naturally, even to me. It requires vast amounts of focus and discipline. For this reason, I'm trying to set aside my mornings as minimum writing time.
Last Christmas, Sandie and I were in Oklahoma with our son Joel, his wife Rose, and all her family. We will miss them this year.
Simon's wife, Lorraine, has been involved in the massive Ring Cycle operas at the Melbourne Arts Centre. While it's obviously been an amazing experience, I'm pretty sure Simon will be glad to have Lorraine at home a bit more when it's all over.
I can't believe that Aulani, Simon's daughter and our granddaughter, is turning nine very soon. She stayed overnight with us recently, which was great.
Ami and Luke are still in Dennington, we've been missing them since we moved and I think they're missing us. But they have a very supportive church family and it's not hard to keep in touch these days.
Finally, Joanna has informed us that, with her friend Emma, she intends to spend a year in England and Europe. Initial tickets are booked for late September next year - which means she will miss out on St Kilda winning the premiership - but that doesn't seem to bother her at all!
Well that's all for now.
A happy, blessed and meaningful Christmas to all our friends!

Our new home

On 25th October, we officially sold our house in Dennington and bought this one at 34 Victoria St, Moe. This is just the side and back views of the house.

 

 

Our furniture was all packed into the removalist truck on the Friday, and then delivered on the Monday. Two weeks later, we're pretty well settled in. It's a smaller house than the one we had in Dennington but I still managed to claim one of the bedrooms as a study.

 

Sandie's Dad, with help from her Mum and our brother-in-law David, has built a cat cage and run in the back yard. The plan is to also build some sort of enclosure for a few chooks.

 

God has blessed us in many ways.  It hasn't been the easiest year for us, and we've really had to trust God. But His timing is perfect and He has provided wonderfully well. We are looking forward to this new chapter in our lives.