Christmas with my family has become more and more low key as the kids have gotten older but one of the highlights is spending Christmas Day at my Granny's place in Queenscliff looking straight down Manly Beach. Unfortunately, it wasn't much of a beachy day but I did my best to keep Butch in the Christmas/Summer Adventure spirit by taking him to some of my favourite spots before we busted open some presents. My sister decided that she'd lend her services as a beach bikini girl and drape herself all over "the Butch one"... Now THAT got us some attention!
First stop, Manly Beach. Despite the overcast and windy weather, it was crazy-crowded!! Meanwhile... is that another Focus driving past? I think so!
Next, to Harbord/Freshwater. Just after I moved out of the area a couple of years ago, they renamed the suburb Harbord to match the name of the beach- Freshwater. My experience of trying to use the right name is that whichever name you choose when talking to any single person, it's guaranteed to be the one they don't use... the confusion doesn't ruin this quiet little beach though... or at least it used to be, as I was wondering out loud where all the millions of people had come from, my sister told me that "Freshie" had made some list of top beaches in Sydney (a move sure to ruin anyone's secret favourite for a few months...) Oh well, at least they have good taste!
Staying in Freshwater, we headed up the hill to the Harbord Diggers' club (see why this gets confusing?) where I knew a statue of a digger had some of the best views of Dee Why and Freshwater you could find. We discovered very quickly, he was on a secluded cliff face all to himself and it was tough to get even an awesome car like Butch anywhere near him... but we did ok anyway I think!
Bikini girl just couldn't stay in the car and check out my little leg flick- isn't that what the young ladies do in old movies when they're in love? ;)
One last look out over Dee Why before we headed back to meet Ma, Pa and Granny... but then who should we run into???
Santa and his helper!! Santa told us he was pretty tired after his night delivering presents. So we bought some gorgeous native flowers for Granny- not because we didn't already have presents for her but because you can't spoil Grandmothers enough- and continued on our way. (I'll be stopping by to deliver this photo in the next week or so. Santa deserves pressies too!)
We arrived at Granny's place just before Mum and Dad pulled up in Dulcie. Dulcie parked Butch safely in for the day and both of them enjoyed one of the best views Sydney has to offer. BTW: Granny's house is for sale at the moment, so if you want a piece of this view, now's your chance!.. The downside is that this will probably be our last Christmas here... and Butch got to share it with me :) Dulcie and Butch managed to play nice for the day... but unfortunately, after a lovely Christmas lunch and Mum's pudding made to the secret family recipe, I had to cut it short and head back towards the City for work on Christmas night. (Yeah, shiftwork can suck but I was grateful to have the day off at least!)
From Granny's balcony, I got to see a side of Butch i'd never seen before and 'reflected' on our time together so far...
