Sorry Day

The Aboriginal Flag

The Australian Flag

Today, the prime minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, fulfilled an election promise and made a formal apology in Federal Parliament to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders of the Stolen Generations. The Stolen Generations refers to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders who were removed, under government authority, from their families by Australian government agencies and church missions between approximately 1869 and 1969.

In 1997, the report of an offical inquiry into the Stolen Generations recommended that a national apology be made. However, John Howard, who was Prime Minister when the report was issued, never apologized, and he was defeated by Kevin Rudd this past November.

People all over the country gathered to watch the live broadcast. It was a profoundly moving experience and, certainly, long overdue. The girls' school had a presentation at their morning assembly, and the Aboriginal and Australian flags are hung in the main assembly area for the rest of the week. If you are interested in hearing Kevin Rudd's apology, follow this link: http://www.smh.com.au/multimedia/2008/national/australia-says-sorry/main.html?s_cid=rss_national

The movie Rabbit-Proof Fence, which won worldwide acclaim in 2002, tells a gripping tale based on a true story of three children who ran away from a government settlement to return to their Aboriginal families. We highly recommend it if you are interested in learning more about the Stolen Generations.

Anne

Australia Day 2008

Yesterday, we celebrated Australia Day, Australia's national day. It commemorates the establishment of the first European settlement on the continent of Australia. It is much like the 4th of July in the US, although there seems to be an even greater amount of flag-wearing here (you decide, in light of the picture above, whether it is for better or worse!) As the kids and I had just returned a few days before from our January trip to the US (which, by the way, was great), and this was the first day that we did not feel jet-lagged, we were keen to celebrate our return to our adopted home.

The kids and I headed into the center of Sydney (dad, much to his dismay, was working on a sermon) on a beautiful summer day, where we enjoyed lots of festivities at Hyde Park, including music, food, displays, and, of course, free tatoos and flags! There was so much going on- unfortunately, we had to forego all of the celebrations on the Harbour, which included tall ships, as the little feet could only carry us so far....

Asked to write the best thing about being an Aussie, Erin wrote "Fun in the Sun", and
Claire wrote "The best thing is going swimming."

The kids enjoy a ride in an Australian military vehicle.

I should note, also, that we are now celebrating one year of living in Australia. Wow.

Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oi Oi Oi!
Anne

Happy Christmas!

While we are winding down our first Christmas Day in Australia, we wanted to take the opportunity to wish you and yours (especially those of you who are just now starting your Christmas Day) a Happy Christmas, as Australians like to say. We are having a wonderful Christmas season, full of new discoveries and traditions.

We have spent Christmas Day for the last decade with both sets of parents and other extended family, and knew we would miss them dearly. Fortunately, we have found the celebration of Christmas to be different enough here (in terms of climate and traditions) that we did much better than we could have hoped. We enjoyed a Christmas Eve BBQ at the church, a festive and informally celebratory Christmas Eve service, 2 Christmas morning services for Rick, a Christmas dinner gathering (which included yummy salads, fruits and hot and cold meats) with close friends, Christmas crackers (a cardboard tube wrapped with Christmas paper that pops when opened and contains little gifts), the wearing of Christmas crowns during dinner, Christmas pudding and a game of street cricket afterwards.

May God's richest blessings shine on you and yours,

Anne, Rick, Erin, Claire and Lachlan

Our gingerbread houses (Australian house with veranda on the left)

Joseph, Mary and Baby Jesus on Christmas Eve

All but one of us wearing our Christmas crowns

Our first game of street cricket!

Aussie Jingle Bells

The Christmas season is well underway here in Australia. The retailers, as faithful as those in the US, were setting up their Christmas displays at the beginning of October. Christmas carols are playing in the shopping centres. The kids are doing Christmas crafts at school. And the temperatures are starting to rise. Go figure.

I am having a very difficult time trying to make my brain compute that it's time to start opening the windows on the Advent calendar, get all the gifts in order, buy and decorate a tree and start making my cookie plates. My body refuses to send those messages to my brain. It would rather jump in the pool or enjoy a day at the beach.

I am madly trying to figure out how one balances end of the year gatherings, end of the school year assemblies and performances, a clergy husband's busiest time of the year and Christmas preparations all in the span of a couple of weeks. I'll let you know how it all turns out- but not until February, which is the first time I imagine I will find time to breathe and be able to write our annual "Christmas" letter.

Until then, I wanted to share a song that we have all been enjoying for the past few weeks. I bought a book for the kids that I had seen in the Christmas display at the bookstore. It's called Aussie Jingle Bells, and it illustrates a delightful song by Colin Buchanan, an Australian children's songwriter. Tonight, the girls did a dance/concert for me of this song, and I realized I should share it on the blog, as it paints a unique picture of an Australian Christmas.

Dashing through the bush, in a rusty Holden Ute, Kicking up the dust, esky in the boot,
Kelpie by my side, singing Christmas songs, It's Summer time and I am in my singlet, shorts and thongs

Oh! Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way, Christmas in Australia on a scorching summers day, Hey! Jingle bells, jingle bells, Christmas time is beaut !, Oh what fun it is to ride in a rusty Holden Ute.

Engine's getting hot; we dodge the kangaroos, The swaggie climbs aboard, he is welcome too. All the family's there, sitting by the pool, Christmas Day the Aussie way, by the barbecue.

Oh! Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way, Christmas in Australia on a scorching summers day, Hey! Jingle bells, jingle bells, Christmas time is beaut!, Oh what fun it is to ride in a rusty Holden Ute.

Come the afternoon, Grandpa has a doze, The kids and Uncle Bruce, are swimming in their clothes. The time comes 'round to go, we take the family snap, Pack the car and all shoot through, before the washing up.

Oh! Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way, Christmas in Australia on a scorching summers day, Hey! Jingle bells, jingle bells, Christmas time is beaut!, Oh what fun it is to ride in a rusty Holden ute

This website provides some explanation of the terms in the song: http://alldownunder.com/oz-u/songs/jingle-bells-12.htm. And this youtube video shares it in song and picture (the kids will enjoy this): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiRgEVliuYU.

Happy Christmas!

Anne

The Opera House Debut

Today Erin made her debut at the Sydney Opera House! She has been enjoying weekly classes with the Australian Girls Choir all year, and today they had their year end performance in the Concert Hall at the Opera House. They produce an amazing, high quality performance, with impressive choreography and drama, for all ages- a great thrill for all of us. Rick's parents have been visiting during the month of November, and they seemed to really enjoy the show, so let's hear it for Sydney!

What an amazing highlight for her to look back on as she grows older- to say, that she, as a seven year old American girl, thrilled audiences in the grandest of venues!

Before the Performance

Following the Performance-
The view from the northern foyer of the Opera House


Love, Anne

Happy Halloween!

Today is October 31st, the day when good little northern ghosts and goblins head out with their flashlights in the cold dark early evening to trick-or-treat their way around the neighborhood. Halloween and trick-or-treating does not have the cultural hold on Australia that it does in the US. We hear that some trick-or-treating does go on, but clearly not like the US- the only mention I saw of it in retail was a little orange and black "Trick or Treat" logo this week in the Woolworth's, or Woolies, (one of the two largest grocery chains) circular on the lolly page. As far as I have heard, there was little to no conversation at school about Halloween.

Neither Rick nor I are very big on Halloween (when I was 5, it was all my mother could do to get me to put a brown paper bag over my head to go to the Sunday School Halloween party-- I got so stressed I ended up with a nosebleed that sent me to the ER). In fact, when we were here in 2004, when the girls were 2 and 4, we were here over October 31, and I was so grateful to get a year off! However, now that we live here, we are trying to keep up with our American traditions, so we wanted to give our kids some Halloween experience. Given that it is early summer-time, pumpkin patches are not to be found. Rather than pay dearly for one of the 4 pumpkins I did find at the super grocery store, we took another transplanted American's suggestion and went with a watermelon, which had the distinct advantage of being quite yummy during the scooping process. We ended up with a jack-o-pig (the photo does not show the little piggie corkscrew tail made from the stem that inspired the pig). We couldn't leave it out because the flies would have descended on it, so the poor little guy has spent most of his short little life in the fridge!

After some negotiation on costumes-- Erin wanted to be a train, and Claire wanted to be a princess-- we ended up with the Princess Express, with Engine Erin pulling the Princess Claire Car and the Little Lachlan Red Caboose. Lachlan wasn't too keen on his caboose, but it was a cute idea! We stocked our two closest neighbors up with candy (some of the distinctly Australian candy was Sour Geckos, Caramello Koalas and Freddo Frogs) and the Princess Express visited both homes- at one the gentleman treated them to a trick before they got their treats, and at the other, their babysitter greeted them as a ghost with a fuzzy purple hat, which sent Lachlan retreating back towards our house! It was great fun, and we are once again so grateful for the little neighborhood "village" that has made our children feel so special.

Love, Anne


Scooping out our summer treat (post swimming lessons in our pool).

Our jack-0-pig (it has a corkscrew stem on the backside)

The Princess Express train

The Little Red Caboose couldn't quite get with the program.

Little Lachie Turns Two!

Today was Lachlan's 2nd birthday. It is so hard to believe that this is the little guy that was born two years ago in New Haven. As a newborn, he cozily napped in his Baby Bjorn as Rick and I walked in the crisp 2005 fall weather, having our first serious discussion as to whether we would even consider moving to Australia if the chance arose. He spent 6 weeks camped out in a pack-n-play in his nursery, after our furniture was shipped out. He has managed 3 trans-Pacific flights in 9 months, and will take 2 more this January. He says "ta" instead of "thanks," and wakes up in the far too early morning hours to the calls of tropical birds. He's seen lots of adventure in his first two years, and his sunshine, laughter, silly faces and easy-going nature have been a joy during our transition.

We named him Lachlan because we decided to have a third child during our first time here in Australia in 2004. When we discovered we were pregnant, we emailed Rick's colleague Kent to find out good Australian baby names. Lachlan turned out to be in the top 10 most popular Australian baby names, but it is very rare in the US. Once we discovered that we were having a boy, we knew Lachlan was his name- despite the fact that we had promised one another, when we first started having children, that we would not name our children names that they would have to spell for everyone they met. We just knew that was his name, and when he was born, we had lots of quizzical "And how do you spell that?" comments, followed by "Oh, that's interesting," a pause, and then, again "Now, how do you spell that?"

But here in Australia, there are Lachlans on every playground, in every school, on every beach. Lachlan Macquarie was a former governor of New South Wales who arrived in Australia in 1809 and is giant in the history of Australia. He appears to have gotten a thrill out of naming things after himself, so among other things, there is an island, a river, a lake, a port, many streets, and even a nearby shopping centre, named Macquarie. Our Lachlan can find, among other things, streets, a city council and a river bearing his name. When we named him, we had no idea that he would someday live in a culture where he would seem so, well, familiar.

Now that we are here, he is no longer my "fall" baby, but my "spring" baby. Instead of a birthday season identified with cooler temperatures, falling leaves, cornstalks, mums and pumpkins, we celebrate his birthday amidst fragrant flowers, hot dry winds, school holidays and water balloon games. And when we sing "Happy Birthday", we add in three "Hip, Hip, Hoorays" at the end, just as we have learned to do for Australian friends in the past 9 months.

He's a great little mate.

Love, Anne





The day begins with our madhatter.

When he saw his cake, he cried "cars", and then, immediately- please????!!!!!, because he wanted to grab hold of them.

Presents!!!!

Water balloons with sisters.