*** 2014 - HAPPY NEW YEAR! ****

I'm back and determined to document our year ahead through this blog. A new blog appearance and a beautiful sunset in Lombok adorns my header to celebrate the passing of one year and the anticipation of the next.
What a busy year we had in 2013. My Christmas letter was a little more difficult to write this year as I neglected my blog. In a nutshell this is what we did:
* holidays - Byron Bay in January
                 - Bonville and Gold Coast (Craig and I) in March to celebrate turning 40
                  - Lombok Indonesia in October
                  - Adelaide (me only) in November to celebrate turning 40 with school friends
*children- Nic - completed yr5, playing soccer and tennis and attending cubs
                  Penny - completed yr2, playing tennis and dancing (tap, jazz and ballet)
*Craig - promoted to general manager of sales and marketing at Lindsay Australia
            - hiked the Kokoda track (PNG) in August - very tough despite rigorous preparation
            - playing golf and has brought our Kevlar cat (boat) down from Bundaberg to Nambour so               that he can go fishing more often
*Me - not much has changed
        - loving our 80yr old Queenslander despite its flaws
        - have reverted to project life scrapbooking but still seem to be slow (will explain this in another 
           post)
The highlight of the year was the wedding of my sister Robyn to Ian Greening in Lombok. We had a great holiday and it was so lovely for our family to be together as this is such a rare occurrence these days with us all being spread around the country.

I have set new goals for the year. I often fail miserably at my goals but they serve as a reminder I guess. I would love to get my fitness back so will try hard with this.
I have also added the books I read last year. I am a very slow reader so was surprised at how many books I actually did get through. The book that was the highlight for me was The Rosie Project. Very entertaining. I also enjoyed Shane Jacobsen's biography and the Loretta Hill books are always a good, easy read.
We enjoyed our Christmas at home in Brisbane and were joined by Craig's mum (Bundaberg) and his sister Annette (Cairns). We went out to a restaurant for lunch and returned home for a refreshing swim in the pool. We had a BBQ at home with friends last night to celebrate New Year's Eve but were tucked up in bed well before midnight and only lifted my head for a minute when I heard the fireworks in the city
Well it's time to take the Christmas decorations down and start to cover books in anticipation of the new school year. I'll be back with a new post soon.
Love, Rach xx