Australia at Christmas - Brisbane

This weekend we just arrived home from our almost 2 weeks trip back to Australia for the Christmas/New Years break. It was such a lovely trip, and just what we needed after our first year in Okinawa. The first part of the trip we spent in Brisbane with H's family. It was busy, filled with catch-ups with people as well as a last minute passport renewal debacle for me (which I got sorted!).

When we arrived H's sister had an awesome spread of my favourite things, dips, cheese and summer fruits all out on the table for us, so we all sat down, relaxed, had a drink and snacks and watched G and his 8 year old cousin play together for the first time in a year. It was an awesome way to start the holiday because the next week was hectic!

Watching his plane

The perfect spread to be welcomed by in Australia - cheese, dips and summer fruits!

Griff and his cousin.

Monday I was supposed to be hanging out on the Sunshine Coast at the beach with H's family, but instead got stuck dealing with my passport issues, after which I finally got solved, I spent time shopping by myself in the city (and bought 2 dresses and the first bikini i've had in about 6 years!) before heading back out to the suburbs to catch up with a good friend before everyone got back.

Tuesday was filled with meeting up with friends and their new bubs! We first met up with my bestie and her two gorgeous boys (the youngest I got to meet for the first time) at the Queensland Museum, where we had some coffees and checked out the dinosaurs.

Stamping

After the museum, we headed over to Southbank to meet up with two couple friends of Helen's to catch up, have lunch and meet their new babies. So many babies! It was awesome, hectic, and lovely to meet the new additions. It's so weird when all of a sudden everyone you know has babies. How different is life??

My lovely family

View of Brisbane city from Southbank

Southbank

That night Helen's sister offered to babysit for us so we got to go and have adult catch-ups with friends in the city. First we met friends at Super Whatnot, a bar in the city for a couple of drinks, before splitting up for different dinner catch ups with people. I headed to Esq, a fancy dinner place in the city for a birthday dinner for a friend. I'd heard great things, but the whole experience was let down by the fact that they wouldn't serve a birthday cake (or even put it in the fridge!) that another friend had bought for the occasion. In the end, after dinner, we took the cake with us, went and bought a couple of bottles of bubbles, plates and cups and headed out by the river to eat it. It was an awesome end to the evening!

Dinner laughs

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