WELCOME TO A NEW YEAR......

I never did managed to catch up on all the posts from 2016.   My intention was to catch up before the end of the year but that didn't happen.... What a crazy wonderful year was 2016.

It started well and ended well...
Highlights of the year that was..
January
Peter and Maria were home to celebrate Christmas with us...  We welcomed Maria's sisters to a Aussie to celebrate a typical hot Aussie Christmas.... very different from the cold snowing Christmases they are used to back in Denmark...   We welcomed a beautiful grandson into our family a couple of days before Christmas and I got to spend the whole of January with Sarah and the children... Such a great start to the year...

February
We were busy planning our overseas holiday to celebrate Pete and Maria's wedding....
We celebrated special friends birthdays, and felt extremely grateful that we lived in this beautiful country....

March
Rather a quite month, but thankful for the many blessings that we share,  our family and friends,  new family members   A few trips away.

April
Family camping at Tannum Sands.... Sarah and the children joined us,  so love spending holidays with these guys....

May
Pete came home for a quick visit... So good to spend 5 days with him...
A weekend away with the girls...

June:
Off to Copenhagen with all the family,  the holiday of a lifetime... the best part about it was that we were all over there together,  can't remember the last time we had a family holiday with us all.... probably won't happen again for a long time either...  Enjoyed every moment of it..

July
Pete and Maria wedding.   The highlight of the year for us...   What a wonderful time we all had together as family celebrating this very special event. July also saw up take off on our first European holiday together...  Just the very best time...  Hope to do it again one of these days...

August
We were still overseas for almost half of it..... The most wonderful time was had by all...

September
Colin went overseas so Sarah and the children came home for a month....  Wonderful wonderful time...Love these guys to bits...
Also September saw us all go on a family holiday to Hervey Bay with Sarah and the children, plus our good friends Ian and Kathy with their daughters and their granddaughters.  Best time was had by all of us...

October
We had record attendance at our PD day for Teacher Aides.  This day has far exceeded our wildest dreams and it gives us so much pleasure to know that we are fulfilling a need that most of the TAs in our region have....

November
This month saw us both head to Brisbane to celebrate Willow's 4th birthday, and what a wonderful time we all had at her inflatable world birthday party.

December
December has been equally exciting with us taking both our grandchildren away for 4 days and then back to Brisbane to celebrate Max's first birthday.  We all went on a teddy bear's picnic up at Underwood Park.  A great time was had by us all.
Quick trip back to Rocky to celebrate Christmas with Chloe and Dan  and his family.  Probably our most memorable Christmas ever with Dan getting down on one knee and asking Chloe to marry him...It is a Christmas we will never forget, and that is how we finished 2016..

2017 is shaping up to be equally exciting with both Peter and Maria coming home in May for Dan and Chloe's wedding...  Another wedding in the family.. and then we are off on a wonderful holiday to explore Australia....  Feeling very thankful and grateful...

Chloe's flatmate shared the following on Facebook this morning....
I really liked it and think that I would love to make this my New Year's resolution for 2017.
New Year's resolutions:
1) 'Stay positive. You can listen to the cynics and believe success is impossible, or believe "with God all things are possible."
2) Each day when you awake complete this statement: "My purpose is ____________."
3) Take a morning walk of gratitude. It creates a fertile mind for success. You can't be stressed and thankful at the same time, and when you combine gratitude with physical exercise you give yourself a double-boost of positive energy and natural anti-depressants.
4) Instead of being disappointed about where you are, think optimistically about where you're going.
5) Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a college-kid with a maxed-out charge card!
6) Believe that everything happens for a reason, and good things come from challenging experiences.
7) Don't waste energy on gossip...past issues...negative thoughts...and things you can't control. Invest in the positive, present moment.
8) Mentor someone and be mentored by someone.
9) Live with the three E's: Energy. Enthusiasm. Empathy.
10) Remember there's no substitute for hard work.
11) Zoom-Focus: Ask yourself, "What are the three most important things I need to do today?"
12) Implement the "No complaining" rule. Complaining is like vomiting; afterwards you feel better but people around you feel sick!
13) Read more books than you did last year.
14) Get more rest. You can't replace sleep with a double latte!
15) Before bed complete these statements: "I'm thankful for ____________;" "Today I accomplished ____________"
16) Think of your mind like a garden. If you weed the negative and feed the positive for one day it doesn't do much, but when you do it every day you create a magnificent garden.'

Jon Gordon

 To all our many friends and Family, we will you a very happy 2017,  my you as a family grow closer, enjoy goo health, live a life of joy.

God Bless and lots of love from our household to yours.....