Countdown to Christmas part 3

V excited again this week as we now only have 8 more sleeps until the man in red hits town. A viewing of The Polar Express even had Rob and I believing in Santa, it is so fabulous. Scarlett had her friend Ella over to play on Wednesday to listen to Christmas songs and behave angelically (in this shot anyway). On Friday we met up with our friends from the UK Richard Quance and his wife Karen, who now live in Perth. They were over for the opening of the Billy Elliot musical at a theatre in the city. Rob and I went to one of the previews of it two weeks ago and took it in turns to bawl, laugh and sit gobsmacked at how much swearing the child actors have to do. Richard and Karen are friends with the executive producer of Billy Elliot the movie and she was also in Sydney for the launch. She invited Richard and Karen along to the show and the star-studded after-party, which by Sydney standards was a galaxy as actual real celebrities were there like Elton John and Toni Collette, not just the cast of Neighbours. When we all met up for dinner the next night (not Elton or Toni) they were all very hungover. This didn't stop us all enjoying another lively night on the tiles, with Rob and I finally making it home (by bus, due to a taxi shortage) at 1.30am, making this the latest night out we have had since having Scarlett. Thank God then we were able to persuade Scarlett to have a lunchtime sleep yesterday so we could all crawl into bed and catch up on some Zzzzzs. Last night we packed a picnic and alongwith Martin and Drew, James and Amelia and Kendall and his mum Audrey, we headed up to the local church for Carols by Candlelight which was brilliantly festive despite crickets chirping in the background heat during Jingle Bells.