I love the opportunity the writing of a Christmas letter provides for review and reflection. It is also a great opportunity to revisit our goals for the year, and to determine what remains undone and needs to be carried forward to the new year!
My theme for this year definitely needs revisiting… “Stewardshipˮ of our money and our time occurred in interesting and unintended ways! We once again had some great times with family and friends, and many opportunities and new experiences. A highlight for Jarrod was completing a subject at the University of Cambridge, and a highlight for Ross and Tim was meeting him in Belgium after the course ended and touring Europe together for three weeks. We also enjoyed a family holiday with Lukeʼs family to the North Island of New Zealand in July.
Another highlight was a wonderful reward for all of Markʼs and Rossʼ hard work developing the site at Kings Point Retreat, Ulladulla. At the industry awards evening in November, we were awarded the NSW Holiday Park of the Year Award. And in the weeks around that announcement, Isaac and Belle were announced as school prefects (2020 year 9 Leader and year 6 Parliamentarian, respectively), and Abi as not only a Year 12 Prefect for next year but also School Captain.
While home renovations dominated our landscape (literally!) in 2018, events like a quickly planned boysʼ trip to Europe brought building works to a standstill this year. We have enjoyed the pool and backyard all year, but the granny flat remains at lockup stage and is now a project for 2020. The yard was VERY promptly fenced though soon after Ross and Jarrod responded to an ad about a puppy. While I made them promise they would just research and only LOOK at puppies, they arrived home the same day with a tiny Border Collie cross Maltese terrier/ShihTzu, who we named Millie and now find it hard to remember a time we did not have a dog.
Ross and Nik continued their schedules of work, parenting, taxiing etc., although Rossʼ schedule was definitely improved upon by the inclusion of the Europe trip with his two eldest boys. Nik absolutely supported this (and is planning her turn, a trip with Abi next year post-HSC ), but she did miss Ross’ cooking and share of the taxiing – the result of which was a recurring knee/patella problem (referred to as “elite athlete’s knee”, clearly a misnomer in this case!!). Ross’ grandmother Hazel sadly passed away in January – we are both very thankful for the influence our grandmothers were on our lives and miss them greatly.
Jarrod continues to be teased by his siblings that he is rarely home. He had another very busy year, managing to fit in worship leading at church and a different conference every month of the year on average, as well as part-time work and finishing a full-time uni degree. This all culminated in December with him and his band being the “pre-show entertainment” at a Carols event run by our church (Gymea Baptist) in a park at Miranda for approx. 5,000 people, as well as completing a Bachelor of Commerce. He has obtained a role for next year as an “Analytics and Data Science Intern”, which he will do while completing a Master of Data Science.
Tim turned 18 in February just before jetting off to Europe, so celebrated with his friends a month later upon his return. He has completed first year of a Bachelor of Business at UTS and is working through the Christmas holidays at Rebel. He was very pleased the HSC was over so he could return to serving in kids’ church at GBC and playing soccer. If he is not at soccer training or working or out with friends, he is very devoted to Millie, and is our main poop-scooper and dog-walker.
Abi spent the year rivalling Nik’s social calendar – next year, I will keep a closer tally of number of people we each go out with and how much (of my money!) is spent! Successfully achieving her “P’s” drivers’ licence in August did not slow her down, although it has improved her negotiation skills as she must share a car with Jarrod and Tim. Abi did one HSC accelerated unit and just yesterday received results of a Band 6 (which we now expect for all the other HSC units next year, no pressure )……She continued to be Nik’s concert buddy, attending Hugh Jackman’s show and the Chicago musical, and is looking forward to some downtime before year 12 and her role as School Captain ramps up again in the new year. She also continues to live with jaw pain, which we are monitoring along with stress levels during the HSC year.
Isaac rivals the both Nik and Abi when it comes to attending social events, and he continued to enjoy tennis comps and baseball. He also continued with percussion lessons and percussion ensembles and picked up guitar lessons. He was a little disappointed with his year-end results and announced to us that he would like to focus more on his studies (which we hope he remembers when February rolls around).
Sam started high school this year and enjoyed it very much. He also enjoyed soccer season, soccer development squad, acting lessons, summer soccer…..yes, he is still obsessed with soccer. He continued with piano and saxophone lessons and was a part of the school band program with Isaac (although sometimes under duress!). Sam too decided with a shrug that he could probably put more effort into his schoolwork and study but remains far more interested in his soccer aspirations.
Despite her initial concerns, Belle coped exceptionally well with being the only Jones left at primary school after all these years. She continued dancing lessons (although we convinced her to drop ballet as her natural style is more sassy and less….graceful), and enjoyed soccer development squad with Sam every Monday, on top of two other soccer training sessions each week as she competed in the U11 A grade. Belle finally stopped asking for a little sibling with the arrival of Millie. She is looking forward to being a Parliamentarian next year as all her siblings have been before her (she was afraid she would let the Jones name down if not voted in!), and we are looking forward – albeit with mixed feelings – to finally finishing primary school.
We will enjoy a quiet time at home these holidays, relaxing and swimming and preparing for 2020 which will be a big one for many here! We hope you too are able to enjoy time with loved ones this season, and wish you a beautiful Christmas.
