A guest from afar

This Christmas, we have been very fortunate to have Laetitia (Jeremy's grandmother's cousin) stay with us for a few days following her tour of Australia.  The family connections are becoming more clear with every explanation, but it is a lot to take in!  Karen (Jeremy's mother's cousin) and her son Tristan flew down from Sydney for the occasion as it had been a couple of decades since Karen had last seen Laetitia.

It is really funny how you notice similarities between relatives who are not immediate relations.  For example, when I think of Laetitia, Karen and Kath, they seem to have a few traits in common - delightful personalities, a manner of speaking, and very long legs!  Jeremy and I visited Karen in Sydney in 2009 so we had already met Tristan but there is a large difference between a 15 year old and a 21 year old.  This visit, we saw his sense of humor and penchant for telling jokes, his obvious passion for mountain biking and rogaining, and someone who seemed to actually not mind spending time with all of us older people!

We have had a lovely few days which have included Christmas Eve dinner with some other Canadian friends (Jane and Andy), a picnic at the Mt Lofty Botanic Gardens, a sausage dinner which we had to have inside because it was actually cold (!!!), and a trip to the Mt Lofty summit and Hahndorf.  As we speak, Jeremy is cooking a special meal for Laetitia's last evening with us.

Managed to get a family group shot at the beginning of our botanic garden walk on the rhododendron trail.

We were enthralled by this strange tree which looked like it had eyes all over it.

We had to quickly make our way through a stretch of the trail which had sprinklers going.  Getting wet was unavoidable.

'The Guardians' sculpture.

Went back to the sign at the park entrance and realized we had taken Laetitia on one of the ! tracks - steep gradient.  She handled it like a champ.

Today we stopped at the secret koala spotting area and found this big boy!  When I went in to get a closer look I also found a smaller one.  Koala bonanza!!  Karen was super excited.  25 years in Australia and it's only the second time she has seen a koala in the wild.

Today was the clearest I've seen the Mt Lofty summit.  Great views out to the city and beyond.

They were very obliging to pose for another family photo.  Tristan was off doing a 300 m loop walk.  We had almost perfect weather...sunny, clear skies, cooler than usual for this time of year.  I believe at the same time last year we were hitting the high 30s.

It has been a special thing to have all these people together in one place and to hear some more about Jeremy's family history.  It makes me want to learn more about mine!  Merry Christmas everyone :)