The drive to Warrnambool takes about 4 hours but it wasn’t so bad this time as I played with the Nintendo DS Lite I got from Santa for Christmas. Mostly I played with my first Nintendog, Santa and tried to earn some more money to buy a second dog.

When we got to Warrnambool, we went straight to Nanny’s house but she was out. Some of my Uncles and Aunties and Cousins where there and so we played with them until Nanny and Poppy got home.

That night we went out for dinner at the local lawn bowls club. Alex and I shared a Garlic Bread and Nugget and chips. After everyone had eaten dinner we all took turns having a go on a chocolate machine game. Between everyone we had lots of fun and won lots of Chocolate!!

On Saturday we had all the Uncles and Aunties and Cousins back over for a BBQ brunch. I also played my Nintendogs again and earned enough money to buy my second dog, Coco.

In the afternoon, while Alex (my brother) slept, Dad and me went to Shelly Beach to find shells and to look at all the underwater sea life that are in the rock pools.

That evening, Nanny and Poppy had a wedding on, so we went to the Botanical Gardens with My Uncle Anthony, Aunty Vicki and my cousins Andrew, Anna, Joshy and Kayla. We had Kermonds hamburgers. I had a Bacon one and it was good.

We then went to the duck pond in the gardens and fed the ducks and had a running race. I wanted to play  cricket but the park had a no balls policy so we decided to go down to the beach and play beach cricket.

We went down to Stingray Bay and played beach cricket. Although it wasn’t really hot, we went into the water up to our knees. The water was so nice that Alex and I went in further and go all wet. I was trying to collect the cricker ball!

Sunday dad took Alex and me to Flagstaff Hill where we did the Sea Chest Challenge which involves following the clues and making your way around the different sites to see.

Also there was a wedding on at the old church and we stopped to see the bride go in. Everyone was dress in old time costumes but they still had their modern cameras.

Dad took a panoramic shot of the stores from across the lake and you can see that here.

After this we had Kermonds again, this time with Nanny and Poppy and then went over to my Cousins place where I played Cricket on their PS2. I really want to get it, it was fun.

On Monday we went out for lunch with Nanny and Poppy. I had Nachos and a mixed plate that included Salami and olives (olives are my favourite). Then we all hopped back in the car and drove back to Melbourne. I did some more contests on Nintendogs and was able to buy my third dog.

We had a lot of fun and can’t wait to see Nanny again in March.

After getting organised, driving it to the city and finding a car park, we made our way first to the Christmas train to have a ride and write an email to Santa.

Patrick and his brother Alex got their golden tickets and had a ride on the train. After Lidia (aka Mum) took some photos in front of the beautiful Christmas tree that was in the train area.

Next we went to send an email to Santa only to find that his email service was down. We decide to move up to see Santa. After a reasonably short wait on in line, we got to see Santa. This was my first time seeing Santa but the boys had been the previous few years. Patrick had been asking me if I would be patting the reindeer and I wondered what he meant. Going in, I saw models of reindeer heads on the wall and wondered if I was missing the chance to pat them, but once I got into Santa’s room, I saw what all the fuss was about as there was a sleeping Rudolf sitting next to Santa’s chair.

Santa was in great form and the boys sat up on his chair and had a photo with him. Alex let him know that he had a sore tummy and Patrick passed on his request for Christmas.

We then decided to go see the Myers Windows, a Melbourne Christmas tradition. This year the windows where based on the Graeme Base book, Uno’s Garden. The boys where amazed at the scenes that had been put together and we decided to get some lunch and then see if we could pick up the book at Borders that was near by. We couldn’t at the city store but was able to get it at Chadstone.

We all had a great day and Patrick took the book and did a Show and tell on it when he returned to School. Below are some photos that we took but more are available here.

We also went to Myuna Farm and watched Ella, Tina and Abby dance.