Christmas Letter 2023

The big news from us this year is that we have become great-grandparents. The first child was Mia Lester the daughter of Hayley and Richard, who was born on 16th August. The second was Austin Creasey, Joshua and Lizzie’s son who was born on 7th October. We are delighted with the birth of these two children. We just have to drive to Coburg to visit Austin, but Mia is in England, who we visited in December – more on that later.

Margaret and Mia

Margaret and Austin

We have continued travelling this year. In Australia we stayed at our timeshare in Numurkah and then visited 19 painted wheat silos, which were stunning.

Here is a video of some of the silos we visited



Here is a link to a post on our silo art tour showing all the silos we visited

We also stayed with Michelle, David, Philip and Bev at Longford for 5 days. Philip and Bev spent a month here for the funeral of Philip and Michelle’s father, Ian Calder.

Our first overseas trip was to the UK via a week in Bangkok. After four days in London we stayed with Philip and Bev. Margaret celebrated her 80th birthday while in the UK.

We returned home via Prague, a beautiful city to visit. The video below shows the astronomical clock in Prague.



We already had a week in a resort in Phuket booked in November, so we decided to extend the trip to the UK to visit Mia, and celebrate her birth with Hayley and Richard.

As the rooms of the resort could sleep 6 people we spent the time with Michelle, David and Amanda.

One of the highlights of the events in the resort was the fire show.



The weather was always warm we regularly ate dinner at the beach.



A highlight away from the resort was the day Sea Canoeing.



We arrived in England in early winter, which was interesting, and required warm clothing.



We went Glamping (Glamorous Camping) with Phil and Bev and one evening Hayley, Richard and Mia joined us in the public shed in the camping ground. It was a very cold, wet and windy night but the fire kept us warm. (Margaret was surprised when the camera's light came on.)



We returned home via Dubai, and visited the Burj Khalifa.



In last year’s letter we reported that Mark, Beth’s husband had a very serious medical diagnosis – multiple myeloma. He has had some aggressive treatment, including a trial to test a new approach to dealing with the disease. The treatment has been quite effective and we are very pleased with his response to the treatment. Beth changed jobs from HR in the police to a similar position at the Austin Hospital. She is enjoying this new challenging position. Beth and Mark celebrated their 31st Wedding Anniversary at Magnetic Island, as shown in the photo below:

Michelle works in Deer Park Neighbourhood House. Her position was removed, but she has been employed at the position that replaces it. David was made redundant, with many other people at Australia Post. He is enjoying his break from work, while he considers his next steps. One exciting development for Michelle and David has been the final arrival of their caravan, which is fantastic with all the mod cons. They recently stayed in Colac in the van, at a music festival.



Catherine continues to work in Salvation Army social services. She travelled to New Zealand to deliver a keynote address to a Salvation Army conference. She also enjoyed a brief stay in Wellington.

Spencer voted for the first time this year. Here is a picture of Cath and Spencer going to vote in the referendum.

Philip and Bev continue to live in Preston in the UK. Philip continues to work in the Aerospace industry and Bev in hospice care. When we visited them earlier this year, Margaret and I were very impressed with their care for Philip’s father – Ian – before he passed away.

Life in our Retirement Village is returning to normal after covid-19. Margaret continues to be very active in the Craft Group. Stephen gave up his role as Residents Association Treasurer and enjoying a more relaxing life


Wishing you a happy and safe Christmas, and all the best for 2024, 

                                    from Margaret and Stephen