We made our way to our pre-booked van park in Sunshine, but
as check in wasn’t until 10am we found a shopping centres and pretended to be
really stressed out for an hour racing from one place to another getting all
kinds of goodies that we probably could have very easily survived without.
After a small challenge backing the van into what felt like
a space half its size we sent the boys to the pool and we started to retrieve
all of the goodies required for Christmas morning from all of the nooks and
crannies that we had stored them in around the van. Do you know how hard it is
to hide things in a caravan for nearly three weeks? Knowing it was going to be
a very late night we all had a Nana nap in readiness.
I was pretty excited about the night’s activities as I am a
sucker for Christmas Carols and while all of the other members of my family
have objected to Mum playing Perry Como’s Christmas album every year I was
quietly wishing they would all leave it on! We all jumped on board the 220 bus
that was taking us to the Myer Music Bowl with the candles that we had made the
day before at Sovereign Hill safely in tow. The gates opened at 4:30 and we
arrived at 5:00 to find virtually no room left for a person to sit let-a-lone
for us to spread our blanket out. After a few reccies we found a spot, in the
second back row, that we were pretty happy with. Ok, only three hours until the
show commences, this is going to be a ball! The boys were great and between
playing Uno, doing toilet runs and having chicken sandwiches for diner the time
flew.
When the ‘real show’ started at 8pm I was pretty excited and
sitting on the hill looking down on the stage with the fading sun lighting up
the Melbourne skyline on one side and the MCG and Rod Laver Arena on the other
was a pretty special moment.
There were some pretty good singers but I must
admit my dislike for ‘talent’ shows like The Voice left me a touch out of the
loop as to who all of the performers were. As the sky darkened everybody
started to light their candles and the aura it created was pretty bloody cool!
The boys loved it as this is pretty much the only time they have ever been
allowed to play with anything with fire in their life.
About 2/3rds of the way
through I took Sambo for a walk down the front just to see what it was like and
there was a perfect spot that somebody had already vacated, so we baggsed it
and moved camp to there. The atmosphere was even better that at the back and
being surrounded by 10,000 people with candles was pretty special.
Looking back
on the night I was in a bit of a juxtaposition as while I really enjoyed the
night myself I was a bit disappointed that there weren’t more songs that the
kids could be involved in and sing along with. No Rudolph, no jingle bells or Mummy Kissing Santa Claus, with
silent night being about the closest thing that they knew the words to. It made me think that they may have enjoyed it more if they were involved,
but maybe I am just assuming that!
The show wrapped up around 11pm, we bolted for the bus and
got back to camp around 11:40. The boys hit the hay straight away and then we
stated to wrap presents. It was just before 1am by the time I finally pulled
the covers up and drifted off to sleep humming silent night to myself.
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