Along with our excitement to be getting out of the caravan for abit, we were also looking forward to experiencing some of the beautiful, wet, warm weather that only the far north of Australia can offer.
The girls keeping cool
A couple of my fav light displays
The Christmas tree in Cairns
Christmas biscuits
The Christmas house we made and some treats left out for Santa ;)
Merry Christmas!
Ella the Elf!
Christmas morning 
Presents!
The girls enjoying some delicious nibbles!
Prawn, mango and mint Salad
Lunch time!
Buddy even had a fancy bowl and bonbon ;)
Yum!
I think Buddy partied too hard on Christmas.. This was him on Boxing Day! Clearly hungover!
When we arrived the creek was dry... After one huge downpour it had filled up quite alot! 
Rock towers! 
View along the Coast on our drive up to Port Douglas
Ella with one of the many mangoes we picked.
Happy New Year!
Ella checking out some super cool street art.
The beginning of our first mat
Our two completed mats
The Pizzas Ella cooked for us one night :)
Crystal Cascades 
Night swims in the Lagoon
We took Tori to this playground when she was only 18 months old... She still loves it!!
After dropping Mel, Mike and little Mia off at the airport, we took no one to settle ourselves in!
Buddy and I woke early each day and went for long walks through the neighbourhood and along the creek. Stopping for a splash and a play in the creek along the way most days.
With Christmas fast approaching we spent many nights driving around the surrounding suburbs checking out the many impressive light displays that the locals had obviously spent a lot of time decorating their homes with.
We planned a big Christmas lunch and dinner, and just like last year in Exmouth, I was quite excited to have the opportunity to do all the preparation and cooking and just spend the day relaxing without all the running around Chriatmas day often involves back in Adelaide! (Sorry extended family... I love and miss you all... But not having to travel all over the place... Well that's my kind of Christmas Day! ;))
We had fun making lots of Christmas biscuits and also got busy with lots of Christmas arts and crafts.
On Christmas morning the girls woke early and were thrilled with all their gifts. Buddy even had a gift under the tree to open (some treats and a few squeaky toys which he played with loudly all day!!!) which he just loved!!!
We enjoyed a long, lazy day full of lots of yummy foods, and a couple of drinks to wash it all down.
The weather didn't disappoint! We had many days in the first two weeks were it just poured down with rain. Some days over 100mms fell. It was lovely to sit outside under the verandah and listen to the sound of the rain falling on the roof and the creek that runs directly behind the house flowing.
After one particular heavy fall, we decided to drive up to Barron Falls.
Having been here back in August, and with there being barely a trickle... We were really hoping for a spectacular display... We certainly were not disappointed! The falls were unreal!
From only trickling to full flow... in just 48hrs!
View from a lookout up in the hills behind Cairns
I posted the video footage I captured on a popular Facebook weather page also, and last time I checked it had well over 60,000 views and has been shared nearly 1000 times!
We went on many long drives through the stunning landscape both inland and along the coast.
At this time of year also, there are ripe Mango trees everywhere! I just loved been able to pick them freshly off the trees and turned many into yummy smoothies and use them in my salads! Delicious!
For New Years Eve we headed down to check out the fireworks on the Cairns esplanade and spent the evening soaking up the atmosphere.
Having the extra luxury of a house to spread out in, we spent time doing some extra arts and craft.
Ella decided she wanted to learn how to knit and has really taken to it! She barely puts her needles down and is doing a great job knitting a scarf for winter.
We also put together our own loom and after collecting all our old clothes, we got to weaving a mat out of them. By the time I had finished our first mat, I was addicted and had to visit the nearby op shop for more clothes/material so I could make a second mat!
We visited Crystal Cascades twice and just loved swimming in all the different swimming holes and sliding down the natural rock slides.
We also spent quite a few evenings swimming in the large man made lagoon on the esplanade whilst cooking our dinner on the BBQs.
Before we knew it, our month in Cairns came to an end.
After picking up Mel, Mike and Mia from the airport, we shared an early dinner and caught up on each other's holiday stories before Mel and Mike headed off to bed to catch up on some much needed sleep.
The next day after I took Buddy for one last walk, we packed up our caravan and said our goodbyes before heading off on the next part of our adventure... Back down the QLD coast and sooner rather than later... crossing into NSW!
Xx
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