# Best Christmas I can remember



## Ozkar (Jul 4, 2011)

I told a few white lies leading up to Christmas. After 45 years of Christmas with my family or my partner's family and being single at Christmas for the first time in my life, I decided to have Christmas on my own, with the dogs, at the beach. 

Leading up to Xmas, every time I told someone what I was going to do, they all thought I was nuts and begged and pleaded me to come with them for Xmas. In the end, I just told my two younger kids I was spending it with my sister, my sister I was spending it with my younger kids, my older daughter that I was spending it with the younger kids (they are from different mums and are not in contact..... I keep trying, but they lose each other quickly.... not a lot of interest from the younger two in the older one and sometimes I get why unfortunately)

Ahhh, what a tangled web we weave... but it saved all the bullshit. All I wanted was Xmas on the beach with me and the puppies and nobody else. 

In the end, I got what I wanted. We drove down Saturday morning and set the camp up a sand dune away from the water. Then we went for a walk/play/swim on the beach. The weather was great on Saturday, but it changed late in the afternoon and it absolutely bucketed down cats and dogs. There was a bloody good lightning light show all evening and night and massive claps of rolling thunder. Astro wasn't at all worried by it, but Zsa Zsa was packing it. She was shivering and shaking and looking for anything she could hide under. The good thing was she slept closer to me all night than she has ever done  

We woke up Xmas day to find that Santa had been. I should have taken a pic, as I had a little Xmas tree, with presents for the dogs under it. Some toys and some dog bones and other treats. We had breakfast in the tent while we waited for the rain to clear. Then onto the beach again until about lunchtime. Back to the campsite at lunch time for a feed and a snooze. Then back to the beach again in the afternoon. 

The dogs were in heaven. The people in the camp next to us had a really old Golden Retriever who was partially blind and totally deaf. They all got on great. The Retriever was acting like a puppy. He played with my dogs, but couldn't keep up as he would lose sight of them quickly. But, he would track them down with his nose and get close enough to see them and then off he's go for another play. He was very cute.

Astro drank a little too much sea water each day and had a horrible case of the runs. Lucky we were on a beach and I could use sand to clean it up. 

The dogs loved it though. The smells, the sights the sounds. It was sensory overload. They swam, walked, ran and played all day and apart from the little siesta each day and bed at night, did not stop. They are both stuffed now though, with both asleep and have been since 7pm about an hour after I fed them dinner. 

Bug goofy Astro made friends everwhere we went with his goofy nature. Zsa Zsa made friends everywhere we went because she smooched up slowly to everyone we came near!! It's dog friendly where we camped so if they complained, I would just ask them to leave, not the other way around...  But, the people all loved dogs and were in love with my two. 

We discovered that Astro loves Pilchards. He stole several Pilchards which one of the guys fishing had dropped on the sand after mangling it trying to put it on the hook. (I took pity and showed him how to sew on a pilchard, so hopefully he worked it out and caught some fish eventually.)

He is also less scared of big waves than Zsa Zsa. Probably as he is so much taller 

Zsa Zsa was like a little puppy again. Her and Astro bounded all over the beach. I took my camera and forgot to get it out of the car the entire time..... so this is some crappy phone pics to give you an idea of where I was. If you want to Google it, it's Golden Beach Victoria Australia. It's part of the gippsland lakes region and is smack bang on 90 mile beach.... bloody paradise.... (Actually Paradise beach is the next one along  )


----------



## mswhipple (Mar 7, 2011)

What a beautiful spot that is! Sounds like you had a fabulous Holiday... and what lucky dogs they are!!


----------



## Aimless1 (Sep 25, 2011)

Glad you had a wonderful Christmas. May you have many more happy ones.


----------



## harrigab (Aug 21, 2011)

great pics...wish my phone camera was that "crappy"!!!!!


----------



## Suliko (Sep 17, 2011)

Merry Christmas, Ozkar! Looks like you had more fun than I did. Beautiful pictures...makes me super-jealous  Although we did make it to the ocean with Sophie as well. In fact, we spent our Christmas morning at the dog park haha


----------

