Merry Christmas to us!!!

Yes, I realize it's still more than 2 months away, but in our house, it's Christmas! (Actually, it's been Christmas in all the stores for a while, now. Without Halloween and Thanksgiving to act as buffers, they get the commercial side of Christmas started REALLY early.)

But in our house, it's Christmas because our new tent just arrived! Our old, reliable, $70 Kelty tent that Kerry bought 10 years ago served us well - was part of many camping trips, went to Kenya and back, functioned as our house for a while. But it's days had come to an end, and we were in desperate need of a new one.
old tent:

Thus started our quest for a new tent. But good back-packing tents are hard to get, here. For as outdoor-sy as I pictured Australians, their idea of "camping" is loading up everything but the kitchen sink, driving to some big campground that charges you a bunch to stay there, and setting up a gigantic 15-person tent and a grill and hanging out by the car for a few days. And their idea of "back-packing" is hopping from hostel to hostel. You can find back-packing tents at specialty stores, but they're really expensive. So we turned to good ol' Sierra Trading Post, and we got a great deal on a great tent!
new tent:

And we got new sandals and shorts and a hat, too. So Merry Christmas to us! So guess what we're doing this weekend?!? Camping!!!