CHRISTMAS PICNIC.

Every year in December the Association has its Xmas Picnic..

It is held at the Diamond Valley Miniature Railway Lower Eltham Park (Melway map 21 ref. H 10). 

Year after year the numbers attending this most popular activity increase.

It is a great day out for the family, the kids get to ride the trains and see Santa.

We have our own platform and train for two half hour rides (usually 11am and 2pm)
and if demand is there the Association provides tickets for those who still have not had
enough fun.

Rod and Sharon organise the event including lollies and drinks and in recent
times a very welcome sausage sizzle operation.

Come along, you won't be disappointed! 

See you again in 2013!

(Unfortunately I missed the 2011 picnic)

The 2010 picnic was held on Sunday December 19th.

As with every year our final event is the Xmas picnic at the miniature trains.

As per usual Rod & Sharon did a great job of organising & setting up everything.
Whilst we usually meet up at Meadmore station, today we in a slightly different location.
Regardless of where we were the day was as good as ever. Old friends & families got together
& little kids had a ball riding the trains & running about.

Our usual BBQ was so popular that we almost ran out of snags! We think next year we may add
hamburgers to our offerings. Rod was assisted in his cooking duties by myself & sons Zeke & Coen.
Zeke was in control of assisting customers with their BBQ needs & the typical raffle ticket sales.
Tom Murphy suppled us with a couple of boxes of individually wrapped Mint slice biscuits which
went well with each raffle ticket. Diesel Perkins was especially keen on the biscuits.:)

Snags were snapped up at a rapid pace, some with sauce, some with onions & bread.

The weather had been threatening all day and would you believe it, as soon as Santa arrived down
the rain came! Santa arrived by his very own train & was saved from the rain by our association President
Daryl who held an umbrella above Santa's head.

Everyone clamoured under the shelter and Santa gave the kids their well earned presents.

I am sure everyone who attended had a great time, I know I certainly did. Dave. (committee member)

Our Association banner stands proudly at the fence.    Peter gives us the thumbs up as he leaves the platform.

Coen & the kids head off for a ride before the rain arrives.

Rod, myself & Zeke handle the BBQ for our members & families.

Ate a distance 'here comes Santa'

Santa arrives with Daryl assisting to keep the jolly fellow dry.

Santa gives  out the presents with his able assistant 'Santa's little helper' Lauren.

A final rush on the snags, they tasted great!             the drinks are always popular.

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

The 2009 picnic was held on Sunday 20 December 2009.

REPORT OF 2009.

The weather was very kind to us again this year and the facilities
were much improved on the years where we endured concrete blocks
for tables and no shade.

This year there was a beautiful rotunda especially
for us at Meadmore Station. There was also a series
of nice new timber picnic type tables & benches.
We believe by next year the final stages will be complete with
better garden surfaces etc.

Thanks to Rod Westgarth we had use of a hired portaloo,
we just need to teach visitors that red means 'engaged!':)

We had a bumper crop of kiddies this year, many having what looked like their
first picnic with us at Eltham.

As per usual we had two 30 min train rides exclusive to us and many tickets
purchased by the association for those who may have missed out on a ride
to go jump on one of the many Loco's heading out of the main station.

Santa arrived by train and was his usual popular self, he also appeared to be
a little slimmer this year and was sporting a new Santa suit.

Each kid, both big & small jumped up when their name was called and sat on
Santa's knee to receive a present. This year we had a couple of really big kids
test the strength of Santa's knee, he came through with flying colours.

Rod & Sharon provided a BBQ yet again with a steady sale of snags and burgers
in bread. I was Rod's part time assistant turning sausages and making sure a raffle
ticket was given out with each snag/burger sold.

The raffle prizes included many great items supplied by members and the association
and included polo shirts, baseball caps and much more.

Tommy called out the winning numbers but I think his version of the English language
had some wondering if they had won or not. Good job Tommy!

Plenty of soft drink was supplied by the Association for the kiddies as were bags of
lollies by Santa to go along with the presents.

Santa had his usual two helpers, Lauren Westgarth and our President Darryl Pinner.
Thanks to both of you for your assistance to Santa. Santa was a hit not only with the
kids but also gave us adults a laugh with some of his funny comments.

All in all it was a great day and we look forward to seeing everyone again next year.

Dave White. (committee member)

PHOTOS OF 2009; KIDS WITH SANTA.
(Photos have been cropped, I tried to get a picture of each child & if you would like an uncropped version just e-mail the association)

Photo's D. White.