Family, festivals, and furry friends: the Money team shares their highlights

What do you expect to be the highlight of your summer? The Money team has opened up to share what they're counting down to this year...

Effie Zahos, editor

"Be­ing there for my daugh­ter at 9am on Fri­day De­cem­ber 14 to re­mind her that no mat­ter what ATAR she gets on this day, no num­ber should ever de­fine you. Ex­plor­ing the 'Pearl of the An­daman' one of Thai­land's most iconic is­lands with my fam­ily and tak­ing cook­ing lessons with a lo­cal in their own home."

Maria Bekiaris, deputy editor

"Day trips to ex­plore some of the fab­u­lous beaches up and down the NSW coast, vis­its to the lo­cal pools with the kids and their friends, watch­ing them en­joy their down­time af­ter a busy year at school. And just get­ting to en­joy qual­ity time with fam­ily and friends."

Ann Loveday, art director

"Sum­mer at Casa Loveday ... it's the sea­son for en­ter­tain­ing, cook­ing new things and de­vour­ing sum­mer reads. The warm days will sail by with no en­gage­ments more im­por­tant than grab­bing a towel and strolling down to Clovelly beach for a high-tide dip. Mar­vel­lous."

Susan Hely, senior writer

"I've rented a sim­ple cot­tage on a lit­tle-known bay north of Syd­ney with a re­serve in front where kan­ga­roo fam­i­lies laze around. That's where the fam­ily will spend Christ­mas be­fore head­ing to the awe­some Wood­ford Folk Fes­ti­val for six days with 1200 events."

Sharyn McCowen, online producer

"A cheeky, snub­nosed, stumpy-tailed blue puppy un­der the Christ­mas tree.

"She's not a present or any­thing, she is just busy guard­ing her new col­lec­tion of shiny tennis balls (Christ­mas baubles) that she thinks we've been hid­ing from her till now."

Bob Christensen, senior sub-editor

"Both my kids have reached mile­stones: my daugh­ter has fin­ished high school and my son has fin­ished uni. Over sum­mer they'll move onto the next stage in their lives. It's ex­cit­ing - and scary - for all of us. The best bit: no more school lunches to worry about!"

Get stories like this in our newsletters.