It's been a bit busy and I apologise I haven't got around and read or commented on as many posts as I would like. I've tried. I'll keep trying and hope to do better as we get further into 2026.
Christmas Day dawned a grey cool day but it didn't dampen the Christmas spirit. After breakfast I made the salad, whipped cream and finished off doing the things I needed to do before we packed up the car and headed over to Vanessa's place for dinner with the family. We had been to the Carol Service on Christmas Eve because I knew we wouldn't get to the Christmas Day one - we seldom do.
At one point I think we had 14 family members there. Some ate with other branches of the family and then came over and some ate with us. We had a buffet set up and helped ourselves to what we wanted. I was sitting with my back to the door and suddenly this little boy rushed up to me all excited - the family from Palmerston North had arrived! We weren't expecting them and my GKB and I had been planning when we would go up and meet the new baby. Vanessa and Tony knew they were coming but hadn't told anyone :) Well done on their part.
They had been up since 5am travelling and arrived at Momona airport at 10:30am. It meant that Arlo had cousins to play with which was nice as he had been the only kid there until they arrived. That's the bigger kids above in their Christmas tee shirts, I don't know who gave those to them but they looked good, even baby Lucia had one :)
And this is Aaron and Sofi enjoying their Christmas dinner with a couple of their parishioners in Auckland. They were in the middle of shifting house and so appreciated having somewhere to go for dinner. All in all a good Christmas Day.
Bob getting popcorn and coke to snack on at the movies.
I don't know about most of you but we didn't see the new year in. We were in bed about 10;30am and had the answer phone on as my brother has been notorious for ringing and waking us to wish us a happy New Year in the past. We didn't want to risk him waking us at midnight this year. Yes, we still have a landline as well as our cell phones. On New Years Day we decided to go to the movies as we had been gifted a voucher and had no other plans. It was an enjoyable day out but when we came out we had six minutes to get to the bus stop and we made it just as the bus pulled up. Phew. We have free buses as long as we travel during off peak hours.
And this is wee Lucia Carolitta. She was baptised today. She looks so happy in this photo but she wasn't happy in the church. She started crying as soon as the service started, cried all the way through. Mum couldn't calm her, Dad couldn't calm her and having water poured on her head didn't help. Eventually she went to sleep - when it was all over. I haven't heard a word of the service. I stood when others did and sat when they sat. I've since been told that most of us never heard a word of what was said, the poor priest, though he didn't seem fazed at all and as you can see was laughing with the family - as Lucia kept bawling her eyes out for the photo.
We didn't stay for a cup of tea and as we were leaving Alice was running down a slight slope and fell over. Landed on her knees and face. She took a real hard tumble and it looks like she'll have a good bruise on her face when it comes out. And let me tell you, she has a good set of lungs as well :)
And just because I can - some Christmas crocs.
That's all for now,
Keep well until next time,
Diana
