Happy New Year!

What a great Christmas! We spent a lot of the holidays out at my aunt Ady and uncle Chris' house which is on the same property and my cousin Kylie, and her husband Rik and their 3 kids, Isabelle, Tom and Jed. My other aunt Thea and uncle Grant drove up from Christchurch with their 2 kids, Quinn and Eve. They camped out on the lawn and we all enjoyed lots of fun time together over Christmas and New Year's.
Pop traditionaly dresses up as Santa. Here's all the cousins and Gemma opening gifts on Christmas day. Gemma was a bit shy of Santa, she warmed up after a little while but not enough to sit on his lap. She loves her Pop and walks around saying "Pop, Pop, Pop" whenever he is near.Eve, Gemma, Izzie and Rik enjoying some time on the lawn.

The kids are all great at doing Maori song and dance. The Maoris are the New Zealand natives. Here's a picture of the boys performing the Haka, the Maori war dance. They were great!

Back around the house....Gemma loves watering the garden with Nana and/or Pop. She gets soaking wet and laughs and loves every minute of it!

A picture of a Tui. I think I mentioned them earlier. They are our favorite native NZ bird and they have such a beautiful song. This one came right up close to the porch to get a snack. Birds like the Tui, make me smile at God's creativity.

Random fact for the the day: New Zealand is the first country to reach 2010. It's just past the date line. Even so, I still couldn't stay up for it! Maybe next year?!

Random fact # 2: My sister Shannon and Ben's twin sister Kate both just got engaged! Ben and I are so excited to welcome Jason and Bob to the family! Yay! We love weddings!