December Happenings

Summer showed up on time this year... and with Tony in Brazil, Christmas coming and the end of school creeping closer, the kids and I had some fun with friends to really soak it all in.

 How about a little pizza and salad at the tree swing on a school night?!?! It may have been a Saturday afternoon... details, details... it was a lovely day and the kids enjoyed exploring more than swinging.

 We revolutionised the tidiness of our outside area with the purchase of this steel bike rack! It was seriously the best purchase yet at $43 funnily enough from Tony's previous government department. Watching me load it into the car would've been painful, but now that it is safely on the deck, I can't believe we've lived so long without something like this. Highly recommended.

 These crazy kids keep taking selfies...

 On Thursday 4 December we had a delicious AROY dinner after a music lesson... this was much more fun (and convenient) than rushing home before the family life group that started at 6:30. The best part was when we went to New World in Newtown to pick up something for supper, we bumped into good friends Kate & Lataya just in time for the Christmas festival at the supermarket. Gosh, had I known there were free sausages and in-store samples everywhere we turned, we would've skipped the restaurant and just eaten at NW. The life group was a blast - I stayed out with Erin and the kids and we did some fun things together.

 This was a fun way to learn a Bible verse - two teams had to arrange the balloons in the correct order... ever more fun was that each balloon had a lolly in it!

 While rostered to serve in the Connect Lounge on Sunday 7 December, I bumped into a couple of "new folks" who actually are dear friends from Kaikoura! We got to chat away while I looked like the most friendly connector in the lounge. Gotta love the Fearnleys!!!

 In the spirit of community and Christmas, I decided to take the kids to the annual Peninsula Carols night which was sponsored by Gateway Baptist Church and some of the local schools. One of the children thought it was super fun! The other child was a bit more like the Grinch. Me... I was having a grand ole time singing Christmas songs and hearing perspectives on the Christmas story. I'm fully supportive of making this a family tradition... though I may need to add some other elements to get the full support of the rest of the troops.

 Twice we've had dinner with Tai & Isako on a Friday night after soccer... the kids really enjoy each other and she and I surprisingly laugh so much. It's fun having friends who can share the daily things like a kid-crazy meal at the end of the week.

 Another selfie?!?!

 Honestly, these kids love reading so much that sometimes they just can't put their books down!

 After a flurry of activity with people over the weekend, on Monday I needed to get out in the fresh air to enjoy some cycling by myself! It was exactly what I needed - almost two hours on the bike!!! Gosh - how am I going to get this much time alone during the summer? Uggg it'll have to be early in the morning or late at night... hmmmmm.... Saturday while Tony's doing daddy time?!?!

Early Tuesday morning December 16th we did an airport drop-off for our lovely friends Amanda & Olivia... Originally intending to just go back home, I changed tact when I realised what an absolutely stunner of a day it was... so we picked up a little Burger King breakfast and headed to the tree swing for a PJ picnic!

Helena is hilarious - she strapped in her boogie board for the school's beach day! And I'm even funnier because I left it there while I did errands and helped out with the "Big Hearts at Christmas" packaging...

So this was the big delivery day! We as a church had compiled over 300 boxes of Christmas goodness to give away. I was honoured to be able to help pack a few of the boxes for the Strathmore community where we host breakfast club on Thursdays. I love how Arise does all things well...

Look how tidy and lovely these boxes are. So people dropped into the community centre or school to collect a box plus two bags - one full of veges and one with a frozen chicken! All you need for a lovely Christmas meal!