Christmas 2009

Greetings!

We have had a fantastic year in 2009, culminating in a beautiful Christmas season. We have enjoyed school, kindy, work, our ward and neighbourhood. New Zealand is full of lovely people and scenery. A nice place to visit, even nicer to live here. Sometimes we feel like our lives are overflowing with good things and people. We are blessed to celebrate the birth of the baby Jesus all those years ago. His birth ushered in so many wonderful blessings and opportunities for so many, including our little family. We feel close to our family here and overseas. Thank-you for your love, kindness and examples. Yes Charlie, team is everything.

With love,
Rich, Laura, Charlie, Grace, Jane, Josie and Ted

Little ladies

NZ Breakers vs Cairns Taipans

Rich and Charlie went to see the Breakers smash the Taipans. Yay!

Dutch Dinner

We went out to dinner at a Dutch restaurant in Greenhithe - it was lovely, and had a great outdoor space for the kids to play. Everyone loved the milkshakes.

Ted

Samoa

Rich is in Apia for a few days. He was in Pago Pago yesterday and will go to Tonga before coming home on Saturday.

Australian Holiday

Three girls and a cannon

Happy Birthday, Gracie!

Ferry Ride

Disaffected European popstar (aka Charlie) and entourage took a ferry ride from Devonport to Auckland to eat chocolate sundaes.

Make it Better

Charlie joined with some of his school friends to do a dance routine for the assembly. The song was "Men in Black" and the message was MIB: Make It Better. Well done Charlie.

Music Award

Charlie was hnored by the music education centre for having a great attitude and practicing hard.

Pah as a little boy

Pah's cousin Joan sent this picture to Joey recently. Pah is in the picture, with a hat, sitting on his Aunt Beat's lap. He was about three or four. The photo was taken at Wellington Point in Brisbane.

What matters most

This is a lovely little video about what matters most to each of us.

Torah Bright

Rich met Torah Bright eight years ago in Sydney when she was 14 years old. Her older sister, Rowena, was gearing up to compete at the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City. They are both lovely young women originally from Cooma. Torah is a great example of someone passionate about her career but also grounded by her faith and family relationships. The Daily Telegraph did a nice story on her today.

Photo courtesy of the Daily Telegraph.

Finding Hope

This year has been a year where we as a family have been exposed to the reality of mortality, in our own family and among our friends. Rich found this video about one man's story after surviving 9-11. It is a touching account about the possibility of finding hope after tragedy.

Happy Birthday, Charlie!

Charlie is 9! Hard to believe my baby is dressing up as Brandon Flowers for GPK day. GPK stands for Growing Positive Kiwis. It's a program they have at school where the kids exhibit positive behaviour and are rewarded with celebration days once in a while. Charlie was delighted that his birthday coincided with both the end of term and GPK day. The theme was 'red carpet' and the kids had to go as a rock star or movie star. Charlie's favourite song is Spaceman by the Killers, whose lead singer enjoys wearing jackets with feathers sprouting from the shoulders. Gracie went as Mary Ingalls from Little House on the Prairie. I suggested that she go as Laura, but she was very firm that she should be Mary, as Mary gets to wear her hair out.

Anyway, after a great day at school, we went out to celebrate the birthday at Burger King, and then came home for the alien cake. This was an easy one to make - it turned out very different to what I had planned - the four arms and wings I had planned were a bit too hard and had to be ditched, but no-one even noticed.

Josephine

My name is not Josie...it's Josie-aphine!

Jane is Four!!!

Hooray! Our three-year-old is now four! We love our Jane and hope she enjoyed her day today. Thanks for being such a sweetie Jane. We love you!

The Simpsons

Our lovely friends from Brisbane, the Simpsons, came to see us last Tuesday evening. We had not seen them for almost four years. They are here for a week or so, touring around seeing the sights. The kids hit it off and the grown-ups reminisced and caught up on what's hot in our respective households. Basketball is in, and so is heavily-guitar-oriented music. Friends like these make life nicer.

This is a lovely little video about a great father.

Four

Bath Art

A long time aficionado of paint, crayons, glue and modelling clay, Gracie has recently branched out into other methods of expressing her inner artiste.

Tunnels

On the Queen's birthday 2009 (Queen's birthday in New Zealand is called 'the Quin's birthday) we went spelunking at North Head, Devonport. We rugged up, got our torches and set out to explore the tunnels under the reserve, built to store artillery and ammunition at various times in history when invasion was not very imminent at all.Don't tell Mickey, but Charlie thought it was on a par with Disneyland.

A gorgeous day at North Head, Devonport

Netball

Last week Gracie was invited to be in the Year 1 netball team, as they needed an extra player. She played her first game on Saturday, and did a great job. Netball is not a game ideal for five year olds! The no stepping rule, the 3 feet rule, the complicated rules about where each player can and can't go on the court...pretty tricky, when you think about it. The predominant feeling amongst all the players was confusion, and amongst the parents, amusement. Gracie caught on pretty quickly though, and figured out that if you jump up and down a lot with your hands in the air it looks very much as though you know what you're doing.

One Sunday afternoon I took a nap and woke up very late, thinking (in some alarm) that the kids had been extraordinarily quiet and good at entertaining themselves. I went downstairs to find that a couple of ducks had waddled up to our front window. A very substantial part of a loaf of bread was missing and the kids were thrilled with their initiative in giving these ducks some afternoon tea. I was worried that ducks would be falling out of the sky their stomachs bloated with inordinate amounts of bread. However, it seems they survived that first feast, and since then occasionally drop by for some more crusts, to everyone's great delight. We've also had a hedgehog snuffling around out there.

Auckland Museum

We enjoyed the Maori cultural performance at the Auckland Museum very much. We learned quite a bit about Maoritanga. That's Grandma standing beside the tree.