Christmas Day

This year we had a quiet morning opening presents and then had some people over for Christmas lunch. We shared it with another international student from Ethiopia, Ezekiel and a family who moved here a few weeks ago that Mark met while life guarding. It was nice to get together with others. We also talked to family on Skype which is always good.

One of the favourite gifts of the morning was the Star War figures from Uncle Chris and Aunty Leanne.

Ping pong for little children. We have a table in our basement. Mark and the three older children are all getting quite good at it.

Some traditional New Zealand desserts, trifle and pavlova.

We gave the kids a gingerbread house kit on Christmas Eve. It was fun watching them put it together.

It's Been a Long Time

I'm sorry that it has been so long. One of the reasons is a recurrence of my back problems and the inability to sit for very long. This caused a week or so of having to lay down a lot. I will try to catch up on some of the happenings in one little blog.

Back at the beginning of November Rachel ran in the Cross Country State Meet in Lexington, KY. It was a great day, beautiful weather but unfortunately we only took videos that are too large to upload. Rachel did really well and came 70th out of 350 girls. Her tally at the end of the season is one trophy and 4 medals.

Following this we visited Frankfort with some friends. Frankfort is the capital of Kentucky so we went to the capitol building and had a picnic. Even though it was closed Mark managed to get us a short tour.(Picture above)

Fall was beautiful although a lot of leaves were lost early in Hurricane Ike. We had some unusually warm weather in the fall which was very nice.

Fall is also the time for Thanksgiving. I will blog about that later.

It is now winter and we have already had a couple of falls of snow but nothing that stays on the ground. We are hoping for our first white Christmas since being here.

All Blacks Night

Last Saturday night we had fun decorating the house for an All Blacks night. Mum and Dad had sent us the last Australian/New Zealand game on DVD so we had the priveledge of watching it in our own home. We invited about 20 friends over and had a great night.

The gathering begins.

Mark was excited all week about watching the game.

A bit of rugby was played before the DVD started.

Even Spurgeon the cat dressed up.

Marshmellow Wars

Several months ago on one of their afternoons together the boys made these marshmallow guns. They actually work really well and we have had a lot of fun with them. Marshmallows are very cheap here. you can get a big bag of little ones for $1. Yesterday they decided to try using them in a war with Star Wars figures. It was a bit of a laugh.

Some Videos of Matthew for Grandma

Boat Trip

On Sunday afternoon we were taken out on the river by friends Bill and Carol Russ. They have a lovely boat and it was a beautiful day for it, still nice and warm. Joel was the only one keen enough to have a swim but we all enjoyed ourselves.

Fall Farmal

Last Friday night we all had to dress up for a Fall Festival put on by Dorothy Sayers Classical School where the girls go. It was a really neat night of games and fun. Anna-Marie and I even had a go at line dancing but if I put that video on she will not be very happy about it.

Matthew enjoying himself.

Anna-Marie experimenting with the camera