Winter, Winter, Winter

So far this winter we have not had much snow. It has snowed a couple of times but has not been cold enough for it to stay on the ground. We did have some flurries the other day and Anna-Marie, anxious to try out her birthday present (a camera), bribed Matthew, with the promise of a packet of gum, to come out and let her take some photos of him. These are a few of them.

A Day on a Farm

A couple of weeks ago we spent the afternoon at our friends farm. The Lawsons have been very kind to us, allowing us to come out and cut up some of the fallen trees on their farm for firewood. It was great to get away from the city and to enjoy their fellowship. This is their wonderful farmhouse.

In the winter here the native trees are completely bear and the sun does not rise very high in the sky. Anna-Marie took this neat photo, actually these are all Anna-Marie's photos.

Even though it was cold it was nice going for a walk around the farm.

An 18th Century grave site that is on the farm.

The old fence goes right through the tree which must have grown over it through the years.

Hunting, American style. There are so many deer that people set up these seats in trees where deer often walk past. They just sit and wait.

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