Sunday, December 27, 2015

A wonderful week

We have had a very busy first week of holiday wig a trip to Dover castle, several trips to Canterbury looking at shops and even braved the Boxing Day sales yesterday. Stephanie and I took the children to London, not to see the queen but to see the Tower of London. It was a fun day and think the children enjoyed it immensely.
Stephanie and I went to the choral service at the cathedral once agin which was lovely and very majestic with awe inspiring singing. Christmas Day was filled with excitement as the children recieved tablets from their parents so have been much source of amusement since. Callum assures us that we can still come to visit even though he doesn't need the iPad now to play on.
We have walked around Luke's school which is only about 15 minutes away so that is really good for him. Callum has another 18 months at chartham and then he will be going to school in town as well. 
Breakfast each day is entertaining as we have three squirrels in the garden to watch. Today it was three squirrels, two crows, two magpies and a pigeon, so almost a menagerie flying around. The squirrels are most entertaining though.
Off on another family day out today destination unknown at the moment. 

Wednesday, December 2, 2015

On the road

Well life is travelling at a fast pace and now waiting in the koru lounge for departure on our adventure. Another 24 hours and Stephanie and I will be in the wintery streets of Canterbury nearly.  I have been trying to finish various stitched christmas gifts this week and so far have completed Mum's, Marilyn's (this was its own story as it started with cutting the embroidery the wrong size), Toni's and Gemma's birthday present. This did not take too long and I managed to even get it to her before her departure. 
Every night it seems for the past three weeks have been booked with at least one event and sometimes even two!
Monday night was the last official night class and we went for a class outing to mum's to see all her Christmas trees. The house looked lovely and I was most impressed with all the decorations and the memories. This year I have up the wire tree only and will put on the couple of new ones. Not a lot of creativity has been done with new balls as only one design has been crafted and no pattern written at all.
The day started fairly well with a good wake up and got the washing on. Just as I was going to hang it out thought it looked like rain so put it in dryer. Had four hours at school and everyone took a little longer than it should but all our excess weetbix and milk has been donated. Lunch was entertaining with Layla and Quinn. Picked up at 4 ish by terry and mum and literally dropped at airport. Relaxed in lounge at New Plymouth then boarded and didn't depart. Everyone off, engines on and off, bags off, engines on, engines off, bags on and we reboarded. Finally after a long while we started to taxi and it was a nervous wait. Once off the ground my thought was that if we had to make a crash landing it would be in Auckland so I would be a step closer to international. 
Finally made it to the lounge where a welcome drink was waiting - see adventures of Diane and Stephanie's blog for photos and all updates over the next month. 

Merry Christmas  to all and have a safe, enjoyable new year.