Mummy, Daddy, wake up ... it's Christmas and Santa has been!

These were the words we awoke to at 6.10am this morning. Joshua literally ran into our bedroom, dragging his Santa sack behind him before leaping into our bed to start burying his head in the sack and dragging out all the little gifts from Santa. All I can say is that Josh must have been on his 'good boy' list because Santa has certainly listened to what Joshua had asked for and ... delivered ! We had one very excited boy in the house.

After that, Grandma arrived shortly after 8am and in-between fresh fruit salad and warm lemon & blueberry muffins fresh out of the oven, we all sat around the tree and opened up our presents. It was a paper frenzy and we all were very spoilt.

Grandma 'Santa' grooving to the musical hat !

Mummy 'almost' modelling a new t-shirt

Reading Daddy his Christmas Card ... when putting this card together I asked Josh to think of all the things he loved about his Dad and to simply write them down. This is what he wrote ... "when Daddy is wiggling his bum to hit the ball at golf; I love you playing with me; Your smile; Bouncing on the trampoline; Winning medals for me to keep; Going to the park" ... simple things but oh so meaningful.

Ooooh, Mummy gets a Christmas kiss

Conal and his daughter and 2 sons (Fionn & Ciaran) arrived mid-morning for round two of Christmas breakfast and the children ran 'wild' with Santa excitement as they exchanged presents and played together.

Fionn & Ciaren loved their giant sized tennis-come-soccer balls !

A quick clean-up before dropping Grandma home to then head up the coast to join Karen and her whanau for an afternoon in the sun of swimming and playing in the sun. I might add here that we were blessed with a gorgeous day of 24 degrees and a blue cloudless sky - thank you Wellington! Karen and her family had also laid a Hangi which is a traditional NZ Maori method of cooking food using heated rocks buried in the ground.

We would love to have stayed longer but we then went to see Uncle Apples, Margaret & Sarah and thoroughly enjoyed a leisurely drink under the umbrella in their lovely garden.


Uncle Apples, Aunty Margaret & Sarah - opening a remote helicopter (I am not sure whether the 'big' boy or the 'little' boy was more excited with this gift!)

Home to then panic a little because it was time to cook our own traditional Christmas dinner for 7 - my Mum joined us along with Johnny & Maritess and Paul Grimwood, another very dear friend.

Needless to say, we were all late to bed tonight .... Joshua certainly went to sleep with a big smile on his face. Mummy and Daddy reflected together on the day ... and felt very lucky and blessed to still have 'Grandma' with us to share Christmas and also all the friends we were able to share a little slice of the festivities with today, whether in person or by phone, email or text. However, we also feel very 'distant' from our family in the UK and Canada and although it is always lovely to speak to them all on the telephone, we do feel the distance and in the perfect world, it would be wonderful for us all to be together ... maybe another year.

However, we have so much to be thankful for, so thank you Santa and thank you everyone who helped make our Christmas day a very warm and a most special and happy one.