Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

First of all I would like to wish you all a very Happy Christmas, with this the last posting of the year. It has actually been a pretty quiet week, apart from the Christmas preparations. Nicky has been busy at work as usual, and Claire has only done a couple of extra shifts at Whitcoulls. I spent the majority of Wednesday, Thursday and Friday shopping and cooking in preparation for yesterday. We were hosting the family Christmas do this year, so Claire and I prepared Christmas pud, mince and apple pies, lemonade and stuffed mushrooms. Nicky and I were up early to do rice salad and prepare the steak, lamb, chicken, salmon and vegetables for the BBQ. Andrew was the first to arrive, somewhere between 9 and 10, I can't remember exactly when. We opened presents with Claire and Ryan and then Claire went off into town to collect Mike Cox, Josh and Tom. The family started arriving around 12.30 so I lit the BBQ and with assistance from Paul and Andrew cooked all the meats. We had a fantasti

Following all the excitement of the birthday's, it has been a quieter week. Since Claire arrived 22 years ago we haven't put any Christmas decorations up before the 12th of December, and for the past few years we have been doing them on Christmas Eve (my preference). But, having bought a real tree last week which was taking up space in the garage, Claire and I broke with tradition and put it up on Monday. It took us quite a while due to having to move the hi-fi and a coffee table, and to get the lights working, but we got there in the end. It does smell nice, and it does make it feel more like Christmas. On Wednesday evening I picked Nicky up from work, armed with a berry pavlova, and we drove up the road to one of her colleagues homes for her work Christmas doo. We had a very pleasant evening with shared food, good company, and warm, dry weather. Other than that, Nicky has had a busy week at work as the schools start to close for the summer holidays. Claire has done some long

… and I have realised that I have been very remiss. I haven't taken any photos of the birthday events this weekend at all, so you will have to use your imaginations. Yesterday, being Saturday the 11th, was Claire's birthday. She was at work as annual leave is not allowed at Whitcoulls during December. She had been scheduled to finish an hour later than usual but managed to get it changed back to her usual finish time. So Ryan picked her up and brought her home while Nicky and I organised dinner (linguini with roast vegetable sauce served with ciabatta and focaccia (made by Ryan) and salsa dip, followed Kentucky Derby Pie and ice cream) and wine. Nicky and I had dropped Claire off at work in the morning and then gone straight onto a Housing NZ course in Henderson which Nicky had booked us on some time ago. We were not sure what to expect; all we knew was that the course was to help people buy their first home. It tuned out to be very good, and very informative. The process of bu

It has been a quiet week, apart from summer starting on Wednesday of course. It is the Kiwi view that the first of December is when summer starts, but the weather never seems to be at this briefing. This year has been no exception with cloudy starts to the day which have lasted all day on 2 or 3 occasions. However, on Saturday I heard my first cicada of the season which is a very good sign. I have had a couple of Mac jobs, Claire has done quite a few extra days at Whitcoulls, and Nicky has been as busy as ever. On Thursday Claire and I had a wonderful Christmas shopping trip to spend a gift voucher which the Cocker's had sent us for a specialist food store in Birkenhead. We had a great time choosing lots of goodies. Yesterday Nicky went off fabric shopping with a lady called Jo who has asked Nicky to make a quillow for her daughter. In the afternoon we went to a BBQ organised by the church volunteer group which Nicky has joined. We assumed it would just be food and socialising, but