Four fabulously fun days of festive adventure

For the first time ever the Hill whanau had a slow-paced, relaxing Christmas Day. No stress whatsoever or rushing around like mad people - you should try it one year, it's great! Although, we did miss the Hill/Miller family celebrations too :(

On the day, the kids didn't wake up til 9:30am (there goes the plan of going to the 9am Christmas service - oops!) so we let them open their Santa stockings while we waited for Justus & Susan to come back from church. Both kids were very happy to sit there patiently and play with their stuff while they waited. It was a bit weird, but nice to not have everything unwrapped in 5 mins of mayhem.

Once Justus & Susan got home we got into the family & friends presents. Keelia even took a break from opening presents to skim read a set of books she got given. We were told in no uncertain terms that she wasn't going to open any more presents til she had read her Pearlie books all by herself! Fine by us.

Nathy was a bit of a pro opening his presents carefully and giving big "wow" and "looka" noises when he saw what was inside. His 12 new little trucks (from various givers) have taken pride of place in his daily play routine, along with his 9 new books on vehicles of all sorts. I am still amazed at how excited he gets when he spots a truck on the road let alone the 'pleasure overload' he has when he sits down to read one of his truck books!

Keelia was very happy with her new books, toys and pretty clothes, but her shiny new red & pink bike definitely stole the show for her. Those 3 hours it took Glen to put together was definitely worth it.

The whole present opening took us til 12:30pm before we finally figured we'd missed out on breakfast so headed straight for the left over ham we'd cooked for our lovely Christmas Eve dinner at a friends house the night before.

At some point in the afternoon I whip up some desserts then we head off to another friends house for a dinner with them and our other kiwi friends. Lamb & Pavlova was on the menu, well to start with, they didn't stay there very long. I actually forced Justus to give me the last lamb cutlet that I then had to share with Glen!

Keelia sat on the couch and listened to our host/friend Jo tell her the real Christmas story with the help of a great little box set Rachel Jeffery gave me years ago - thanks Rachel!

Christmas Day spilled over into the two following days which we used to head outside and enjoy the sunshine. The first day we enjoyed a yummy picnic & pioneering bike ride at one of our local parks and then on the second day visited a Strawberry Farm and a picture perfect beach. I couldn't have asked for a nicer way to spend 4 days with our little family - oh alright - the only thing I would have asked for is all my NZ family & friends to be there too!!

Check out our Christmas album