First week of hols

Last school day on Monday, happily spent at Caroline Bay with a variety of activities around the bay and beach.  I have poached Mrs Rentoul's pics off FB because I honestly couldn't have been bothered lugging my camera around all day...apart from which, I was running around with the rest of them as a parent helper at one point.

So, the summer holidays have started.  The first week was a 'phew it's great to be at home finally and catch up on stuff and oh dear we'd better buy some Christmas presents' sort of week. While Aaron spent the day at a friend's house, Caleb came with me to Patiti Point to collect driftwood, stones and sand, for the assembly of our very first Christmas Cross.  Nick and I have never done the Christmas tree thing (something problematic with the whole paganism symbol thing but I won't get into that here).  Instead, we've put up a more relevant symbol and reminder of the true meaning and beauty of Christmas.

Here's how the kitchen is looking now, with some cheerful colour:

And I to-do listed the reorganizing of the bathroom cupboard, so it went from this...

...to this.  Much better.

On Thursday night Nick and I delivered the boys into the keeping of Andreas, Danielle and Betta for a night, so that we could enjoy a child-free date (we were shouted a voucher for Fusion thanks to an anonymous friend...thank you, thank you if you're reading this!)  Had a fabulous meal and enormously enjoyed not telling anyone to eat faster, chew with their mouths closed, or eat over their plates.  After dinner and a quick pop-in at the Warehouse, we landed at the RSA for our final social dance of the year.  Liz and I have enjoyed getting 'dressed up' for the occasions, although we seem to have confused the other swing dancers for whom dressing up has an entirely different meaning - where we simply meant putting on a dress, they were wondering about themes!

On Friday morning our newly visa'd passports arrived by courier. We hadn't been able to check on the updated status of our applications on-line so had no idea they'd already been approved.  There had been a bit of a hitch along the way with immigration needing further evidence of one thing which required a special church members' meeting and some documentation to be formalized and gathered.  This all happened with much urgency as they gave us a strict deadline.  Thanks to a positive vote and some fast action we were able to provide what they needed, and so without further ado, and a day short of three weeks since the date of posting our applications, everything was done.  Praise the Lord for His Hand in the matter and phew!  It's done!

Friday night the weather had turned a bit dull and we were happy to do a family DVD and pizza night; Saturday was a reasonably sunny day again and we were eager to get the new BBQ dirty.  Invited the Phillipses around and had a great evening of eating, playing a few rounds of Dutch Blitz and writing cat and dog simultaneously with left and right hands. 

Sunday was, despite the weather, mostly spent quietly at home. It was actually good to not be doing anything particular after church! After the evening service we went along to the Theater Royal for the annual Rotary Christmas Carols event - it's always a bit of a mixed feeling when it comes to joining in with non-Christians in singing about the birth of our Saviour, but sometimes things are simply what you make of them.