More visitors :-) and January so far..........

We celebrated New Year's Eve at Louise and Brent's house with a barbeque and a lovely warm evening. A couple of days later Matt's Uncle Michael, Jeanette, Elizabeth and Catherine arrived in Christchurch as part of their NZ holiday. We met them at their swish hotel in the pouring rain (- our visitors must surely bring this with them as we had had been basking in sunshine the previous day!) We took the tram around the city centre and made a dash for the Art's Centre coffee shop as the hail pounded down. Matt had Ben tucked under his arm like a rugby ball and we all sprinted for shelter. The boys loved watching the flooding!
The next day was much more clement and we all took the cable car ride up the Port Hills for stunning views of the harbour and the city. Then we drove the short hop to Governor's Bay and had a wander down to the shore. By this time it was warming up nicely and we headed to the pub for lunch - as you do!
All too soon it was time for Matt to take them to the airport. The next morning Joe announced that he was really going to miss Uncle Michael and could they come and stay again..... yes please! We hope you had a lovely holiday and the trip back wasn't too awful.

January has been really busy. The boys have met up with their friends a lot..... we have had play dates at home and away, picnics in various parks, a trip to the Air Force Museum, fun at the beach, barbeques and still there is more to come.

Of course the highlight to date has been Matt's big birthday! It fell on the Monday so we had a party an the previous Saturday. The lucky boy has had more cards and gifts than in many years (must be a significant birthday or something?) including a table football/foosball game, DVDs, CDs, Whisky and Super soaker water guns X 3 ( a selfless gift from his sons).

We are off on our mini South Island adventure next week. We are all really looking forward to it - updates when we get back!

Love to all! Best Wishes for a fabulous 2009!