Happy Birthday to Rob!

Another year older... Rob is now 35! A normal working day - although Emma and I did go in and visit him at work. Tried to cook a favourite for Rob for dinner - steak and soy potatoes were a hit! Chocolate cheesecake not quite as great as it sounded... Oh well we had fun celebrating Daddy's special day. We are also planning a possible trip to Raglan at some stage to celebrate some more - we might even give Emma her first camping/tent experience.

Christmas Day

Christmas day started at about 8.30 when we heard the usual pitter patter of feet heading towards our bedroom... Emma was very excitied to see all her presents - especially her little bike which was too big and difficult to wrap. She spent ages opening each present saying 'rip rip,' as she did - and she spent ages looking at each thing before moving onto the next present! We then had yummy pancakes for breakfast! And enjoyed some family time together.

Mum came over mid-morning and had a simple lunch with us. Then it was time for the traditional Christmas snooze.... Energy revived it was time to head over to Skip & Janelle's for more presents and food (delicious turkey and lamb on the BBQ - yum!) Dale & Nell travelled up from Taupo so it was great catching up with them. Emma lasted beautifully through out the day I thought she would need to go down at Janelle & Skip's but at 10.15 she was still going strong! We even managed to check out the Franklin Road lights on the way home (a street famous for it's houses covered in Christmas lights.) All in all we had a fantastic Christmas and the build up this year was amazing - I actually feel sad that it's over... Oh well roll on Christmas 2008!!

Playgroup Christmas Party

And the best Christmas party so far was the final playgroup of the year. There was a wonderful music session conducted by two very holy angels! Lots of incredibly delicious party food. One of the highlights for Emma was a fire engine coming with real fire fighters. Now the reason this was a highlight is because Emma has the DVD 'Elmo goes to the firehouse' - so today when she saw the fire engine the first thing she said was Elmo! Elmo is currently her latest obsession! Someone she's not to sure about is Santa. Today she managed to go up to him because he was holding out a present for her! Otherwise with all the shopping trips we've made she is happy to wave at Santa and say "Bye bye'" but if he talks to her she becomes very very shy!! Maybe next year we'll get Emma in the photo with Santa....

Christmas @ the Zoo

This is a bit different from the things some of you will be doing in the UK! Going to a special Christmas celebration at the zoo - complete with a very summery pacific Santa (Samoan and wearing a lavalava). We had a lovely picnic with the rest of Auckland and with a very cheeky Pukeko who wanted to try my not very tasty quiche! Emma had her first experience on a bouncy castle which lasted 30 seconds or so! As well as Christmas carols and entertainment. And then of course we had to visit the animals while we were there - the monkeys were especially entertaining tonight and the hippo (who Emma has named Harry) always puts on a good show tonight showing us his teeth! When we asked what she liked best she stated it was the elves & mice (people dressed up as...) We've recently purchased a Friends of the Zoo pass (thanks to UK birthday money) so we have lots of Summer zoo trips planned. Last week we went with Jo, Alex and Hamish - so thats when the gorgeous photo of Em and Alex having a cuddle was taken!

Christmas Angel!

Last week we went to Mainly Music for the first time with Jo, Alex & Hamish - Emma had a great time. Although there's one song that she cries in every time - it's a song we do at playgroup too not sure what the association is with it or whether she just doesn't like it! Anyway we went along again today for the last one of the year which was a Christmas Party. Here's our wee angel dressed as an angel. My cousin Lianne makes these gorgeous smocked dresses and I don't get the chance to dress Emma in them too often - so dressing as an angel was the perfect excuse...

Christmas in Emma's Room...

I once watched Dr Phils wife suggest that it's a good idea to decorate a child's room for the holidays as it helps them to understand what the holiday is about... I thought that sounded great and I've tried to do this for Emma. And then my friend Gillian let me know that the Warehouse had bargain fake small trees and she was getting one for each of her kids - and I thought Super! This morning we started the decoration process - some of the decorations Emma has made (and then she pulled some to bits this morning too...) But we had lots of fun with Christmas Carols on in the background. Here's some photos before the tree gets pulled to bits...(All part of the fun!)

I'm also loving some Christmas ideas from other peoples' blogs this year. This is one that I got from bestlife - it's an advent calendar.... Which is a row of numbered socks each with a few hidden stickers inside. Bring on Christmas!!

Sticker Girl!

Thought I should share this one! Whenever Emma gets a sticker she puts it on her cheek - so when she got hold of Daddy's sticky labels they ended up all over her face. Also Emma is now sleeping in the cot without a side - so far there's only been one tumble out... It makes stealing kisses when she's sleeping a lot easier!