Christmas letter 2011 - Part One

Not a lot of opportunity for quiet reflection but life is full of fun, noise and general chaos (think herding sheep through a narrow gate). Here are a few highlights.


Alexa goes to school, Camryn loses her finger tip & Isobel turns 4.
Our first major milestone was Alexa’s 5th birthday and her beginning school. She was definitely ready and has fitted in well earning many certificates – including one for leadership! She has had a busy year also doing music, increasing her biking skills, growing in confidence with swimming and starting gymnastics, which has improved her strength.
She is a fit and strong girl – much like all our kids. And like all of them sits comfortably at the 50th percentile for height! No tall poppies here. She is incredibly good with Camryn and patient with an aggressive and annoying Isobel who vies for attention.
Camryn creates chaos! She is such a fun kid to watch and very confident with strangers opting in many cases to go for the stranger than mum (suits me!). She gave us all a scare when she put her pinky into the corner of a slowly shutting door and got the tip cut cleanly off. She was very brave (is this possible for under 2??) and after the initial bought of screaming was relatively calm throughout reattaching (just stick the tip on the top) and subsequent redressings. We were lucky to seek the counsel of a hand specialist early on who advised to disturb as little as possible and we were amazed to see the tip reattach so well we can’t really see the join!
Isobel has grown up a lot in the last 12 months. She started Kindergarten and has developed her own group of friends. She has excelled at swimming and this has become a special time for her and I to spend together without the others. She took to biking with out training wheels very quickly, having seen Alexa do it. She considers herself to be Alexa’s physical equal so attempts most of what she tries. She is very strong willed – her favourite word “never” as a response to a request to do something. She alternates between being the boisterous energetic positive girl to being the tormentor of her sisters (and parents).

Holiday in Wanaka/David’s marathon
Our first holiday was in Wanaka, a destination chosen due to David signing up for an off road & ultra hilly marathon – he does nothing by halves that boy! He ran with a group of friends calling themselves the old men’s shuffling club (yeah right!). Despite neither training nor planning on running together they ended up pulling each other along through out the race and finishing together just over 5 hours. Immediately following this there was strong agreement not to ever do this again, but I have recently heard them all expressing a desire to run the Great Barrier marathon next year! Apparently this may be our next vacation destination!



David gets a short break to fish
David has had ups and downs with work but in the main my memory has been of him working very hard, very late and being very worn out. He has had the odd occasion to have a break away from work and family and this was the result. It made a fabulous trout pate.