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Well here we are already, the first post of 2021.  I'm going to wind back to Christmas Day and go from there.

The kids woke up super early on Christmas Day, as expected.  It was about 6am I think I heard all the banging of jumping off the bunk beds at the Bach, giggling and excitement.  I managed to get out to the lounge just as they were looking at what Santa had left and were about to start tearing everything open.  I stopped them and they waited, pretty patiently for everyone else to get up.

Once we all awake, presents were opened and ooohs and ahhhss were exclaimed.

Presents:

Beth Got:

• Unicorn Vet set
• A collar for Charlie
• Jellybean Bamboozled
• Holy a small puppy
• String to play games with
• Hairties
• Chocolate Bath Bomb
• Socks with her face on them (and Rainbows)

Theo Got:

• Helicopter Transpormer
• Bakugan Battle Area and carrying case.
• Socks with his face on them (and bananas)
• New Razor scooter

Sarah Got:

• Elton John Jewel Box (It's a lot more naff than I thought it would be sadly)
• A Plant
• Japanese Coal Grill
• A plant propagation pod

I Got:

• Powderfinger T-Shits and a Chats T-Shirt
• Bluetooth Earmuffs so I can listen to music while I do jobs

Christmas breakfast was made, Bacon and Eggs and Champagne with Strawberries in etc.  Then we just lazed about, people playing with their Christmas presents while Christmas lunch was cooked.  We ate about 2pm and then everyone seemed to disappear for a snooze about 3pm.

About 5pm Theo came and woke me up and said we were going fish on the boat!  So off we went, it was Theo, Mary, Joseph, Adrian and myself.  We launched and zoomed over to the other side of the lake.  We dropped some lines and waited, about 5 minutes in Theo pulled up a lovely big Trout.  We kept fishing and Mary pulled up a Trout too but it was a little bit too small so we threw it back in.  After another hour of trying and trying and not even having another nibble, we called it a night and zoomed back home.  Theo couldn't wait to tell everyone about how he caught a fish and how great it was but he had zero interest in touching it, or cleaning it, or having anything to do with it once it had been caught.  Still, his first fish ever, he was pretty happy and proud and good on him.

Next morning they went out to try fishing again, but no luck.  We had another relaxing day, doing some more water sports on the lake, the kids having a go on the biscuit and Joseph having a kneeboard.  Or maybe that was on Christmas day, I can't remember what happened when.  Regardless, we had a great time at the Bach over the next few days until it was time to go.  We played The Chase (Peter's Christmas present), had lots of goes in the Spa, cooked a lot of pizza on the pizza oven, I went for a few runs, the kids played lots of games and Beth played with her Unicorn.  We did some swimming in the lake etc.

Finally it was time to leave, always a sad time and of course Beth was in tears. A few times during the holiday she'd told us she didn't enjoy the holiday, but when it was time to go she was in tears about having to leave.  She's growing at the moment so she keeps bumping into things, tripping over etc.  She banged her head a few times, so I think that's why she said she wasn't enjoying the holiday.

Once we were all packed up, we headed home.  We stopped in Taupo at the Glass Blowing place and had a nice little lunch and then a walk through their sculpture garden.

Once back home, we haven't really done a real lot because the weather's been a bit stink.  Biscuit was glad to see us again, he got a great report from the Kennel again, said he was a lovely dog who played well with everyone.  The kids have been playing games inside, makings things, enjoying Minecraft on their iPads, playing outside with the seed pods off one of the trees they love to call Fluffies.

We didn't do anything for NYE, the most exciting thing was cooking some dinner on the little Japanese Oven I got Sarah for Christmas.  It's coal fired and it makes the most amazing tasting food.

Friday New Years Day we went to Ocean Beach and the kids had a great time playing in the water there.  We took all the stuffs, our Eski, the Beach Shelter we bought last year etc.  We had the whole setup, it was great.  We stayed for 3-4 hours before heading home with two extremely exhausted kids.  They were almost asleep in the car on the way back they were so tired!  I'm glad we got a nice day at the beach though because the weather packs it in again, it's supposed to back it in today (2nd) but it hasn't so far.  In fact I went for a run at 8:45 and according to my Garmin temperature probe it was 28c towards the end of the run.  So instead of the 10km I was going to do I called it quits at 5km and walked the rest of the way home, I was too sweaty and chafing.

Well that's enough for today!  I'm enjoying have time off and spending it with Sarah and the grizzlers.  And ol' Biscuit of course, he's a good dog.  I left the gate open the other night, like I often do, but this time Biscuit decided to go roaming!  One of the neighbours bought him home, said he saw him roaming the street and called out.  Biscuit thankfully heard his name and ran over to the neighbour, so I'm glad he's trusting of people he doesn't know well.

Tim