Monday, February 14, 2011

New Zealand Trip-Day 10

Day 10: Merry Kiwi Christmas!! Today was packed with fun-filled Christmas celebrations. We started the day with Christmas brunch back at Dave & Renata's house then we headed over to Mark's house to have Christmas lunch with his family.

The Wallace Christmas tree....
Precious Kiwi couple :)
I obviously LOVED my Santa head-gear that Dave gave me :)
Before we left Dave & Renata's we skyped with the girls back home at Gigi and HayHay's house. It was precious and sad :(....they kept trying to "get" through the screen to touch us and they kept kissing the screen....geeeeeez....and yea, we got just a little emotional, as you can imagine. I'm just thankful that they are still young enough that they won't remember us being gone on Christmas. Thank the Lord for modern technology that allowed us to see/talk to them. We obviously had a blast on our trip, but it was tough being away from them for so long. It snowed like crazy in GA and HayHay sent us pics of the girls playing in the snow and making snow angels. That was there first time that they ever saw snow :) Thankfully HayHay is a pro at taking tons of pics to document everything....thanks HayHay :)
Katie needed an extra amount of hugs today as well....she skyped with her hubby and was just a TINY bit sad about missing their first Christmas together, being apart on her birthday (Dec 27th), etc. etc. She had an hour or so of "ugly" crying and then she was able to enjoy the rest of her trip :)

Mark's two Nana's and his Uncle. They were all so sweet and SO hilarious!
Shane in his Christmas decor'.....
Champaign for toasting....
Lunch....yum, yum, yum....
The crowns :)
Will and Rachel arrived on Christmas Eve. Rachel was on our team in 2002 that spend the summer in NZ when we first met Georgie and Mark. She was Georgie's matron of honor. And yes, Will's mustache is real :)

Fabulous desserts....
After lunch Nana (Santa) gave out gifts to Mark, Georgie and all the Americans. She was HILARIOUS....I mean, look at this face!!
After a few hours of celebrating with the Wallace's, we headed over to have Christmas dinner with Georgie's mom and stepdad, Barry, and his family.
From their backyard you could see One Tree Hill. It's significant in the history of Auckland. If you want to know why you can google it b/c I cannot remember...I know, shocking :)
Barry and Robin (Georgie's mom)
Georgie's brother, Josh and Barry showing off their new underoos....on their heads, naturally...
After dinner and gifts we played Dirty Santa...and Dirty it was!! These Kiwi's don't care who you are....they are out for blood :)
Shane had the first number (of course) and this was his gift....too funny! He said it looked just like himself...haha. One would think that he would be stuck with this one, right?? That would be a negative. Poor Shane got all of his gifts stolen the entire game. He ended up with a hot pink oven mit...which, by the way, I love and use daily :)
I lucked out and got this cool necklace....I did kind of hide it the whole game under my leg, though, so that might of helped :)
Shane and Josh fighting over gifts....that is the pink mit Shane ended up with...
Some of us Americans and our gifts....
After dirty santa we hiked up One Tree Hill IN THE DARK. That was interesting! We chased some sheep along the way as well. Fun times! This was a pic from the top.....

Well, there you have it....our Kiwi Christmas Day!

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