Kia Ora

We went to the cinema in Te Awamutu to see Skyfall - our first movie outing in quite a while. The cinema was a very old fashioned one with lots of memorabilia on the walls, comfy seats and small auditoriums (ours only had about 50 seats). The movie was great and next week we plan to go see The Hobbit in 3D.

The bonsai week-end workshop with Nobu went very well. We had about a dozen people each day for the workshops, with eight of us for the Saturday evening BBQ and three overnight guests.

Ann was feeling rather left out couple of weeks ago. Peter and the girls each received mail - but there was no correspondence for Ann - not even a bill)! Peter's was a boring insurance one and the girls each had a letter - addressed to them - from the vets, remind them about their annual checkups. So we made appointments for them and then, the day before the appointments, Jaz got a text message on Ann's cell phone - telling her to remind Ann about the appointments for her and Maxie! I think it may be time for us to think about getting the girls their own Facebook accounts now!

Ann won first prize in the Christmas raffle at school - a lovely basket of food and Christmas goodies!

Ann spent the last few weeks of term bring all her 'stuff' home from school as she'll be moving into her new classroom at the end of January - hopefully. It's supposed to be built and ready for council inspection on 30th January and school starts 4th February - not much time to get everything sorted and set up!

The garden is growing nicely. The grasses we planted where Peter dug up the berberis hedge have filled in the gaps very quickly. We're now wondering whether we'll have to start thinning some of it out next winter.
	The Feijoa tree is in full bloom and looks lovely - shame we can't stand the fruit but luckily we have friends who love feijoas and will gladly take them off our hands.
The first part of the Kanuka hedge we planted is also in flower.

We've also had enough time to keep on top of the weeding (mostly). The bonsai and vege beds are now all weed free but there are a few 'unwanted plants' in the growing on beds which Ann will tackle over the summer.

We've started harvesting our own veges (spring onions, broccoli, peas, snow peas, courgette and carrots). The strawberries have now finished (sad face) and we managed to pick a 'few' raspberries from the new canes.

Home made strawberry ice cream, home grown strawberries, home made strawberry syrup and two home grown raspberries - yum!

Peter had a short break over Christmas - going in to work on the 24th & 27th. This gives him more time off later in the holiday when everyone else will be back at work.

	Maxie was very interested in her Christmas gifts - a new collar and a soft toy.
Jaz, on the other hand, was not impressed!
	Squeak!
What? Play? - I don't do play!

The weather over Christmas was hot and humid with the back end of cyclone Evan hitting the top of North Island. This gave us a bit of rain on Christmas Eve whilst Christmas Day was dry. On Boxing Day when we planned to go to the races with friends Jean and Tim we had heavy showers all day so we had a picnic in the dining room and played Mexican Train all afternoon.