Merry Christmas!

We’re off to Ohope Beach tomorrow, joining the family there for a kiwi beach Christmas. Maya is so excited. It’s the first Chirstmas she’s really understood and been able to get into it. It’s so much fun to watch and makes Christmas so special.

Anyway I must get back to cleaning and packing. This is just a quick note to say Merry Christmas to all my friends and readers. I hope to ’see’ you back here in 2009!

Ummm… we’re home

 

And have been for nearly a month.  As you can probably guess from the quiet on this blog it’s been a busy month.

It has been a month of celebration- Luis got his NZ citizenship and became a Kiwi, we celebrated 7 years of marriage and I had a birthday.

It has also been a month of hard work.  Starting to transcribe the interviews from Honduras, writing and presenting a paper at a national conference and trying to re-write the literature reviews and proposal for my confirmation in February ( PhDs at Massey are only provisionally registered for the first year and must complete a set amount of work and present a confirmation seminar before being given full candidate status).   Luckily Maya has settled well back at her childcare centre and Luis has been feeling well and is able to take on much of the rest of the weekday care.  This of course I  often feel hugely guilty but also immensly grateful for.

So onwards to Christmas.  The tree is up, we have been to one Christmas party, and missed one party already, have another two parties this week and I have to work out how to stretch an insanely small amount of money out for the Christmas shopping.  I’m not quite sure how I’m going to fit Christmas into the budget or my workload but we have a very excited 3-year old and I don’t think we’ll get away with having a quiet one!  

Luis becomes a NZ citizen!

Luis and Maya get settled on the plane.

Maya has her turn at the piñata at a Latin American Christmas party.