Christmas Festivities

I felt as christmassy as.... I'm too confused even to explain how un christmassy I was! The sun was out, everyone was having bbq's and eating strawberries! Yet the bbq's were christmas bbq's! I was very disorganised at buying my christmas presents as in my brain I had months and months to get it all done, it can only be June afterall!

The festivities continued despite my denial though and I got swept along very confused by it all. For lifegroup we got together with the group we split from at the beginning of the year and had a bbq (of course - it's christmas!!!) and did secret santa. It was a really fun evening and during secret santa you got to swap presents (well steal), it was a new and fun way of swapping $5 presents which were never going to be something you always wanted! I had a chocolate fondu set for a while - brilliant, but it got taken in the last few rounds so I ended up with a water gun - still pretty good! :-) I've really enjoyed lifegroup this year and I look forward to the year ahead.

My flat and the flat next door got together for our christmas get together, where we did secret santa, had a lovely meal and then went out for Carols by Candlelight in the basin reserve cricket ground. It was definitely an experience to remember, sat in the middle of the cricket pitch, in summer, singing carols, with santa circling in a helicopter overhead! Crazy!
It was a lovely time with flatmates and friends though.

We also had a work bbq and an office trip out for lunch which were both fun times with collegues. The bbq was also time to say goodbye to James who's off to Canada to study for a year and Karen who's moving on from TSCF.

For christmas itself I have headed down south to spend Christmas with Tim and Lizzy Hodge in Lincoln. I used to work with Lizzy in Gloucester and I have known them for about 5 years and so it has been lovely spending Christmas with them as they are the closest thing to family I have in NZ. Christmas day itself, felt more christmassy then I thought it would as it was overcast and pretty chilly at a cool 19 degrees! I did a full english roast although I forgot the cocktail sausages wrapped in bacon. We watched the queens speech and the vicar of dibley and we even had the fire going for a while!

I got up at 6am on Boxing day to have a webchat with the family in the UK. It was true chaos but lovely to be part of their day. I got to see Jessica walking around and Oakley looking so smart and handsome and Gracie getting to that age of being really excited by what is going on. They are all growing up so fast.

The weather has been fantastic since christmas day and so we have spent a couple of days at the beach. Today is a chill out day at home although I am currently melting in the garden.

My Poor left foot!

Firstly, I broke my left big toe a month ago on my return from Hong Kong and endured a very swollen foot for a few days which was a bit of a pain as I had to wear my jandals (flip flops) in the rain! It has slowly been healing but is still a bit sore on occasion but I thought the drama was over until going away to SLC conference and getting bitten on my left ankle. At first it was just very itchy like any old mosquito bite but it became more and more swollen, hard, hot and itchy! Once back in Wellington I decided to visit the pharmacy (my first port of all nowadays as the doctor costs $58) who informed me that it was quite likely to be a spider bite and probably from a white tail! The biggest thing to look out for was throbbing pain as that indicated a deep rooted infection which would kill all the flesh! Yuck!!!! I was back in my jandals with a very swollen foot. I am back to normal now and did not get an infection - phew! It was all quite exciting really! I'm quite proud of my spider bite which mum didn't quite understand! :o)

The pictures are not from the most swollen day but give you a pretty good idea of what my foot looked like! If you don't like feet then look away now!