Christmas 2020 - Tasman

 🎄December arrived before we knew it, and of course it's the best time to put the Christmas tree up. As we were having Christmas with Pippa & John & Annabelle at their home in Tasman , I joined Pippa & Annabelle out at Eyebright to help select the perfect Christmas tree. Unfortunately a hundred other people had already been out there before us and selected the other perfect trees - but we still managed to select a pretty good looking one all the same. 

Claiming our tree 

I was into my last month of relieving out at Stuart Drummond Transport, the time had gone super quick. Bill had managed to continue the renovations quite well without me. Including organising a digger in to prep the driveway and make it a bit more versatile. So after engaging a surveyor to come up and peg out the boundary, he was able to get the digger with operator to remove the corner of what divided us from our front neighbour, and open the entrance of our property. Quite surprising how much land was gained, which hopefully will make turning much easier.

At the same time, the digger was also able to clear out the far end of the section and prepare a patio area which I'll show photos of in the next Blog......

Removal of bamboo and concrete
so much easier with a little digger

With working at Stuart Drummonds up until Christmas, we made it to the Christmas Function which was a lot of fun for Drivers / Office Staff and Bill. The afternoon was spent at the Go Cart Track where quite burly Drivers showed of their competitive natures. I was a bit worried for Bill but he managed to survive. I thankfully had the task of babysitting Tamara's wee one while she jumped in a cart to join the crew. It was a lot of fun, if not a bit risky for the Boss if too many Drivers sustained injury. But luckily only one cracked some ribs. 😉

Early December festive events were alive and well 😍 :a package turned up for me at work - Rocky had warned me she had sent a package to open before Christmas. So I text her to say we would Zoom later and open it in front of her and Daniel.

Really opened up the corner of the property

We set ourselves up and just started opening the box when Rocky exclaimed something wasn't right! That wasn't her package we were about to open!! Inside were a lot of small gifts beautifully wrapped and with names we had no idea who they were. The Box had Rocky's declaration and our name & address on the front - but the sender wasn't her. The next day she contacted the sender and they discovered her gifts had come to us and Rocky's had gone to England! The Post Office had got the declarations on the wrong boxes. I forwarded the box of gifts I had received onto England to the correct receiver in time for Christmas and we left Rocky's gift to us (Christmas decorations from KMart to brighten our renovations up) in England. I just hope they appreciated all the love that had gone into Rocky's gift! 

Christmas morning with the Tristram's

We packed our Bus up for Christmas Eve and headed off to Pippa & Johns for a couple of nights. Just as well as there was a bit of construction to be done once Annabelle went to sleep - new Bunk Bed lovingly made by her Grandad and a Trampoline. Kept everyone quite busy Christmas Eve.

Sleeping outside we weren't woken too early and once the curtains were open Annabelle came out and shared some of her presents with us. 

After a delicious breakfast it was off to Rabbit Island for lunch and to meet up with friends that had just moved up to Nelson from Christchurch with their two wee girls. Kim's Mum Marg, an old friend from when our children were babies, also came up from Christchurch to join everyone. It was a lovely relaxed day. Bill's younger brother Neil brought Joan out to join us too. It was a lovely day. Finished off back at the Tristram's with lovely pizza's in the pizza oven. Perfect John 😋

Bill enjoying the Fairy

Rabbit Island Christmas Day
With Marg and Family & the Tristrams.

Joan enjoying a nice wine from her 
Grandchildren