We 're counting: Christmas 2021 Nelson Tosswill Rd

Merry Christmas From Nelson
(One of our neighbours creates these wonderful creatures)

On our return from up north, it was back into the renovations before Santa arrived. The pressure was on Bill to get ready for our new front door arriving in 4 days! 😬Go Bill!

Old entrance & laundry

Opening up nicely

Beautiful 💖

He managed to knock the last of the blocks out and had the entrance ready for it's arrival. Thankfully Trevor was on hand once again to help 😀. I had to go and see my hairdresser with Christmas fast approaching, so I couldn't help much. I was back to make lunch. The new door looks fantastic.

Christmas with some of the Tylers

My lovely Christmas Tree (Thank you Sarah🎄)

Before we knew it, Christmas Eve was here and this year we hosted Pippa & John & Annabelle (we went to them last Christmas) and also Kathryn, Gwen and Tyler (Tahunanui Dr neighbours). Shannon & AC weren't due until 2am after crossing over from Wellington on the last Ferry of Christmas Eve, so we didn't keep dinner for them. It was a lovely evening and with the mixture of ages, interesting Christmas secret Santa Gifts. It was a lot of fun.

Nearing the top of Mount Arthur

Christmas morning was wonderful to share with one of our three children ( not sure if the other two put pressure on S&A 😕) and we also had Bill's family for lunch. We picked up Joan and had her here for the day, which was nice to have the Tylers together. Rochelle and Nick were both up in Perth with their In-Laws for Italian style Christmas's - hopefully next Christmas we might all be together 🤞

New Years Eve 2021

Shannon & AC stayed the two weeks they had planned ( the other Siblings took a bet they'd return to Wellington half way through!) so hopefully that was a sign they enjoyed themselves. Shannon had a tramp up Mt Arthur on her list to do and it was also on Bill's bucket list after failing to quite reach the top another time. As it was a 5am rise and the top of mountains not quite being my thing, I left them to it. They departed on a beautiful morning but unfortunately the wind built up over the day so as they neared the top, they had to call it quits as it became unsafe and unpleasant to carry on. There was plenty of time to try again.

Beautiful way to see
out 2021

New Years Eve we managed a meal of fish & chips up at Queens Reserve - a lovely spot we liked going to with the Kids over the years, that looks out over the Tasman Bay. And back home to sit around the brazier and wait to see the New Year in. Peter joined us as Leigh headed up to Tauranga to join her family. It was a beautiful evening and amazing everyone stayed up. 🍹🍹

Shannon wore her
Daddy out!

AC brought both his bikes (one an Ebike and the other a mountain bike), which gave AC & Bill a chance to try some of the local mountain bike trails with their Ebikes. AC was very keen and quite happy to go off on his own a couple of times. I had organised a shuttle to take us out to Kohatu to ride back on a section of the Great Taste Trail through the Spooners Tunnel, Wakefield, Brightwater and home. With a few refreshment stops on the way home of course. We hired an Ebike for Shannon and Bill's brother Ian joined us with his too. It was a good day out.

The next day, the others were devils for punishment and had another crack at Mt Arthur. And this time success 🌄- Mt Arthur is 1795m, so it's fair to say it's a big day out (12 hrs). well done Guys - you can cross that one off your list. I think all three were very satisfied to have achieved reaching the summit.

Lunch at the Wakefield Hotel 🚲

In amongst all the above activity, there were a few quiet and relaxing days too - S&A had brought over their bean bags (why not when you have the room in your car) so they moved around the property depending if they needed sun or mostly getting out of the sun. We had a few swims just at our local beach within an easy walk, and over to Little Kaiteriteri one day catching up with the Bannings. Bill was able to continue doing some of his smaller jobs and got on with the new laundry in the quiet spells.

Dinner at The Harbour Lights

S& A took us out for dinner near the end of their holiday which was lovely at the Harbour Lights Cafe. It was a lovely evening, thank you Guys.

Swimming along Rocks Road

As Shannon & AC weren't crossing back over to Wellington till 2.00 am, we stayed up on their last night and sat around the Brazier and had a very relaxed evening before they headed back to the Big Smoke for another hectic year. Covid doesn't appear to be making life any easier now with Omicron in the community! But life continues here at Tosswill Road with the renovations and a goal of being on the market in March. Full steam ahead.