It has been a busy few weeks building up to Christmas. Enjoyed seeing Mike  Becks and Connie  in the Wairarapa and having Connie to myself for a whole day.  We went to the park, decorated Christmas tree and put up our nativity scene.  Christmas  day was a lot of fun. Besides the family Nick, Carolyn and Martin came for brunch. Santa came too (with a hole in his trousers) but no one cared. Harry missed him for the second year in a row. Dinner was at Don and Judy's place. We are  now sitting in New Plymouth. Harry is making a cup of tea (well he put the jug on and then said he was off to have a shower). It is a bright sunny day for a change. The house looks over a wide expanse of bush that follows the river down to the sea which is a strip of blue just before the cloud hides the horizon. It was a long trip up yesterday. We crawled at snails pace up to Otaki, stopped for a few minutes to say hi to the Casey Cooper clan, had some lunch and then off to our holiday home. We got to our accommodation effortlessly and unpacked the car. After a cup of tea the first thing we looked for was wifi and who Place nicely positioned and quiet with deck though bbq is so filthy we won't use it and we need to suggest smoke alarms would be a good addition. To get over travel sluggishness we went for a long walk sort of following the river but not beside it. Now I will attempt for the first time to put some photos of on via phone.