Merry Christmas to all...

Christmas comes but once a year. It is a special time to celebrate with friends and family. This was a Christmas of firsts for both of us. It was the first year of my life that I did not celebrate with my parents. It was the first time that Andrea did not celebrate the holiday in the depths of winter. It was also our holiday together on Christmas day. It was foreign feeling for her to be standing on the beach in short pants and T-shirt knowing full well that all of Canada was covered in a blanket of snow for the first time since '71. As much as I hate to say it I do miss the cold and dark that accompanies the holiday season, but only for one day...I am already over it.

So how did we spend our Christmas day? Well with Andrea's extended family in New Zealand of course. Christmas eve was spend at our flat talking about traditions with our flatmate Gregg. Drinking beers, wrapping gifts and swapping stories. Both me and Andrea were quite tired because we had worked all day. I managed to get a great surf earlier in the evening as well, best so far! Off to bed for an early start!!!

Christmas morn started off with our stockings...stuff with goodies from Santos Claus...

We then left our place and headed over to John and Susans (Andrea's Cousins) place for gift openings and more cheer. We were joined by Bob and Elen -Andreas grandfathers sister - also joined us and gift extravaganza was on...

The kids (Phalen and Sara) were SUPER stoked for the day. We did our best to supply some fun for everyone by providing the great Mexican Christmas Pinata Tradition.

Everybody had a go at it!

In the end old Rudoplh met his fate and was split across the entire yard. Candies were everywhere and the kids went bezerk. With this the great Kiwi-Mexican-Canadian Christmas came to a close.

It was a great way to spend the day, different from what I am used to by all means, but it was spent with my sweetie and that is all that counts. We miss you all and wish you all a very merry Christmas and joyous holiday season in whatever corner of this world you may find yourself in.

Lots of Love,

Dion and Andrea