Christmas Day

We had a lovely Christmas in New Zealand this summer. Almost the whole family was around and it was the first Christmas that Scarlett really understood what was going on. She was utterly spoilt by our family and Father Christmas. Let's just say that we had a luggage allowance of 80 kg and we went 10 kg over that coming home and we had less than half that when we arrived! Thank goodness Tet is a gold frequent flyer with Singapore Airlines or it would have been a massive excess baggage payment!

Picture heavy post warning!

We managed to keep Scarlett away from the presents until after 10 am. We needed to give her aunts time to arrive. We let her have a good look early though. Yes that sack to one side is what Father Christmas brought her!

This is one of my all time favourite pictures of Scarlett. I adore the dress she is wearing and I love the fact that she is not smiling like a loon! Grandad put up a small tree for our benefit and Scarlett took great delight in reorganising the decorations.

Tet did a great job of supervising the present unwrapping. He only arrived in NZ the day before so was a bit jet lagged Christmas morning.

The present unwrapping continues with Aunty Yaeh (Tet's little sister) recording the event. This must be the most photographed Christmas I have ever been to!

Two of Scarlett's favourite presents were her Sock Monkey tea set and her fairy costume. She makes a pretty adorable fairy.

Tet took this shot of us all eating Christmas lunch. My Dad at this end. Yaeh and her fiance Henry on one side, my sister Anne and a very unimpressed looking me on the other. We had the full monty, ham, turkey and four different desserts so waddling was the order of the day.

Scarlett and my Dad, Alan, have developed such a close bond this holiday. Scarlett just loves her grandad and follows him around like a little shadow. He has a beautiful garden and she especially likes helping him to water the plants and dead head the roses. Here they are enjoying some afternoon sunshine on Christmas Day.

I also love this photo of Tet and his younger sister Yaeh. We don't get to see much of her these days living so far away but we are super excited about her getting married at the end of the year and coming up to Singapore to spend Christmas with us!

Part two of our trip will be more of a scenic collection of playgrounds around New Zealand. We did do other things but from our photos you might struggle to figure out what exactly! Thanks for looking.