Happy Christmas from Godzone!

We've been rather quiet on the blogging front recently - it's been a tad busy as we've been combining end of semester for me, end of term for Reuben and Tilly, the start of the triathlon season for Dave, a sprinkling of birthday parties and sports events and the general mounting excitement over the approach of Christmas and the long summer holidays.

Here's a lovely handmade card by Miss Tilly:

which had this beautiful picture of its creator inside:

And here are some more festive colours for you: no holly and ivy in the garden but I did find these.  Yay for summer!

Meanwhile, Reuben came back from school with a self-penned book called The Magic Turkey, a dramatic tale of how a turkey evades Thanksgiving lunch, on the back of which was this lovely author's bio:

The name's Burdekin, Tilly Burdekin

Discovered this on Tilly's writing pad the other day:

So I want to know: has Tilly been contracted to write the script for the next Bond film?  If so, what happens next, because it sounds gripping!

Or is she just demonstrating an overly cautious approach?  Perhaps her life is actually full of hidden dangers that her parents simply don't appreciate because we've forgotten what it's like to be six. I don't remember it being particularly perilous, but maybe I've blocked out something traumatic.  Hmmm....

What we have been eating recently 4

For a start, some of us have been eating things we weren't supposed to:

I call this the 'well, it's your fault for leaving the chocolate spread jar on the side where I could reach it after dragging the stool across the kitchen and climbing up' expression. Harriet can add it to her croissant stealing expression, I suppose.  As for the rest of us, we've been enjoying a new cake recipe

Harriet shows a range of emotions

What could possibly make Harriet pull a face like this?

Feel the full force of my displeasure, miserable offender

What Harriet's bottom can tell you about the state of the nation

Quite a lot actually... So here is the posterior in question:

and yes, Harriet is indeed 'backing black'. Literally. I think you have to be a complete hermit not to realise that, in New Zealand, anything with the word 'black' in it is rugby related.

What we have been eating recently 3

It's lemon season here at the moment.  I planted our tree last year and right now we have about 20 lemons waiting to drop.

We've been in Auckland for four years now, but I still find it exciting that we can grow lemons in our garden.  Not quite the same as the allotment in Leeds! Anyway, as they say, when life hands you lemons...

Reuben is a poet and the rest of us are quite creative too

Reuben came home with this poem and drawing on Friday.