December Daily: Dec 14

Hi everyone :)

First up I’ll show you the greenstone I received from my team:

I’m absolutely stoked with it and can’t wait to wear it to school tomorrow for the final day!  To receive something like this is really special.  In 1997 my grandmother bought me a gorgeous bone carving with a piece of Rimu and Paua inlaid into it and I wore it constantly for years. 

Just after I moved back to Rotorua (2007) it literally broke into three pieces and I remember the roaring in my ears.  It was a very surreal experience and straight away I rang Auntie Bubby and asked her to have the pieces blessed for me.  She was able to tell me that the carving had ‘done it’s job and I didn’t need it anymore’.  There was a lot more to it but that’s the basics of the story. 

I know that this piece of greenstone is really precious to me and I’ll wear it with pride so thank you so much to my team xx

Now onto yesterday!  Earlier this week Casey (Chris’s daughter) and Mikayla invited us to go out to the farm for dinner.  Chris, Deidre (Chris’s Mum), Toby, Dougal and myself all met up in town to head out into the country.  The girls live on a farm (with Casey’s 4 year old twins) and it’s actually closer to Taupo than it is to Rotorua but what a beautiful spot!

Chris and I decided to make the girls a ‘care package’ filled with goodies and they were thrilled to bit to receive it!  They both grabbed for the chocolate first! The kids were really happy to get some chocolate Santa's from Grandma too!

We spent the entire afternoon outside enjoying each others company in the sunshine.  Laura showed us how well she is learning to ride her pony ‘Midnight’ and Toby was super interested to see such a little horse and was very keen to say hello.

Midnight decided that he didn’t really want to do what Laura was asking him to do and was being a bit naughty so Casey got on him… what a scream!  Her feet were almost touching the ground and Midnight certainly knew he’d been doing the wrong thing!

Mikayla is so happy living on the farm.  She’s relaxed, contented and constantly smiling!  It’s really wonderful to see her enjoying life and just being herself.  The kids obviously adore her and you can tell she loves them too.

As much as Toby enjoyed being out in the country, having everyone around him and the new sights and smells Dougal was completely out of his comfort zone!  He’s definitely a ‘Bright Lights – Big City’ kind of boy!  He was worried about getting ‘dirty’ and he didn’t like the smells at all!  Toby on the other hand was in his element!

Here’s my first page for my album:

So funny seeing Mikayla doing ‘girly’ things like painting Laura’s toenails… but she really seemed to be enjoying herself. 

I took so many photos in the afternoon that I wanted to do something a little different for my photo page and here’s what I came up with:

We had a fantastic dinner too!  Casey really put on quite a spread and by the time we had dinner we were all famished… must be that country air!

I have to admit that I went to bed last night feeling really great… especially seeing Mikayla so happy and content!

Wishing you all a great day xx