Here comes the snow...

The time has come for both Erin and I to grace the US with our presence. For Erin it will be 8 and 1/2 months since she's been home and for myself it'll be 4 and 1/2. We are both very excited for our trip and to see friends and family.

Although it will be very difficult to leave our nice summer weather down here for the snow and ice of Boston, we are packing for the conditions.

My US cell phone number will still work, so feel free to give me a shout. In addition we will be going out in the city this Friday night and all are welcome. We will be starting in Kenmore Sq at 7pm (if interested in starting that early get in touch with me and we'll give you the details). Around 9:30 we will be heading to Foundation Lounge in Kenmore Square. Hope to see you all in Boston.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO EVERYONE!

Happy Early Birthday

Tonight we celebrated my birthday early with friends. It was a very fun night where we were also able to celebrate many other things including:

• Anna's sister and brother- in- law (Emma and Jens) visiting NZ on their six week honeymooon from Sweden
• Jochen's girlfriend Susanne visiting from Germany
• Jeroen and Jeremy's promotions
• And the year 2007 - which included a wedding and baby on the way for Mascha and Jeroen!

We had dinner at Hammerheads, a wonderful seafood restaurant which has fabulous views of the city and sunset. Sadly it was raining, so we didn't have a sunset, but the night was still lots of fun!

Christmas Is Everywhere!

This cloud was spotted over Wellington this weekend. Can you see the reindeer?

This weekend we were busy bees - finishing up our holiday shopping and starting to pack for our trip home. The city is very festive with carol singers and bell choirs all over the place. There are giant tree ornaments and people are starting to put lights up on their balconies. The Sky Tower is lit up green and red to celebrate. Here is a picture of the Tower at night:

Volleyball on the Pier?

We didn't have huge plans this weekend, but one of our most important items was to get some Christmas shopping completed as in less than 2 weeks we will be sporting our winter clothes in the cold Boston weather! Although Friday night was a long night out at the bars with people from Jeremy's work, he managed to get out of bed at a reasonable time so we could walk around the town and enjoy a very sunny day.
As we headed out, we heard quite a bit of noise down by the harbour and as we made our way closer, we saw bleachers and balls flying in the air. There was a volleyball tournament on the pier. It was pretty neat as they brought in a ton of sand so it was actually a sand volleyball tournament on the pier. If only we had known and entered a team. We also hoped to decorate our place a little for the holiday time, but unfortunately we only have a red candle and a kiwi with a Santa hat on. It's not great, but gives us some holiday spirit. (No tree for us this year.)

More US Visitors

This past weekend both Erin and I were graced with some more visitors from the US. Melanie and Alison came to visit us and although we have never met them before we picked them up in the airport and it felt like we had been friends with them for years. We took them to One Tree Hill, then to lunch down in Mission Bay. Unfortunatly the rain started in the afternoon for a bit, but we made the best of it by drinking wine and eating (our favorite things).

Erin and I had to work on Monday, but they were able to head to Waiheke and taste wine and relax in the sun. We met up for some yummy Italian food and more WINE at night. We capped both nights off at Danny Doolan's listening to some guys playing the Guitar. Melanie made a few requests and became known as Ms. America. They left this morning and headed to Sydney for another 2 weeks. They are keeping a blog of their trip which you can check out here: Melanie & Alison's Blog




The weather continues to get warm over here as summer continues to approach.