We headed up to Palmy for Christmas to see my Aunt and cousins. It’s lovely for Anna to see her cousins, it’s a special kind of relationship I think. Lots of games were played (Carcassonne our current favourite, packs up nicely into a box too).

We also went on a quick walk around the new bridge. Pretty cool to see the earthquake-responsive suspension in the system.

Then it was on down to Paraparaumu to see my cousin Jon & Amelia and spend time with them. It’s a lovely setup they have, living close to the grandparents and just in a pretty idyllic spot.

So, a lovely time there, exploring their backyard a bit. Anna definitely enjoyed being the older cousin. I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot more of them over the years! Lovely to have more cousins in NZ.

After that it was down to Wellington to spend a few nights with Glynn and Jayne and their kids. It’s always such a lovely time there, we really feel like family. They’re also incredibly good cooks which doesn’t hurt ;) , oh, and Glynn’s an excellent brewer. Unfortunately there wasn’t anything on tap while we were there. Next time.

We went to The Breathe Exhibition at Te Papa. It was good, but it was unfortunate that the VR goggles were all booked out, as I suspect that would have been next-level!

Lots of wingspan was played. The oceania expansion is worth getting if you own the game.

Finally, it was time to fly back to ChCh. Anna was brave and asked the stewardess if she could give out the sweets…

Is that year 2 or year 3 Anna just finished? Year 2 I think. Time flies. Finally her first tooth fell out. Major milestone. She has been looking forward to that happening for months, if not years.

Bought Carcassonne which I’d been meaning to get for a while. Anna definitely gets the game and it’s interesting enough to be fun to play. Has a nicely structured sequence of scoring mechanisms which can be gradually introduced as you get more comfortable with the game. Fun.  And her art is a lot better than anything I ever did already!

First off, my trusty old Patagonia gilet died. I brought it to twin needle and was quoted > $100 to fix… but.. they said that Patagonia had a lifetime warranty, so, I should check with them. So I did. And they do! That jacket is literally 24+ years old so I was astounded they’re going to fix it. So happy.

My friend Syliva turned 42 and had a HHG themed party. Super fun. Nick coming with a towel wrapped around was well done! Laser tag was great fun, and the cheese selection delicious.

I went for a nice bike ride using up some of my lift passes. We’re very lucky in ChCh to have a mtb park very close by.

I tried making french toast. Don’t really think I did it justice. Even had brioche for the bread (and left it out overnight). Just wasn’t quite as good as I remember it. I suspect I’ll stick to pancakes.

Anna had Sinterklaas. She wanted something we could only get in The Netherlands. Fortunately Sinterklaas got confused and dropped presents to us for Oma and Opa, and presents for Anna he left in NL… so, she can pick it up when we’re next over…

A while ago I had a little extra time and decided to build a basic chess game with Anna. The main thing I wanted to get out of it was Anna understanding that you could create for the Internet (not just consume it). The first game was a maze like game where you got to move a piece around the board. The game I’ve just finished building out is called Radioactive Pooping Knights.

Basically you move a knight around the screen (which makes amazing fart noises) and try not to get trapped (you can’t actually capture the opponent). There are other games on there (just click the logo in the top left), and I’m adding more.

I added a “buy me a coffee” link, so far my friend Tim has contributed which was extremely kind of him. Unfortunately they don’t pay out for < $20 and it’s sitting at 19.85 or something (USD!). Maybe someone else will find it fun :)

Anyway, let me know if you enjoy it. The target audience is 6-7 year olds being introduced to chess ;)

I took Anna off to Lake Daniell’s with friends for the weekend. Maaike had her final noho marae stay of the year. It was a good trip, definitely getting easier as the kids get a bit older/stronger.

Quinn found “gold” in the river. Good effort hauling the rock back to the car though!. Quinn also did some amazing swimming in the (frankly freezing) lake. He’d bought a snorkel and was looking for treasure. Some old lures were found :)

It was great having Ryan and Willow join in the fun :)