Camping at the lake & New Years Eve

Our tent (actually belongs to Brett & Michelle).

Two cabins and tents down further.

Brett & Michelle's bus.

Main drinking area. :)

Nana and Pops' bus and the boat ramp.

Toys - paddock basher, 4wd, jetboat.

The stairway to heaven! (toilet and shower)

Main eating area

The lake

The ski biscuits.

Nana Dot, Nana, and Lilli outside the kitchen (yes there's a kitchen!)

Our darling on her bike.

Tony & Annie's bus and the bbq and eating area.

Outside the kitchen having cups of tea.

Looking at the lake from the table.

Ohhh....

Lilli did well while we were camping. She managed to sleep through her Dad and Uncles partying every night until about 12.30 to 1am before I had to go in and try to settle her. If she wouldn't settle then I would just go to bed and put her in with me. I think she did well just to sleep that long with all the shouting and loud music!! :)

Needless to say though, after about 3 days I decided that both of us needed a night away to try and recouperate so we went back into town for the night and then met up with Tobi and Christine the day before New Years. They came out to the lake with us and all partied pretty hard that night. Obviously NYE was an even bigger party and Lilli's uncles went through until 6am. Daddy came to bed completely legless and incoherent at about 4am. Hahaha. Lilli had slept until nearly 12.30am so I saw in the New Year and had a couple of drinks but then went to bed with her. Thank goodness Aunty Annie went out at about 5.30am and turned off the music after she heard Lilli crying. Yay! Then Lilli and I went to sleep for a couple of hours. You may wonder why I didn't stay in town with Lilli? I was going to but she didn't sleep any better in town than she did at the lake with all the noise so I figured we might as well be at the lake and awake instead of in town. :)

Christmas at Tony & Annie's with the whole family.

Lilli's cousin Jack pushing her around on her trike 2 days before Christmas.

We opened presents on Christmas morning with Tony, Annie, Sam, Matt, & Jack. It was another great Christmas with Lilli being so cute opening her presents. She ripped into them and was super excited to get her tea set. She also got a laughing jiggling alien and a buzzy bee ball among other things!! Very Spoilt. Again. :)

Mummy blowing up Lilli's little paddling pool.

Still blowing!

Lilli pinching a santa decoration from the tree!

Uncle Tony and Cousin Jack

The star herself.

Then at lunchtime the rest of the family came for lunch and also Aunty Annie's family and a few extras. It was a beautiful sunny day and everyone had a great time eating and drinking and playing volleyball and badmington. It was the usual great family Christmas!!! :) We tried skyping with our German rellies but it was a bit difficult as the calls kept dropping off. That was the only bummer about the whole day. We decided to give up and try again on boxing day.

Daddy, Lilli, and Matt setting up his volley ball set.

Uncle Neil, Aunty Deb, Nana Dot, Uncle Tony, Nana, and Lilli.

A few rellies

A few more rellies...

Mummy and Cousin Sam

Aunty Annie's Mum, Matt, Poppa.

Cousin Josh with the ham.

Aunty Michelle.

The gingerbread house - made by Hannah (Sam's gf) and her Mum.

Nana Dot and Nana.p

Lilli, Jack, Hannah (Sam's gf), and Sam.

Rellies.

Aunty Annie and Sam.

Check out Lilli talking to the 'other baby' in these photos.

On the way down to Rotorua we stopped in Matamata at the Robert Harris cafe and sat at the table with a mirror. Lilli and I had stopped here once before and she was so funny with the mirror that I said to Max that we should stop there this time as well. Here are the photos of her playing with her 'little friend' (though she seems to know now that it's actually her in the mirror) at the cafe and giving her kisses. What a cutie!!!