Another Kiwi Christmas

Christmas Eve sparklers

Happy Christmas everyone! Whether you're here in New Zealand, or a little bit further north, I hope you are all having a wonderful time with friends and family. Christmas is not only a busy time of year here, and for the church (Jesus' birthday, pretty big deal, apparently), its also the end of the academic year. So basically everyone cranks it til Christmas and then embraces the summer holidays in January like a long lost friend. Bring it on!

2008 was a good and refining year - a year that I can look back on and see how God has been growing me in patience, courage, confidence, prayer, faithfulness and grace. A year where I have wrestled with the importance of integrity and how, if we're living into the calling we've already attained, it counts for everything. A year where I've seen the value of having a faithful group of friends who can yarn through the tough stuff, encourage you to hope and dream, provide accountability and who walk alongside you and simply love you. And at Christmas, when we celebrate the birth of Christ, we celebrate the certainty that God is faithful and holds true to his promises. For all those things we are hoping for and longing for that only God can do, even when it may not happen in the timing we'd like, we can be confident that because of Christmas, God is a God who keeps his promises.

2009 is going to be another exciting year, but I'll save those thoughts for another post. For now, here are some photos of my third kiwi Christmas spent with some of my favourite people in the world before they head off to Melbourne. Loads of love xxx

Christmas Day with the Elkins

Samuel and Joshua in their Aussie friendly t-shirts

Joshua: 100% Kiwi

Samuel: I heart NZ

Christmas lunch in the summer sun