Unwanted Christmas Present

We arrived safely in Atlanta after a long day of travel on the 26th. Two days later my sore throat had not improved and I was eating slowly. Finally I sought medical diagnosis. After $130, checking my vitals and a brief medical history, I found out I have tonsillitis and pharyngitis. Now it's two days later and the antibiotic is starting to help me feel better! That and other medications set me back another $100.

We have had short visits with Chris' parents and Tom's parents. Next we head north to see Tom's sister and family in Michigan.

Damn light switches are backwards!

And other observations from the first few hours. After 31 hours of travel we arrived at Chris' parents house in Atlanta. it was great to see them at the airport as the phones are not roaming so we were incommunicado. Piles everyone and everything into the vehicle and drove here. It was great to see big cars with big engines driving on the right side of the road. We saw a bunch of familiar brands along the way which brought back memories. More about them in a later post!

We are on our way!!!

Right now we are in the Auckland airport waiting for our plane to depart. The wait will be long, about four hours, but the airline was kind enough to put us in their lounge ... Sweet as! We're excited about the trip, four years is too long!

Almost Christmas

Merry Christmas! We are having a week of just gorgeous fine weather here in Wellington. Here are some views from Khandallah. We can see Wellington Harbour one direction and a quarry another direction.

We leave for our U.S. holiday on December 26. Bags are only half packed.

We will be house sitting next year so we packed up our house last weekend. We were going to be "homeless" for a week until friends offered accommodation. Dennis has really enjoyed wrapping presents while watching Christmas movies. There's a huge pile under the tree.

It still feels surreal to hear songs about white Christmas and snow when it's summer. Nevertheless we are thoroughly enjoying our kiwi Christmases.

Car vs Leg

We are coming back

And you should get ready for our return.  Therefore I recommend that you start by understanding how our accent has changed over the past years.  To that end here is a pronunciation guide from our prime minister.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWv2oY2O9xQ&feature=related