A brand-new year has begun and so I can remember the good times we had over Christmas Season. Began a week before the Day by having our neighbor, Betty, over for a meal and Scrabble. Since Susi White was off to Fiji on 22nd we had a little "do" for her on the 20th. Both good warm-ups for the big bashes we had - firstly, with the Aldersons on Christmas Eve. Only thing that I remember is that Pat had her $200 perfume on and I had to stay in the bedroom racked with pains until she had washed it off... even then I had to keep my distance

On Christmas Day we went over to Paul Fornusek's who were having a "quiet day" for a drink. Well, their idea of quiet was 7 others over for a big meal. We arrived just in time for dessert and spent a couple hours getting acquainted. Boxing Day and the Whites came over for the traditional family gathering for a day of outdoor activities like jarts, croquette and cricket. No volleyball this year. Steve Graham who is working in Wellington, dropped in to spend the afternoon. In the evening we played Guinness Book of Records Game that Ian had given us. The following day the kids joined the Whites at Rainbow's End amusement park giving Gail and me a day of rest. Because on the 29th the Clarks came over with their girls for non-stop croquet (they liked it so much that they didn't want to stop for supper) and an extremely loud game of Pictionary. Little Alex's excitement gave David a headache.

Now try to imagine New Year's Eve at the Mallies'. Dig out an ancient board game called "Eye Guess" (anyone remember the TV show starring Bill Cullen - anyone remember Bill Cullen?). Then a little Canasta, followed by Valley of the Dinosaurs. But then at 1AM we turned off all the lights, hang a bucket on a kitchen door and proceed to play basketball with the glow-in-the-dark ball David gave me for Christmas.

On New Year's Day Ian dropped his three youngest children off to stay with us as he was off to Fiji to join his wife. So we had them with us for a week. Being the conscientious babysitters that we are we immediately went out for the night to a Trivial Pursuit evening. In fact, we are now a member of a group of about 16 that play each Friday night at 7.30PM at a different house. That's been fun, because I like TP so we have had a new lease on life by meeting so many new people.

Anyway, back to our Christmas gatherings which still aren't over. On the 2nd we had David Smithers and friend over for, you guessed it, croquette. I taught with David in 1973-4 and we have kept in touch and usually get together every other year. And I guess we can say that we wrapped up Christmas with the Sanders on the 5th. A break from tradition as we have always gotten together on Christmas Eve since 1973. - Mike is furniture-by-hand man and is always rushed to finish jobs by Christmas, so they usually come over late in the evening when he gets home from work and he then falls asleep during the festivities. So we thought we would try later after he was rested, and he did stay awake this year.

They said that 1992 was the coldest year in NZ in the past 50. We are probably used to it because we didn't notice any big difference and pretty much carried on as normal. But I did notice that it rained a lot more in spring because I was way behind in my gardening due to the wet days. We also didn't get into the ocean/sea until January, finding the water extra cold. We normally get in around November.

Well, we had a good summer holiday with a couple camping trips and I'll tell you about those in my next Malley-Gram.