Sadly, our family holiday to “the bach” in the Sounds is over and I’m back at work in Wellington. We had a great time with the Noble and Chinn families this Christmas – staying with John and Jenny and my sis Nicola, husband Andrew and kids Oliver and Katie.

Following our time away, I’ve now uploaded a few snaps to my Picasa Albums, and here’s a sample,

The family on Christmas Day,

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Matt with his first fish!

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Amy the little rockstar!

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For more photos, including a sneak peek at our Christmas fare, click through to the photo albums.

And wherever you are (or were), I hope your Christmas/holiday time is equally enjoyable.

Here’s a snapshot of what the weather map will hopefully look like on Christmas Day – courtesy of ECMWF,

That’s a 10 day forecast for 1pm on Christmas Day, with isobars along with colour shading representing wind speed at about 5,000ft (850hPa for the met folks). If the computer models stick to this story, then (barring small scale effects) much of New Zealand should have generally fine weather – unless you’re in Fiordland which might be wet based on that map.

This of course is just one possible outcome that could well change as we approach the 25th, and you should get the official story from MetService.com – which already has town/city forecasts for Christmas Day. 🙂

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Update:
And now we have a 9-day forecast for 1pm on Christmas Day,

So, pretty much the same story for NZ – but the high is a little closer and weaker while the front is further west in a deeper trough.

Update 2:
Another day closer. Here’s the 8-day forecast, again for 1pm on Dec 25,

Similar story, but not liking the trend – a weaker high further east, meaning lower pressures over the South Island with more wind (especially for Cook Strait and Wellington!) ahead of a front over Fiordland.

And needless to say the family were pleased to see the back of it! If you want more photos (why?!) you can still check out my Mo Space, or head over to the Gala Parté photos on Flickr where you might just spot me in the Wellington 2009 set.