Christmas at the Beach

Well, ok, a few days after Christmas. That's the Kiwi tradition, though, is to go to the beach on Christmas. Lizzie ran straight up to the water, and spent the next hour or so running away from the waves as they came in.
Eventually, she decided that the water wasn't going to bite her. For another hour she sat and laughed as the receding wave pulled the sand out from under her.
Gracie wasn't so excited about the water. She wouldn't even let me hold her until I dried off, but she had a blast making sand castles with her bucket and shovel Santa left in her stocking.
When Lizzie tired of the water, she discovered that shovels are good for burying Daddy's feet.
The beach we went to is an hour or so north of us on the coast, called Whakatane. There are cliffs overlooking the ocean, and there is a lookout at the top of one of them with a tiki statue surveying the ocean.
This is his view.