Christmas 2013

Christmas began VERY early for us this year, with a wake-up call from Alfie at 5.30am, just TOO excited to stay in bed any longer. And 10 minutes later Molly was up too. Grrrr....! 

So we hauled them into our bed, made a cup of coffee and enjoyed watching them empty their stockings for a while. 

We have a bit of a  Christmas-morning-at-the-beach tradition in our family. Ever since we first moved to NZ we've made a point of bringing a pile of Vegemite toast, a flask of hot chocolate and a couple of presents to the beach first thing in the morning after we wake up. This year, we were there by 7.30am! (I should point out that this isn't the earliest we've ever been to the beach on Christmas morning - there was one year when we were there by 6.05am!). 

There was still a bit of a chill in the air at this early hour, so we busied ourselves hunting for starfish on the rocks and making a sandcastle..

But the temptation proved too great, and it wasn't long before we were all having a paddle!

Then it was back home for brunch...

And some present opening...

Oh the excitement of so many presents! It was bedlam for a while! So we engineered some quiet-ish time - it didn't last very long but it was enough for us to finally all finish our Santa jigsaw puzzle....We've been slowly doing it for the last few weeks.

After that we all had a Christmas nap! Ah...bliss....! Then it was Christmas cake time...

Things quickly deteriorated after that! First there was a huge family Nerf Gun fight....Alfie's owned a couple of Nerf Guns for a long while, but Santa brought some mini ones this year and Molly got a girl version of her own too, so the pace has been picked up and there've been some fairly full on Nerf battles this Christmas, including several fat lips!

And the Nerf Gun battle then morphed into a family water sprinkler session. Sorry to everyone in Wellington if you were wishing for a peaceful Christmas - we screamed a lot!

After we dried off there was more present opening. I love my new bird house - thanks kids!!

Molly and I prepared the Christmas ham for dinner...

And then it was movie time before bed. Happy Christmas everyone!

The Last Week of Term

...and school has just finished for another year!

This school year has passed by SO quickly. I still can't believe it's over. #indenial.

The last week or two at school went by in a blur of fun for both kids, full of sports and games and hikes up the mountain and play sessions at the pool and candy canes and Christmas cards and Secret Santas and visits to next year's classrooms and zero actual real work at all.


Our school has a great community and the parents are very involved, particularly in all the fun stuff - so this week I've felt like I've been up at the school more than I've been working. One day Alfie's class had a special lunch. The next day the whole school had a family picnic. Then there was a special swimming session for the parents to watch. Etc etc.

I love being able to join the kids at their school events, but it takes a toll on my workload and I've had to spend most evenings this week at the computer instead - it's not really how I want to spend my evenings at this time of year, but a glass of wine beside me always helps a bit!

Somehow, despite all the excitement and activity, both kids have managed to find unbelievable amounts of energy after school all week, and every day they've been begging me to go to the local outdoor pool. We're very lucky to have this on our doorstep - although it's unheated and completely freezing, therefore you rarely see adults in it, but the kids always have a blast!

In the middle of all this excitement, Molly had her end-of-year ballet show. This year's show was The Lion King and Molly was a water buffalo. One 3 hour dress rehearsal and 2 performances later and she was exhausted but buzzing! The show was fantastic, and we were so proud of her!

Back at home, and both kids are really appreciating our lovely backyard now we've got such long summer evenings. Alfie in particular loves kicking and throwing things around. Our poor neighbours must be getting so fed up with throwing his soccer ball back over the fence every day. His afternoons usually go something like this: he gets the toys out of the garage and starts off playing soccer. When all the balls are gone over the fence, he gets out the badminton set, and once all the "cuttleshocks" are stuck on our roof, he gets out the frisbee. And so it goes on...

As if all that wasn't enough, Molly's been staying up late each night blowing bubbles....

and sneaking strawberries off the bush!

So now we're on the first day of the school holidays. At 10.45am this morning I was enjoying a little cup of coffee after a big gardening session, while Alfie hit some more "cuttleshocks" onto the roof...

and Molly - who didn't even get out of bed until 9.40am - is STILL in her pyjamas, conked out under the tree. I think perhaps we are all in need of a rest for Christmas!

And the countdown to Christmas begins...

Christmas has actually started now...!

Molly kicked things off last week. She's a member of the school choir, and every year they go and perform Christmas carols at the local church. This year she doesn't have a school concert (that's something only the "juniors" do - ie years 1 and 2) so a few of us mums snuck into the church choir concert instead as an alternative.

"Aotearoa Christmas...mmmmmm......under the Pohutakawa tree.....celebrations in the sun...la la la"

And also last week Alfie was in his school Christmas concert.....it was just too cute!

"Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle all the way, Christmas in New Zealand on a sunny summers day, Hey!"

Last weekend we went to Wellington's annual Santa Parade - what fun! Afterwards we sang Christmas songs with Santa in the park and Alfie got to meet a Storm Trooper!

And we've just put the Christmas tree up at home.

Mind you, it very nearly didn't happen, as our old stand had been left behind when we moved house and our new stand didn't fit the tree we owned. Those of you who know Jake well might want to sit down before you read the next part in case you faint....

.....Jake did some DIY and made the stand work!!!

So we now have a tree which stands up - you just can't breathe on it in case it falls over.

Does anyone else have to hold themselves back after their children have finished decorating the tree? I always really want to rearrange everything! But I've managed to restrain myself so far, and we have kept this year's tree in a true child's style - complete with all the bare patches and crumpled home-made favourites!

When Does Christmas Start For You?

It's interesting how the Christmas season begins at different times of the year, depending on where you live.

I do remember in the UK that all the shops were full of Christmas decorations and playing Christmas songs from Sep/Oct onwards. The TV and newspapers were showing Christmas adverts for months before the event itself. The radio stations were continuously playing the same Christmas songs over and over for weeks before. People kept telling me that they'd finished their Christmas shopping in early November.

Or maybe it just felt like that? Either way, I know it started way to early and I was already bored of it all by December!

Strangely, when we lived in the Falkland Islands it went completely the other way and felt like Christmas didn't begin until Christmas Eve! (Or was it just me who felt this way?)

In NZ Christmas usually begins around about the beginning of December, and I quite like it this way. I haven't really been exposed to much commercial Christmas stuff yet, apart from a few pieces of junk mail this week. My normal radio station's still playing One Direction, Pitbull and Katy Perry. There's a poster up the road telling us to come and sing carols on our picnic blanket on the 15th of December. Alfie's got his school Christmas concert this week. But other than that, not that many signs of festivity yet....

So life continues for us as normal, ie an endless round of work, school, playdates, sporting activities, coffee, wine, more coffee, more wine, etc etc!

Jake's just back from doing the Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge - a 160km circumnavigation of Lake Taupo in the central North Island. After months of hard training he was stoked to complete it in 5 hours 18 mins and said it was a beautiful ride - but he also says he won't be doing it again!!

Meanwhile Molly is trying to follow in her Daddy's footsteps, and has signed up for the Weetbix Try-athlon in March! So we've been doing a bit of training at weekends...(she tends to give up after about 50m so I fear she's got a very long way to go until she's ready!)

She's also decided that she wants to walk up Mt Kau Kau, our local mountain, every Sunday (?). She's been up two weekends running so far - so now I have a lovely little hiking buddy. Long may this enthusiasm continue!

And at this time of year we've got lovely long, warm evenings and we've been enjoying some beautiful sunsets in our back garden. Next we need to finally buy some outdoor furniture so we can sit and enjoy instead of stand - but we're getting there, so watch this space...!

We're just starting to get a little bit into the Christmas spirit now as well. I wrote and posted most of my international cards this week, and the kids left letters to Santa by the chimney the other night.

At this time of year, all schoolkids are always exhausted (End-of-Year-itis) and Alfie & Molly are no exception, so we're trying to do a few more relaxing after-school activities in the lead up to the end of term. We've got the Christmas jigsaw puzzle out and it's been engrossing the kids most afternoons...

Of course, relaxing afternoons don't always go to plan and today the jigsaw puzzle activities deteriorated suddenly into a massive water fight!

Followed by complete hysteria...