Christmas 2011

What can we say? That was a completely and utterly fabulous Christmas!

The sun shone for days on end and the temperature climbed up for us (although at 24 degrees centigrade it was still 20 degrees less than last year!). But enough to spend most of the last few days outdoors having the kind of Kiwi Christmas we’ve really missed while we’ve been away over the last few years.

First off, Jake was desperate to re-instate his tradition of surfing at Christmas, so on Xmas Eve we packed the board in the car and drove over to Lyall Bay where, in true tradition, the water was almost flat as a pancake and unsurfable. This follows a pattern – the same thing always happens every year, but at least this year he didn’t make us wake up at 6am to do it. Instead, we spent half a day pottering about in the waves and lazing in the sun – bliss! It was also probably a good thing, since Jake managed to fall under a train a couple of days ago (but that’s another story altogether!) and I’m not sure that surfing would have been a good idea in his current condition.

We followed this up with a potter around Breaker Bay, one of our favourite beaches in Wellington, where we spent a lot of time over the winter – it’s such an absolutely stunning place. Unfortunately this time we were left rather red faced when we discovered that unbeknown to us, it is actually a nudist beach. Over the last 6 months the winter weather has been somewhat cooler, thus preventing much nudism from taking place, so we had never realised before. But this time the crowds were out – which was a little difficult to explain to the kids and a little uncomfortable for us! 

To round off the day we followed one of my family traditions and celebrated Wigilia (a Polish Christmas celebration) with fish and chips on the beach at Seatoun. Wigilia demands that no red meat is eaten, and as a child I grew up on fish every Christmas Eve. This seemed like a pretty good way of adapting the tradition!

For Christmas Day, Jake managed to build our new barbeque (despite train injuries) and our Christmas lunch was a fantastic traditional kiwi concoction of steak, sausages, kebabs and pavlova followed by a lazy afternoon with some new friends - lots of sunshine, more pavlova, beer, wine and water play (depending on your age).

Yesterday we hung out on Raumati Beach where a couple of kids had just been out fishing and brought back a baby tiger shark – yikes! Everyone had a little stroke of its fins, but we got out of the water pretty fast after that!

The whole Christmas period followed this same pattern – lots of beaches were visited, shells and stones collected, crabs and starfish were poked, and in between we hung out in the garden drinking wine, playing music, opening presents, playing with presents, etc etc. And it’s not all over yet so I better get back to it....bye for now!

Summertime...

So it’s summer and it’s the school holidays and it’s nearly Christmas, and this is what our lives are looking like these days...

The kids are loving lots of bike trips and I am loving the fact that we frequently end up at the local cafe!

Molly walked straight in today and placed my order at the counter without even checking with me what I wanted. She got it right of course. Oops, perhaps we have been going a little bit too often....? 

The Pohutakawa trees are starting to bloom (New Zealand's Christmas tree), the agapanthus are starting to bloom, the garden is blooming, Wellington is blooming, and despite our children's best efforts to strip all flower beds bare and fill up all our vases, cups and jars with their pickings, there's still plenty of colour everywhere.

The evenings are long and sunny, and the kids are allowed to stay up later than usual chasing bubbles on the deck, chalk drawing Christmas tree pictures all over the driveway, eating chocolate and watching Christmas movies.

We’re making use of all the beautiful walking tracks near our house...(and it's incredibly handy that the cafe is nearby afterwards!) 

And we've been swimming as much as we can. At the last count I think as a family we've been in five different swimming pools in the last week. We've even visited the outdoor swimming pool a few times (it’s not quite the same as Alice Springs though – brrr!)... 

The End of the School Year

Following two or three weeks of sheer excitement and plenty of fun, Molly’s school finished for the year today. It feels like a big milestone....

(For those in the UK: the NZ school year runs from January to December, with the long summer holidays running from Christmas until February).

What a year! She began 2011 with her first day at Primary School back in Alice Springs, and is finishing up her first full year in Wellington. It’s amazing to see how far she’s come.

Things she does now which she couldn’t do at the beginning of the year: she can read books, write stories & letters, make up poetry and do simple maths.

She often goes for playdates at her friends’ houses (without a parent); she’s performed in concerts (very many of them!); she knows all about the local and world news, and all about the environment & planet Earth.

She can sew/embroider, she can sing along to many pop songs word-perfect, she follows the every move of Dan Carter, understands what advertising is and has a firm grip on New Zealand politics.

Way to go, little Molly!

Christmas is here already

We have to admit it. This year we have completely abandoned our usual principle of “Christmas does not start until the 3^rd week of December”.

It’s just impossible not to get into the spirit now we have a 5 and 3 year old.

Christmas cookies have been baked. 

Letters to Santa have already been written and left by the fireplace.

The kids have both already had their school Xmas concerts.

There's no longer much school work going on - the last couple of weeks are all about trips to the park, fun swimming sessions, Christmas movies, school picnics etc. Even better - no more homework! (oops, I shouldn't really say that, but it's a huge bonus not to have to fit in a reader, spelling, news preparation etc etc every night at the moment).

Presents have been purchased (well, not all - sorry Jake!).

All our cards have been written & posted, and lots of cards and presents have started to arrive from all over the world (thanks everyone!).

The Christmas CD has been retrieved from storage and has already been played too many times.

Alfie has sat on Santa’s knee and advised him of the importance of having a Bey Blade in his stocking this year. 

And the tree went up yesterday.

(The alien was Molly's prize in a dancing competition at the local village fair this weekend, and is now an important member of the family). 

Happy Christmas everyone!

The Weekend

We all got a bit of a fright this weekend when a 5.7 magnitude earthquake rocked Wellington. We’ve been in a few mag 3 and 4’s over the years but never anything as big as this one. According to official reports it was the biggest one to hit Wellington in 45 years. Never mind the timeline - it was seriously scarey.

Once we’d climbed out from underneath the beds and got the kids back to sleep, the wedding wine came out – sorry guys, but we needed to open a bottle to steady our still-shaking hands. Will replace it before the big day we promise!

Meanwhile, Jake continues with his torturous 3 hour runs up the mountains each weekend, always returning to the house begging for food and massages. While he was out yesterday there was a very special moment when I discovered Molly and Alfie had gone upstairs to sit quietly together by the window while Molly taught Alfie how to sew. So cute.

Other excitement this weekend included Molly’s ballet concert. She was simply awesome in her role as “Molly” from the movie Annie – well done Molly! (And well done to Alfie for sitting up the front so nicely with the other kids and giving your sister the biggest clapping in the world).