Merry Christmas

Thursday I picked up Mom and Dad from the airport and we went straight back to the bed and breakfast to get checked in.  It was a very nice little place right down the street from my house so just a convenient little walk down the street.  They really enjoyed Gordon and Leslie’s company as well, the owners of the home they stayed in.  We then went down into Devonport to purchase a few supplies from the supermarket and then headed back to shower and freshen up.  We caught the 1:25 ferry across to Auckland and walked around the Viaduct and then to a Mexican restaurant for lunch right across from the sky tower.  They couldn’t have arrived on a more beautiful day weather-wise.  It was extremely sunny and hot and humid.  After lunch we wandered down Queen St and did a bit of shopping since there were some nice Christmas sales.  We made a gelato stop as well for a nice afternoon snack to cool us off. 

Friday, we started the day with some Christmas cookie baking.  Snowballs and Chocolate Peanut-butter Pinwheels were the ones I chose.  Libby was excited to help with the baking and Tessa got involved as well, luckily towards the end when most of the mixing and work was done already.  When rolling out the peanut-butter batter for the pinwheels, Mom left Libby to do a bit of rolling on her own for less than a minute and about half the dough ended up outside the wax paper and smeared all over the counter top!  She was trying to roll it really flat apparently!  After baking we went to Takapuna, trying to have lunch at this supposedly delicious Italian place, Boticcelli, but it didn’t open until 5:30 for dinner.  So we had a delicious salad at a cafe and then went for a walk on the beach.  We ended up getting rained on a little bit, but it was still a very hot, humid day.  We went into the mall and did a bit more shopping to get out of the rain and then by the time we went to dinner the sun was starting to come out again!  We also took some photos of the town’s Christmas decorations, Santa’s carrying surf boards and laying in hammocks!  Dinner was very yummy, so I’m glad we waited to eat there! 

After dinner we went back to the house to visit with John, Julia and John’s brother Peter and sister Linda for awhile and we showed them some of the barefooting footage from camp and also on the CT river right before I left for NZ.  They enjoyed some of the crazy wipeouts!  Right before bed, we headed down to the marina to take some pictures of the city skyline with the sky tower all lit up for Christmas with red and green lights! 

Christmas morning came and went before I even got out of bed (round 1 at least).  I awoke around 6:30 but didn’t hear too much commotion and ended up falling back asleep until about 7:20.  Turns out that’s when presents were being opened, at least stockings from Santa.  When I went downstairs at 7:20 everything was opened and being played with already.  We started to prepare the snacks and food (which was cold meat and salads mostly) and waited for everyone else to start arriving around 10:30.  Julia’s brother and his wife and 2 kids ages 3 and 1, and her parents came over for the next round of presents which was madness!  I got some nice Kiwi souvenir items from each member of the family.  From the Clinton’s I have a nice painting of Devonport with Rangitoto in the background.  From Linda I have a small photo of the Mount on a board.  From Peter, a cute little hairy kiwi bird.  I also received a few beauty products and then some things from the kids.  Reuben chose a nice little class kiwi bird for me which apparently he spent ages picking out.  Libby chose an I <3 NZ bear key chain and this pack-away carrying bag with a little sheep on it.  And from Tessa, which I assume was picked out by Julia, was a blue t-shirt with a kiwi pattern on it.  Very Tessa though, since anytime you ask her what color something is the answer is always blue!!  It was a nice afternoon, followed by some traditional kiwi desserts including pavlova, but our cookies were a HUGE hit!  Actually, I don’t think any lasted past the day!  Later in the afternoon we walked down the street to the park and played some cricket and with some of the other new toys.  I ended up taking a nap after that and then had to pack for our campervan trip!

Someone jumping off the sky tower

Ferrying back to Bayswater

Cooking baking with Tessa and Libby

Surfing Santa on a lamp post in Takapuna

"My house" or house of choice on Takapuna Beach

Harbor Bridge by night

City Skyline with Christmasy sky tower

Christmas morning round 2

Playing in the park Christmas afternoon

Pohutukawa tree flower

Long Day with Tessa

This morning, Julia had to leave by 7 for work, so I was on Tessa duty from then on.  We went on a pretty long walk on the path to Takapuna (but didn't go quite that far) and stopped at the park for morning tea and playing on the slide.  Today was VERY hot and humid so it was nice to be rained on a little bit on the way back, but for the most part, the sun was out today!  Later in the afternoon we went on the trampoline for awhile and she wanted to go swimming, but the tide was all the way out, so that wasn't really a possibility.  We then had to go meet Nan and pick up Libby and Reuben before dinner.  Unfortunately, there was soooo much traffic she was about 45 min later than our meeting time!  Tessa explored the car inside and out and pretended to drive us somewhere, and locked and unlocked the doors with the key many times!  The poor thing was SO hot and sweaty because she insisted on wearing long-sleeves today we ended up taking her shirt right off so she could cool down.  She also wanted to stay in the car with the doors closed, because she was taking us somewhere, you can't "drive away" with open doors apparently...

Anyway, I just heard from Mom and Dad a little while ago and they are in LAX boarding the plane soon for their flight here!  I'll be picking them up at 8am tomorrow morning! :)

1 More Day...

Until 2 things! First, Mom and Dad arrive and second, until MY summer holidays start!  I will be picking them up at 8am Thursday morning from the airport and then technically "on holiday" until the 13th of January when they fly home! 

Today I had all three kids for the majority of the day!  This morning played some games, went on the trampoline and did some art.  I forgot to say that yesterday morning we had a pretty competitive game of musical statues (freeze dancing) and then musical chairs (kind of difficult with 3 people needed one to do the music, but Libby and Reuben were determined to make it work).  While Tessa was napping, I tested out making a 3D snowflake following directions online.  It turned out pretty cool-looking and HUGE but was far too complicated for the kids patience...I had to tell Libby a few times while I was working on it that she couldn't use some of paper I had cut for her own project because it was going to turn into part of the snowflake at the end.  They both really liked how it looked but weren't too interested in making their own, Libby just decided that I should make that one "for her." 

When Tessa woke, and they all had had some kind of lunch we went to the pool again.  This time with all three kids!  Nan met us there because she was taking Libby and Reuben to spend the night at her house from there.  We had another pretty long swim, Libby continued to progress and Tessa just wanted to jump in over and over again!  She couldn't get enough of the jumping!  After swimming I came home with just Tessa and had a pretty quiet rest of the afternoon.  We went on the trampoline some more, on the swings and then she decided to play hairdresser for awhile, continually putting a clip in my hair and then taking it out again without unclipping it...ouch...I tried to show her what to do but she still ended up pulling out at least one hair each time! 

Summer Holidays

It's a bit strange to me that the kids are now out of school for their SUMMER holidays!  Over Christmas and New Year? That would be so different!!  It's only 6 weeks though so they have a longer break in their winter too.  Anyway, the weekend was a lot of fun!

Friday night I drove out to Waimauku (which is still Auckland) to stay at Jenny's house for the night.  It was very much countryside out there.  She lives on a dirt road and has chickens and a goat and a little pond, very pretty but not nearly as developed as here.  Her house is pretty cool though and family was even cooler!  Four of us went to hang out and stay the night and then two German guys that were working on Caitlin's farm for free bed and food came to hang out with us as well.  We ended up playing cranium in two teams with Jenny's "mom" while her "dad" played bartender and DJ and made us drinks all night and danced to their large assortment of music (lots of trance-like club beats) on their database.  Saturday morning we had chocolate chip pancakes (finally! first time since camp) and then headed down to Muriwai beach for our surfing lesson.  The rain actually went away for the morning and was replaced by a little sunshine and some beautiful surfing weather!  I managed to catch quite a few waves and stand up.  It was a lot of fun and they said the conditions were perfect for us!  The surf wasn't too high but some were big enough to get dumped off.  In the afternoon (in my 2nd lesson of the day) it had started pouring rain again, but once we were in the water it didn't make too much difference.  The waves were a bit higher and apparently when I was going a little more "advanced" according to one of the teachers, I did a late drop or something trying to catch a wave that hadn't broken yet but I was clearly not ready (and late) and it was pretty steep and it just threw me forward and I tumbled around.  He said it looked pretty gnarly...haha surfer language in universal I guess...but I was fine didn't hurt a bit.  Underwater flips are much softer than on the surface of the water (like when barefooting)! 

After surfing we went back to Jenny's to get ready for Astrid's birthday party up the road in Kumeu.  Everyone had to dress as something beginning with "A" and I decided to go as an All Black, a member of the NZ rugby team.  It went over quite well, especially in town after the party, lots of high-fives and "go All Blacks" thrown my way! 

Sunday, about 10 of us met at Laura's house, because the rain is continuing to fall, for our picnic/xmas gift exchange!  It was a nice little afternoon eating, chatting and relaxing and opening some small gifts and swapping them around if we chose to. 

Today, I took Libby and Reuben to the pool in Takapuna where they spent over 2 hours!  The smaller kids pool it super heated so they don't get cold and were just having so much fun playing.  Libby was so determined to learn to swim on her own.  This time now that her feet could touch the bottom she was trying over and over again on her own and making good progress.  I had to get out after awhile to avoid completely shriveling up, but they continued to play on the foam floats and things with some of the other kids in the pool. They were pretty tired after that when we came home to have lunch.  Reuben hopped straight on the computer and Libby and I went on the trampoline for awhile, but she quickly got tired of bouncing, then running around in circles.  She wanted to go on the swings for a little but that was probably too much work as well.  We spend awhile digging in the sand to the rock down by the water and scratching drawings into the ground.  I taught her how to play tic-tac-toe drawing on the rocks.  Couldn't believe she'd never heard of it before!

Christmas at Laura's

apple tree, athlete, address book, Ali G, asian school girl, airline pilot, All Black, Aphrodite, archer

Xmas Tree and Jack n Sandra "Purple" Tree!

So I decided to include a picture of the Christmas tree cause it was just do different looking.  It's super green with super long needles and are all really soft and flimsy.  And then I realized that we have a Jacaranda tree in the corner of the neighbor's yard making a big purple mess on the driveway! 

The last few days that seasonal rains have kicked in, supposedly this is what the weather is supposed to be like this time of the year, not the hot sun that we've been getting.  It's kind of a nice break for the hot hot sun though, so I don't mind.  On Wednesday, it was so hot and humid the kids want to have a water balloon fight on the trampoline!   At first they were so excited to play with them that we were lucky if they made it out the door of the house before bursting!  Then Libby went to find a bucket to put them in to collect them after I filled them so that they could go use them all at once.  But Tessa slowed down the process because she just wanted one all the time.  She understood when I handed one to her she had to go outside and then somehow managed to break it either on herself on threw it at the ground.  Soon it turned into, one for Tessa, one in the bucket because she kept coming back for more!  Then they got dressed as angels and headed back to school for caroling and a bbq.  I went for swim at the pool in Takapuna and then out to dinner and ice cream.  Yesterday, it was a rainy day all day long, perfect for just being lazy, catching up on some TV shows and watching Christmasy things.  I did go and get some things I need for this weekend, though, e.g. some pieces for my costume for Astrid's 25th birthday party tomorrow night.  We have to go dressed as something beginning with "A".  I'll put up pictures of what people came up with in a few days! 

Tonight, I'm making my first trip to the west coast of Auckland to stay with Jenny in Waimauku to be nice and close to Muriwai Beach for tomorrow morning where we'll be taking our surfing lessons!  Astrid's party is also out that way in Kumeu at night so it will be a Saturday spend entirely in West Auckland.  Sunday, we're planning a Christmas picnic, where everyone is bringing some kind of dish to share and a gift for a yankee swap, so hopefully the rain subsides by then! 

A NZ Christmas Tree

Purple mess on the driveway

Purple Tree, Purple Tree!