Pie in the summmer

When I was really little, four maybe, for one of our school holiday pageants my class had to dress up in summer gear and sing a song. I still remember the lyrics, because since then my dad has sung it on a faily regular basis.

"Christmas in July-yyy, There's no reason why-yyy, We can't have a pie-yyy in the summer".

Maybe I've been manifesting a summer-time Christmas since the age of four. But, in any case, here was our summery Christmas day (sans pie, but with lots of home-baked goodies).

Gorgeous weather on Christmas day. Mt. Karioi smmiling down at us.

A pile of presents waiting to be opened!

Some of us were very excited... others took a more laid back approach.

A stocking full of home-made strawberry jam with strawberries from our garden.Just a few of mom's cookies left by Christmas day. Straight from New Jersey to my belly.

Couldn't resist a mid-day surf at the beach. Seems like all of Raglan was out there. Then back to Solscape for a Brazilian style barbecue and potluck with 40 of our dearest (friends) and nearest (homesick backpackers).

Thiago teaches Kyle the art of the Brazilian barbecue.

Beautiful friends.
Beautiful food.
While the lamb was finishing roasting we did a gift exchange.

It got pretty heated.
Some people brought weapons to prevent gift theft. We fared well, ending up with an incredible home-made chocolate coconut cake (thanks Reiko!) and some gingerbread cookies. Hope you had a great Christmas, whether you are celebrating with surf or snow.

Holding my breath

If bad things come in threes then I'm pretty much just waiting for the other shoe to drop.

#1- Got word from Jake, our local bit-too-laid-back computer guru. In fact I got three words from him. First text: "Bad News". I called him immediately, of course. No answer. Who sends a text like that with no follow up? Second text (24 hours later): "It's dead". Jake is a man of few words. Here's to hoping the more professional crew at the Mac store in Hamilton will have better luck.

#2- For 36 hours Dec. 21-22 I laid in bed teetering between actually throwing up and just being on the verge. Today I feel 90%. Still on the BRAT diet, which I hope to end by Christmas when Thiago will be teaching us the ways of Brazilian barbecue.

#3- ? Who knows. Coal in the stocking?

It's beginningn to look a lot like...

First off, sorry for the hiatus. It was 80% that my computer is stuffed and 20% lack of motivation. Oh and an addition 10% of not wanting to interrupt Nelson while he's hard at work becoming a Dee-Ar. That's 110% of excuses. No wonder I haven't posted in two weeks.

Well, during that fortnnight Christmas has suddenly appeared. No, I don't ust mean the box of cookies that arrived from New Jersey yesterday (thanks mom!). While the Christmas craze has not quite made it to NZ in the same way that it manifests itself in the US, there is evidence everywhere that Santa is on his way to the Southern hemisphere. The weird thing is that kiwis decorate for Christmas the same way we do in the north. Sleighs, reindeer, snowflakes... ummm its summer people! Santa wearing board shorts, riding a 4x4, being pulled by possums might be more appropriate.

In our little house truck we don't have rom for a tree, but I was feeling like we should have some Christmas cheer, and start some Christmas traditions of our own. We are almost grown ups after all. So I made us some stockings to hang by the chimney. I am definitely not half as talented as my big sister in this regard. And hand-sewing is no joke. But, all in all, I think they came out pretty good (besides Nelson's stocking's club-foot).