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.