Christmas Eve

We had a tree with a ring full of presents from the grandparents.




The lab at the hospital had a Christmas lunch on Tuesday. NZ has a fun flair for the tacky which came out in the holiday hat competition at work. My favorite was Barry with the purple Santa hair below.

My supervisor and office mate Dr.David Wei made his famous Spring rolls (below). Coming to NZ via Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Australia makes him an expert in Asian cuisine and the spring rolls are fabulous.
While I was at the work luncheon the girls walked around down town with Cheryl in the rain.

My friend Cheryl arrived from Birmingham on Sunday. This is us at Kauri Mountain Beach on Christmas Eve. It has been a real treat for me to have an old friend here to talk to and hang out with. Old friends are dear because they really know you and you have a history together. You understand where they are now because you know where they came from and how they got here.

Despite the overcast weather our Christmas Eve beach afternoon had some touch football. The girls at the beach didn't give me the memo about wearing pink.

We had never been to this beach before (end of Kauri Mountain Road). After a short walk the beach was beautiful.If you look close you can see Andrew at the bottom of this huge tree on the walk to the beach. The boys thought it a good place to "go behind".


Lynn went to get Uncle Rus in Auckland on Tuesday. We ALL enjoyed having such a fun guy share the Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and Boxing day with us. I have found my brother is so easy to be with and I wonder what my problem was when we were growing up.

Christmas Eve evening we all spent with our neighbors Nadine and Martin and their 2 kids. They introduced us to a Christmas toast with a glass of strawberries and NZ's version of Champaigne (Methode Traditionelle). They even have one variety which is "fraise" strawberry flavor. After a toast and some appetizers both families and guests headed off to a Baptist Christmas play which was the Mary and Joseph Bethleham story set in a Camp ground. It was different than the traditional candle light service but provided a good base for discussion about German church history and their backgrounds a few nights later. People are so fascinating. Anyway, the Christmas play with Mary in the Campground, Shephards as hippies, and 3 Kings that looked like rappers was a bit strange for us. The Christmas carols were the same sweet ones but we still missed the candles and the contemplative soft singing of Silent Night. After we got home, the kids hit the bed. Rus and Cheryl had their first ever experience of Santa's note, eating a cookie with crumbs left behind and being Santa's helpers.