An Almost Perfect Christmas

The lead up to Christmas this year was slightly different to our normal Christmas build up. A couple of decent earthquakes, a 5.8 & 6 magnitude accompanied by a swarm of aftershocks 2 days beforehand closed down malls & shops....right as I was about to head for them.

Sometimes procrastination is good - & believe me I had procrastinated all morning about heading to the Mall & doing all those last minute things, such as....well,  pretty much everything really! Gifts, food,  you name it. I hadn't bought anything apart from my nieces & nephews presents when I was in Australia.

My intention had been to get up early Friday morning & get the last of my gift shopping done before heading to the supermarket. But I faffed around answering emails, reading a tutorial & just putting it off in general & I wasn't even sure why. I'm so pleased I did!

Just as well  I came to the conclusion that Christmas will come regardless of whether I am ready or not a few years back, that it's not dependent on the trimmings & trappings or buying into the dreadful commercialism that it seems to have become.

Still, that doesn't stop me wanting to have the house looking a little like Christmas so this year, the first in many, I had splurged on a huge bunch of Christmas lilies & long stemmed red roses. Of course that was before I remembered that all of my vases had been broken in the February quakes - so then I had to splurge on a new vase (sorry honey, if you are reading this - I forgot to mention that part & the lilies didn't really look that great sitting in a blue plastic juice jug....).

More than anything I would have loved to have brought a really nice nativity set - but the only one I could find that fitted the image in my head had a price tag of $300.00+, so was somewhat prohibitive.

I did have plans of further table decorations, a lightly gold sprayed mossy branch hung with some small antique looking cream & gold angels that I have was to accompanied by a bird cage I had picked up in Australia that I had started decorating. Having to delay my shopping until the stores re-opened on Christmas Eve saw me run out of time to complete the mossy branch one.

Christmas Day came & it was wonderful. It was spent surrounded by family & I only say almost perfect as there were  two key members of the cast missing. The Mailleman, who is of course in Australia & Baby Boy who is deployed to parts that don't observe this particular celebration. I missed both of them dreadfully as well as missing the company of my daughter in law, Kerry, as she spent the day with her family.

It's more than a little strange to think that this is potentially my last Christmas in New Zealand.

That said, more than ever this made me realise what Christmas truly means to me. It's not about the trimmings & trappings or the decor. It's not about the food, the drink or the gifts - especially whether you get or give the latest techno gadget. It is certainly not about the mass commercialism that seems to increase with every year.

Quite simply it is about being surrounded by those you care about & remembering what the day is truly celebrating; Christ's Mass. I hope that yours was as blessed as mine was.

Trans Pacific Christmas Contrasts - Reveal!

Finally the time has come for the reveal in this the second of Mallory Hoffman's & my Artistic Challenges.

After our initial Artistic Challenge, Crush on Copper, we decided because of the time constraints that December brings (especially when you have a very important wedding taking place just 7 days before Christmas!!) we'd keep this months challenge simple.

The plan was that we'd highlight the extreme seasonal differences that our localities half a world apart afford us at Christmas time. You'd be surprised at the things you don't think of when you take the climate where you live for granted - the seemingly small differences that aren't due to any customs as such at all, but rather dictated by the weather as to what is available.

This summer, so far we have been blessed with incredible weather - so knowing that Christmas day was likely to be sunny & hot I focussed planning for our family Christmas to be primarily outdoors....& for the food to be kept simple in order that everyone could relax & enjoy themselves.

The weather came to the party providing us with a bright blue sky & fluffy white cotton balls...until about 9.30am when they had all but disappeared & leaving us with bright hot sun.

Just as well I had planned to borrow my brothers portable gazebo so the kids, big, small & 4 legged, had somewhere to play safely away from the harmful rays!

Those that had prepared the salads & desserts were quite happy to sit back & relax for a bit while others attended to the BBQ.

I truly do expect that this was the first time my wonderful sister in law Jackie had really sat down for longer than 5 minutes in the last month!

The array of salads - with a noodle salad on the far end (with a dressing that is to die for!!). Next to that was the most delicious Potato Salad prepared by the former 'terrible teen'& budding chef, Michaela! Mum's stuffing which is an absolute must, & the pièce de résistance of any event that I can manage to get her to make it for resides firmly at the centre of attention, even with BBQ'd meats! A fresh lettuce salad & a lovely Pasta salad finished off the array.

It was kind of cool that the lettuces & cabbage were picked fresh out of our garden that morning.

The meat maestro's at work - my beautiful new daughter in law Kerry, & my eldest son Jeremy.

Offering refreshment to the vege garden!!

Jackie's wonderful Pavlova with fresh berries on top...

Fresh fruit salad

For us the Christmas celebration runs over two days. December 26th, Boxing Day, is also my Mum's Birthday. This year she turned a sprightly 73 years young. While the family were together again on Boxing Day a few of us took the chance to go to the beach together. It was an overcast day & a little cooler than the day before - but the beach was calm & wonderful. Even if we did take a 10 kilometre round walk through Bottle Lake Plantation.....

The grandpuppies enjoyed it too....

I cheated & finally decorated the tree on Christmas eve, mainly because I wanted it to feel like Christmas for my nieces & nephew. May I add right here that around 11pm on Christmas eve is a darn bad time to discover that the light set you chose out of the three available & which you didn't check before you put them on the tree, aren't working.....

More in keeping with this Christmas theme would have been this, a Feijoa in flower.

Maybe that is an idea for next year :)

As I mentioned in my previous post, this was a blessed Christmas. Surrounded by all those that I love meant more to me than anything - it also offered up a wonderful surprise. But more about that later!!

A Blessed Christmas

No material gift could be better than the gift of spending Christmas day surrounded by the people in your life whom you love. Not a single thing.

The spirit of Christmas simply can not be bought in a store. Yesterday as I watched older cousins interact with the younger ones, a brother & a sister in law work together at the BBQ, fathers & sons setting up a gazebo, an Aunt & her niece figuring out a new cell phone & everyone scurrying around in between preparing food I counted my blessings - all 16 of them, family & extended family.

We kept the food & preparation simple & the shared workload light. It allowed us all time to enjoy one another.

Gabriela made me some beautiful candles as a Christmas present & Christmas night we watched TV by candle light.It was a perfect end to a beautiful day.

Did The Earth Move For you?

There I was last night, quietly minding my own business & making beads out in my Garagio (flash name for my garage based studio), when all of a sudden the earth started moving for me....or rather under me.

It was a somewhat surreal feeling, not that it's the first earthquake I have ever felt by a long shot. The fact that I was the only one in this house that felt it left me somewhat bemused!! Perhaps it was because I sit at a very level work area with my elbows resting on the table & my feet on the floor that made me more aware...who knows!

If you can imagine being completely focussed on a ball of molten glass held in a hot flame you might understand the thought process.

A subconscious awareness of movement & the thought
"hmmm, if I'm feeling this vague, I must need more coffee"....a split second before the realization of
"well heck, I'm actually moving & gently swaying, yet sitting still" which of course was closely followed by
"oh bloody hell - earthquake (how cool)".
Of course the next thought was the responsible adult thought of "I suppose I really should put this bead down & turn everything off", right as I continued to add another dollop or two of glass.

At this point I was wondering why no one inside had yelled out anything, & decided that at any second I was going to hear the crash of something falling down or such so, complete with molten bead in hand, I went across the garage, into the lounge & pretty much blurted out "can you guys feel this?".

Blank looks greet me from both the 11 year old sitting on the couch & the Mailleman standing at the bench in the kitchen.

Them: "Feel what?"

Me: "ummm - the Earthquake"

Mailleman: "no, didn't feel a thing"
11 Year Old: "Oh that will be why the blinds were swinging before"

At that point I may have rolled my eye's, & quietly given up on my family.lol!

I snuck back out to my work area & as I sat down realised that it was still going but in the throes of tailing off!

As I said perhaps it was just because of the way I was sitting....then again I have felt quakes that others haven't when I have been sitting at the computer.
Of course it all happened in a very short time & no beads were harmed in the shaking.

OK, so this is not the most beautiful bead I've ever made - but it survived some time out of the flame before being quickly finished off, & it's probably unique in as much as it was made during a New Zealand earthquake.