A Driftwood Fire

Now here's a strange sight in New Zealand.

A Christmas tree; and a fire burning.
At the same time.

Last night was cold enough to light our fire. We had it full of driftwood that we had collected from our beach house two years ago, so it was tinder dry after sitting in a box in the garage for that long. I had promised my husband the reward of a driftwood fire after carting a box of it home in the car on the long journey from Auckland to Christchurch.

Have you ever had the experience of a driftwood fire? Add it to your bucket list. I love the crackling, and the delicious beach aroma that comes from burning driftwood. A salty, sandy scent that transports you to the beach, even if it's miles away. Somehow the wood carries the essence of the ocean and the beach with it - even two years after it left.

I got down on my knees close to the fire box to breathe in the delicious smells, when a flurry of sparks sent me flying backwards. I think one even managed to singe the carpet! Oh dear! Rob just laughed at me and reminded me that's why he likes the door closed on the fire. I like it open. Just don't kneel right in front of it.

What a nice way to finish the year.

Introducing My Glad Game for 2012

I wanted to have a special blogging project for 2012 to focus on for the year.

I am not sure what this coming year will hold for us. We will be in a transitional state for several months at the beginning as we relocate and find a new nest, and all the adjustments that come with a new town and a new school. I am sure there will be good days and bad days and frustrating days, and days of happiness, and pretty ordinary days too.

I read in a magazine recently about some Australian women who started blogging every day about being grateful for something - just one thing - every day. Even if it was really, really hard to find something.

I love this idea so much that I thought I would make it my project for 2012. A personal challenge for me, to commit to doing it every day.

One photo. Every day. To celebrate the good in that day.

I've been thinking about the best way to do it - I didn't want it to take over my own blog. This blog. So it had to be somewhere separate, but still connected. So here it is. A Glad Game (remember Pollyanna)?
Come over and see it. But I won't be posting there until the evening of January 1. What do you think? Is it a good idea? I'd love it if anyone wanted to join me in doing this!

Our Christmas Table

We decided to break with the traditional turkey this year. For the last couple of years I've not had much success with them. So after seeing our local celebrity chef, Jo Seagar, in the Australian Women's Weekly (NZ edition) with a Christmas Baked Ham recipe, we decided to go with that. The hams cost around the same as a turkey, but they are soooo much tastier and easier to cook. And the best part is that we are still eating ham three days later.

We kept the table simple this year. When you are trying to sell the house and getting ready to move to a different island, simple is good! And I love blending the old traditional winter Christmas food with our summer Christmas traditions.

It is our family tradition to have Wassail to drink on Christmas Eve while the children listen to the Christmas story being read from the Bible.
But in our hot, warm summer weather it's really nice to have a chilled drink for Christmas dinner on the day. So, a couple of days before Christmas I made Jo's Raspberry Cordial. It not only looks pretty, it tastes amazing too. In fact, I'm making more of it today, just because.

 

I made a basil, rocket and cherry tomato salad with feta. Sooo simple but sooo good. I think Basil is one of my favourite summer herbs. It just smells like summer to me.

We had the to-die-for paremsan potatoes that we had last Christmas too.

Here is our massive Ham baking in the oven with it's maple syrup and cinnamon glaze.

For dessert we always have our Christmas icecream. People ask me every year if this is Jo Seagar's recipe and I have to insist that it's not. I've been making this icecream since I was 14 years old, when my girlfriend from school made it for me after a trip to America. Back in the 1980's, it was still expensive to fly abroad, so only the rich did it; but my friend's father was a flight engineer so they got discounted airfares and she used to bring back such lovely things that weren't available in NZ at that time. She called the icecrea 'cassata', and I guess over the years it has evolved into this Christmas tradition for us. Some years ago Jo Seagar came out with her own version, which is popular now in NZ. But this is my version.

Strawberry mousse in a choclate sponge, topped with strawberries.

Meredith decorated the table for us again and did a lovely job too. I enjoyed using some new placemats that I got earlier in the year - very festive!

 

Here's one little boy with his cracker party hat around his chin!

 

Our living light candle I was given for my birthday took pride of place at the table this year.

And of course, it's always nice to finish Christmas with Christmas cake - although we were so full of good food that we didn't cut into it until Boxing Day.

Merry Christmas Christchurch

My list of things to do yesterday seem pathetic this morning. I only managed to get about 4 things done, because we were yet again plunged into survival mode again at 2pm yesterday afternoon.

It was weird because at 1.30 after putting Alice to bed for her sleep I was walking down the hallway when I stopped suddenly because I heard a strange noise. A long, low rumble that wasn't quite the same sound as an airplane flying low overhead. I stopped to wait to see if there was any shaking, but there wasn't, so I just shrugged it off and carried on with my tasks. Then at 2 minutes to 2 o'çlock, as my son was opening the garage door to go outside, and I was about to turn the gas on to make my raspberry cordial, we heard the rumble, then the roar, then the shaking. So what was that rumble at 1.30? A pre-tremor warning of some sort? I don't know. I do know that at 1.30 that sound made me pause and I actually considered phoning my husband at work to tell him to leave his office early, if he could.

It has been several months since I felt a shake. We were all hoping, here in Christchurch, that it was over. As the house rattled and rolled, I could hear Alice crying in her cot down the hallway, and I had to run to get her. In all these emergency situations, as a christian, I am so glad that my instinct is to call out to God. I just do it without thinking. That's a good thing, you know, for my faith. I'm glad that my sub-consciousness turns to God in emergencies.

The quake was strong enough to worry me about my husband in his 6 storied office building in the city. My daughter was also away, playing with her best friend in a suburb that has been very badly hit by the previous quakes. A house that has been thrown up and dropped and sunken. In their dining room, you can walk uphill from one corner and into the kitchen. So I was worried about her. They had been planning to go to the beach for the afternoon and I just hoped that they were already there. It turns out they weren't, but they were ok and spent the rest of the afternoon outside.

I couldn't get hold of my husband for a long time. The phone lines were down, but the worst thing was that his cell phone was ringing, but there was no reply. Finally, I got through and heard that he was out of the building and on his way home.
Then my brother-in-law, my husband's big brother, phoned to see if we were ok, and I struggled to keep the tears back. It was so nice to talk to a family member, I was relieved that Rob was ok, and that first half hour or so after the quakes is the worst, because you're usually on your own for awhile before you start hearing from other people.

Then the texts start coming in from friends and family and the phone calls, and the nicest part was having our neighbours call in for coffee and an earthquake de-briefing as they have done with every other major shake before. It's becoming a tradition with us, you know. 

But it won't ruin our Christmas. We're all safe. We have a good, strong house. I won't be going into the city for my haircut this morning - don't even know if they'll be open and I don't think I have the nerves to be trapped in a chair in a salon I was nervous to be in, even when things were calm. I haven't quite finished my Christmas shopping, but I can always pop down to our local shops, if they're open.

Merry Christmas Christchurch. We are learning to be strong. We are learning to love and appreciate life and each other.

Frenzied

I am actually one of those people who normally love the last minute Christmas rush. I actually like shopping on Christmas Eve day for those last mminute gifts - enjoying all the excited anticipation in the atmosphere and the last day of the shops playing Christmas carols, and Santa having his photo taken with children and all the glitzy greenery and decorations.

But this Christmas I'm having to pace myself a little. A painful back doesn't help, nor does having another real estate agent visit today. I have an early morning hair cut tomorrow and a few last minute presents to get. Thankfully, I should be one of the first into the carpark, so that shouldnt be an issue. But you should see my list for today.
Tidy the house
Make raspberry cordial
Make strawberry mouse for Sunday
Wrap presents
Ironing
Ice Christmas cake
Make gifts for the neighbours
Change beds
My son and I have been planning a special idea for Rob, so we need to organise that this morning, because his work finishes early today.
Paint my nails
Praying the the mailman has delivered two presents for my children that are late in coming!

And a few other little things. All fun of course, except tidying the house and ironing.

What are you doing today?

Selling Your House is a Lonely Business

Today is our house auction day.

I hope none of my readers are real estate agents, because I'm going to state a few things about them.

We've sold quite a few homes in our married life - probably more than your average married couple. We have tended to live a little bit like gypsies We build, we live, we sell, we buy, we build..... and so on. I am hoping that our move to Tauranga will be of a more permanent nature.

But I think Rob and I must have baby-faces, because every agent we have worked with treats us like naive children who must be taught the rules before the game continues.

But we think we know the game now - quite well enough to play our own, with our own rules.

Who does a real estate agent work for? The client selling, or the client buying? In fact, it is neither. They work for themselves. They're not really interested in anything except getting a sale, and getting their bite out of it. So they don't care what you get for your house as long as you get something so they can get something.

Our land agent very 'helpfully' gives us feedback from the people who have come through it during the open homes. A few positive comments, but alot of negative ones. So much of the feedback is about our lack of landscaping outside - the driveway just has gravel. There are no established shelterbelts.

For one thing - lots of country houses just have gravel on their driveways because they are long driveways. And as for the shelterbelts - the house is only 4 years old. How fast do they think trees grow? We do have a large fledgling orchard, and a 50 tree truffiere, and fully fenced around the entire property.

You know what I think? I think because they cant find fault with the house (and they can't - it's perfect), they have to find some negative to try and get you to lower your expectations on the price. I think that it is a training tactic given to these land agents.

The first open home we had, a family spent nearly the entire hour and a half here at the house. But the agent chose not to tell us this. why - because it showed a keen interest in the house which had been on the market less than a week.  How do I know they were here that long? Because I have a lovely friend living next door who was out with her binoculars. Haha! The agent did seem surprised when I asked her about it. LOL!

* Never under any circumstance tell land agents you have a found a house you want to buy. That just gives them leverage to pressure you to lower the price.

* Set your bottom line and never deviate - unless of course 3 or 4 years have passed and the house still hasn't sold.

* And don't tell the land agent what the bottom line is!

We love our house. We built it, and we know what it is worth. It is not a 'cookie-cutter' house like so many around our neighbourhood. We will not be moved to sell our house below the GV (government valuation), just because the land agents are trying to get a sale out of us so they can have a good Christmas. We know what we're doing. And we have God on our side.

Anyone who knows their Dickens will be familiar with General George (Bleak House).
I like what he says about lawyers - so true. My husband has to work with lawyers on a daily basis in his job and you should hear his opinion on the subjecct. Well, I think land agents are in the same classification...

'I do not like the breed.' General George of Bleak House by Charles Dickens

Homemade Chai

I love chai and chai latte. Do you?

And I accidentally stumbled upon the recipe to make your own! And you know what . . . it's soooo good and doesn't cost $4.50 for a large, like it does down at my local cafe.

I made some today to give away to my neighbours for Christmas, but I've decided to keep it for myself. (I'll make them some tomorrow), by which time I probaby will have downed the entire bottle and need to make some more for myself!

You can get the recipe from here at Tasty Kitchen. Honestly, it took 30 minutes from start to finish. And I used muslin to drain it. And so inexpensive as I had all the ingredients on hand already!

A Christmas Memory-Making Tradition

A few years ago I made a new Christmas tradition for our family. Every year, we buy the children a special Christmas tree ornament. We wrap it up and give it to them about a week out from Christmas and they get to hang it on the tree.

Then, when that auspicious day comes in the far distant future, when they leave our nest to make their own, they have a box full of ornaments with meaning and happy memories to take with them and start their own tree. I love this idea!

So here are the ornaments we got this year;

Hugh - he passed his first piano exam this year.... with distinction! So this ornament seemed appropriate for him.

Meredith loves dogs. She's really an animal girl - so when I saw this decoration I couldn't resist. Isn't it cute!

And here is Theodore's. I don't think he really understood what it was all about, because he was all excited about having a present to open, but when he opened it up he looked puzzled and asked, "is this it?" LOL - but it's such a sweet ornament.

And Alice's ornament is my favourite this year. At night it really sparkles and glistens. Just this last week I was having a cup of tea with a lady who is the wife of a man who was once a government MP, and during his time in parliament they went to a luncheon hosted by Queen Elizabeth. She told me she'd never seen so many real diamonds before and that everytime the Queen made the slightest movement, the diamonds she wore in her tiara and necklace caught the lights and dazzled and sparkled in a way that was unforgettable for my friend. The way this little ornament sparkles reminds me of that story.

This year I took part in a handmade ornament swap - hosted by Sew Funky. I made 6 ornaments, and I receive 6 from my swap partners. So far, I have five of them, and here they are.The crochet one, and the felted angel are my favourites - and the santa with the mask on is holding a little blackboard that you can write on with chalk. This one says, "joy". Isn't that cool!

We do, of course, have a few handmade ornaments made by the children this year - school is great for organising all that!

  

I love Christmas trees, and I love Christmas traditions. It just puts some of the joy into life, doesn't it!

Giveaway Winner, Winner, Winner!!!!

I had so much fun reading through all your comments and house name suggestions. Thank you so much. I think my love of naming homes comes from LM Montgomery, and it does seem to be a tradition in my husband's family. Both of our house names come from his ancestors and their homes. Prior Hill was the name of the farm in which his great greats lived on in Scotland. And Littlebourne was the name of an old victorian house (now demolished to make way for a highway) owned by his grandparents in Dunedin, New Zealand.

I don't really want to give up Littlebourne, but each house deserves its own name. I loved your ideas. The names that stood out to me were these ones:

Featherwake

Thistletwig Cottage

Whispering Pines

Warmhearth

Willow House

Hill Top

Everspring

Wisphollow

Indian Meadows 

Just delightful.

But, now on to the important matter at hand. Drawing the winner.

Last time I numbered all the comments, wrote them down, and drew them out of a hat. But being Christmas time and trying to sell my house at the same time, I thought I'd save myself a job and use the true random number generator. Very boring I know, but it was necessary!

And here is the number it chose from the 99 entries.

And number 52 turns out to be....

Laura Jeanne from Ontario, Canada! Congratulations Laura Jeanne. I hope you'll love the shoes.

Bagpipes, Firemen, Dragons and Alice in Wonderland

 We took the children into our local town this afternoon to see this jolly old man.

Our kids know all about Santa, but the little ones are not quite sure, so it was a big deal for them. It was really nice to be part of the crowd (even though I hate crowds), and enjoy all the floats that came past us. I think it was Alice's first real parade. But before we saw Santa, we enjoyed the other things in the show.

Alice really got into the spirit of things, except when the Harley's came by - too noisy and scary for her!

Meredith and I want one of these dogs. Aren't they adorable!

The boys loved all the boys things. Teddy was quite in awe of the fireman. He wants to be a firefighter when he grows up, just like every other little boy.

We love our local St. John's, having had a ride to the hospital in one of their ambulance's.

The vintage tractor was a big hit.

We loved Alice in Wonderland.

 

Alice was taking it all in, enjoying it.

 

I always love hearing the bagpipes.  And the Pipe Band with the dear old Sallies takes me right back to my childhood in Blenheim, when they'd march through the streets at twilight playing Christmas caroles.

Lots of clowns. Do you know, I know several adults who have a clown phobia.

The Town Cryer

It was nice to see lots of nativity floats.

I loved the horses.

Lots of laughs at the Pink Panther driving the truck.

and the dragon was cool. . .

We saw our newly elected MP, Kate Wilkensen.

But of course the big attraction was Santa - and he came right at the end.

We have had such a busy week and weekend, we nearly didn't bother to go to the Santa Parade, but we're glad now that we did. The kids really enjoyed it and it was fun to be part of it all.