Christmas Day... afternoon

It's now well into Boxing Day afternoon and Murray and I have been busy putting the place to rights after the Christmas chaos. We're eating leftovers for the foreseeable future, and chocolate when there's nothing else... Unexpectedly the forecast rain didn't eventuate (yet) and so the washing machine has been working overtime. The recycling has been done, and the ironing is (almost) up to date. The fridge is still bulging at the seams though.

To finish yesterday off completely, we had a nice relaxed afternoon at the end of which Murray, Nui and Brendan went out to the cemetery - but there wasn't much going on out there. We put together a nice Christmas tea - cold turkey roll and cold pickled pork, salad, new spuds and asparagus followed by little mini pavlovas. We listened to the Queen just before 7 pm and around 8.30 pm Murray took Nui home. She'd handled the day well, and was quite happy.

Brendan decided to go back to his flat not long after, so Murray and I had a cup of tea and abit of a 'blob' before bed.

Here's Brendan having a Vietnamese siesta on Christmas afternoon...

Christmas tea.

To refresh your memory, here are the prints (now framed) that we bought in Shanghai. Apologies for not turning the photo!

And on a final note - here's a reminder of a NZ Christmas. This was taken of the pohutukawa tree over our back fence on Boxing Day afternoon...

Right now we're off to see Nui and check how her day has been.

Christmas Day... morning

One of us woke feeling decidedly seedy - but I'm not naming names! We started the day off with breakfast:

By the time Nana arrived a short while later, it was time for morning tea:

Here's the PN version of the Christmas morning tea platter. Murray made the shortbread, I made the panforte and the rum balls, Nana supplied the cake, and the strawberries came from our own garden.

And then came the serious business of present opening. Here's Nana getting a little taste of Vietnam:

Murray's got some group photos of us all in Vietnamese hats which I'll add in a later blog, but for the moment, here's the purely macho version:

Complete with this masked man: Right on cue the phonecall came from Ho Chi Minh City.

Nana decided to try out her new headgear again:

And then it was time for a change of culture. We had a merii kurisumasu from Japan with the opening of Karen's presents:

Meanwhile, Bren was fossicking around in his 'food parcel' for flatters when the 'big package' character caught his eye...

This year we had a departure from tradition, with the meat being cooked on the bbq. Shame it had to rain!

But it was still a very traditional Christmas Dinner. Once again Murray outdid himself!

Some of our cracker jokes:

What is small, red and whispers? A hoarse radish!

What did one eye say to the other? Between you and me there's something that smells!

What has forty feet and sings? A choir

The plum pud and custard came up to expectations, followed by a lazy afternoon. Now Murray and Nui have gone to the cemetery while I finish this blog off. Part II of our day will appear tomorrow.

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas...!!!

Hurrah! We've all finished work and Christmas Day is tomorrow! Brendan is spending the night here; Tam and Niels called in and stayed for a bit of finger food and Christmas Eve cheer, then went home to sleep before getting up and driving through the night to catch their plane tomorrow. Once they'd gone, we had a quiet evening watching 'Love Actually' on tv and drinking too much (at least I did!!!).

It was a lovely evening, and we enjoyed nibbles on the deck.

Here's Tam and Niels heading home for a few hours' kip prior to their drive north.

And some of the pressies under the tree ready for the big day tomorrow...

We had a quiet evening in front of the tv, but enjoyed a few drinks at the same time, knowing that we were organised and ready for tomorrow's festivities.

Only one sleep to go!!!

Saying it with Flowers...

Now there are only three more sleeps until Christmas Day. The long wait will be over, not a moment too soon, though if Christmas fell on Monday or Wednesday we would have more chance of fine weather. As it is, the forecast is for rain so it looks very much as though we will not be able to take advantage of the deck for Christmas Dinner for yet another year. Right now though, it's Saturday morning and I'm waiting to go to work. The sun is out, the sky is blue and it's a lovely day.

This week Nana was surprised by a delivery of flowers. They arrived from Vietnam (courtesy of 'Forget Me Not' Florists) unannounced and unexpected, and she was naturally in tears by the time she phoned Murray to tell him.

Nana has found the run-up to Christmas this year very long and frustrating and she'll be glad when it's all over. The flowers provided a happy moment in an otherwise tedious month for her.

Wishing you a Merry Christmas wherever you are in the world and hoping that your Christmas Day is as relaxed, fun and happy as ours.

T'was the week before Christmas...

I'd just like to report that at this moment, about a week before Christmas Day, we are well and truly on track, all things organised, all boxes ticked, all presents sent (or arranged to be en route) to their various destinations, cards written (and sent), and food pretty much sorted. I've even made panforte, cleaned the oven and rearranged the contents of the fridge. This was in part due to having three days off last week (they didn't want/need me at work). However, it's a different story this coming week as I'm due to work every day, including at this stage, Christmas Eve. Today Murray's work held their Children's Christmas Party and Murray was heavily involved in the running and organising of that. Fortunately he didn't have to be Santa as well! By all accounts it went off like clockwork and everyone was most appreciative of the effort put into making it a success. At this point, a week or so out from the big day, the weather is glorious (if you can describe hot and muggy as glorious) - but we wait with bated breath to find out what's in store for us on the 25th. Hopefully it will be more of the same - we really want to enjoy our Christmas dinner under the gazebo on the deck! Last night I went to a barbeque with my fellow workmates which was really enjoyable. Murray has the flu and has been a bit miserable - certainly he wasn't up to a bbq last night! But for now, that's all the news worth telling, and I'm off to bed to get a little 'Beauty Sleep' - something I, quite frankly, need quite a lot of! Good night to you all...

Christmas comes early

We'd always planned on having Tam & Niels here for a pre-Christmas get-together and farewell before they headed off to Vietnam, and Sunday night was the night for it. Of course, the weather packed a sad. Although it was raining, it was very warm. We had a clayton's Xmas dinner - steak and salady bits and pieces followed by peach/meringue tarts, icecream profiteroles and strawberries. We have just enough Christmas decorations around to give the impression of Christmas, so it was all very nice. We enjoyed it. Nana held up well, though I think she was very tired by the time Murray got her back to C Street where they were just about to send out a search party.... it was 9 pm!

Tomorrow Murray is putting on lunch for his staff, and next weekend they are having the kids' Xmas Party. We are having a 'Secret Santa' at work next Friday, together with a breakfast BBQ. It doesn't quite match up to the festivities you are enjoying in the Ho Ho Ho city, but we'll make do - after all, we can only handle so much excitement here!!!

A little bit of China comes to PN

Today we ticked off one of our projects still outstanding after our visit to China. Having bought some red lanterns in Xian as a souvenir of China where they are not only ubiquitous but picturesque and uniquely Chinese, we finally got around to hanging them and lighting them up. Hopefully we are advertising tea and not anything else, but in any case we love the effect!

Again it was a beautiful day and we had Nui to sit under the tree with us. Here's how we spent our afternoon...

Later on, after dinner, Murray and I went for a bike ride along the river to Albert Street. The daytime blue has gone out of the sky but here's proof that 'clean and green' is still alive and well in the Manawatu!

Finally, we came home and had the pleasure of lighting the lanterns to see their effect in the dark.

Putting all the pieces of the jigsaw together, we expect to open a tea shop imminently...

It's been a great weekend. Looking forward to more glorious weather and more days sitting under the tree finishing off projects...