Christmas-time, Mistletoe and Wine...

In the rush to Christmas I have been a little remiss on this front again.

This is my favourite time of year, holidays, traditions, craft, packaging, hunting for the right gift, food. But I wasn't so organised as I would have liked to be, people - if they were lucky - got store bought cards this year. I just couldn't get motivated to get crafty in time this year, My mind has been focused on other matters when I should have been planning. 

Oh well.

There were Christmas lights to hunt out again. We found a few locally, but there was a lot of driving for not too much reward. One little cul-de-sac though had almost every house taking part. Some with just a string or two of lights, others all out - snow foam machines, piped music and all manner of lights. Franklin Rd was a wonder again this year. Residents of some side streets joining in too. I wonder if it is a clause on the house sale/rental agreement that they MUST participate. You couldn't be the Grinch and live there.

Typically, as soon as work finished for the year I wanted to do more - bake and ice cakes, make thing. But with just one day (Christmas Eve) between finishing work and the big day, it just couldn't happen.

Food though, had been planned, and we ate well.

Beginning on the last day of work when some of us ordered lunches from Eat My Lunch which is a fairly new local business with a heart. A social enterprise giving back to the community. Much like many that we found and embraced while on holiday in the States earlier this year. Delicious too.

Lauren is working through (again) but didn't want to miss out on the cooking so she planned a Christmas Eve feast, as well as Boxing Day dinner and I looked after Christmas Day. Everything turned out well.

 Crunchy Apple and Cheese nibbles

Homemade Butter beer - just like Harry Potter ! 

Spinach wraps filled with Cucumber and Pesto with Peach, Tomato, Mozzarella and crouton salad

Bulghur tabbouleh with halloumi & pomegranate, Potato pesto cherry tomato & herb salad, Green salad with avocado, strawberries & Feta and mulled wine 

 Watermelon and mint infused water

Zucchini loaf, Israeli couscous & cherry salad, roasted carrots with yoghurt & dukkah dressing

...and each night a little bit of that pavlova roulade which seems to have become a traditional part of Christmas now.

We were spoilt with gifts, and enjoyed watching Christmas movies which are also becoming a tradition - can you wear out a DVD with too much playing ?

Today then is the first day to start sorting boxes which have been moved, and moved again and never opened. Maybe I might even find my missing linen ! Time to reorganise the chaos and sell some of the items which can be replaced when need be. 

I am going to have to limit my online distractions too - or nothing will get done. But, there have been many family discoveries in the last month and they keep niggling away at me to find more out.

Settling In

Well, it has been about three weeks now since the move north, to the other side of the harbour. I'm enjoying it. For the first two weeks my commute was 10 minutes each way ! Quite a difference to 45-90 minutes each way. School holidays made a difference, but even so most days last week were less than 20 minutes each way.

The boxes are slowly being dealt with and it is looking more like home. This weekend I spent an afternoon picking my way through the boxes that had got wet and started disintegrating at the old place. Dry basement indeed ! The movers had done such a wonderful job packing initially that most things just needed to be placed into a new box. Some things needed to be re-wrapped before packing though. Some things mostly wooden bowls were pretty gross, so they have been washed in water so hot it was hard to keep my hands in it, or put through the dishwasher. I'll keep them inside for a bit to make sure they are all well dried out before going back into boxes.

I also discovered all the linen we hadn't seen since Christchurch and some of mine which had been packed around bits and pieces in Wellington. So that has all been washed and aired. Some of it will go back into boxes over the next few weeks. I'm still looking for duvet covers and blankets though - who knows where they got put in Wellington ! 

The weather is still not very autumn-ish so I cant see that I will be needing blankets anytime soon anyway. But if I do, there is the one I had to buy last winter in Christchurch and a couple of others which could be put to use. BUT I really would like to know where my nice woollen Onkaparinga blanket is.

Then, today was Mothers' Day. I had the yummiest breakfast home made for me. Waffles with fresh SUMMER berries, edible flowers and maple syrup. Who would have thought summer berries would still be in the shops in May !! Very spoilt, despite having given strict instructions not to buy me anything - rather save the money and buy me something while we are on holiday. Terribly disobedient ! But much appreciated at the same time.

In other news - we have a pretty good spot to check out sunsets at our new home too.
 

Boxes and Boxes

Well, we loaded the car up and set off from Blenheim last weekend to make camp for a night in our new home. Our furniture and belongings arrived on Tuesday so only one night of roughing it was required.

What was an empty, quiet house on Monday night has since transformed into one filled with life - and many piles of unpacked, stacked up boxes and packing paper. We're still looking for a pillow and have discovered that we may have "donated" some things we thought we had kept. Like coat hangers particularly. a quick trip to the Warewhare has resolved that though. Slowly things are finding their new homes.

We are also finding our way around the city and even had a "peak hour" trip to the Emergency After Hours Clinic the other night when my fingers happened to get in the way of the knife when chopping pumpkin for dinner. OUCH.

We have plans (or I do) to get some veges planted in our amazing garden and to sort out the extra belongings that have also come out of storage. if you are in Christchurch and looking to buy some secondhand furniture - I may have what you are looking for watch this space. It will have to wait 'til my hand is working a bit better than it is now though.

Next task is to get registered with some agencies and get a job.