Late December 2018 was a very special time for me...

It has been quite a year.

There have been some big changes (again) and plenty of fun times.

The best part was seeing and spending time with family in October, then eight weeks later at Christmas. Now looking forward to the next time in ten more weeks.

This was the first Christmas Day with Mum and Dad since we moved from Christchurch in 2015 - and even that wasn't actually Christmas, it was a quick road-trip up and back in 2014 on Boxing Day and the day after in between shifts for Lauren. Before that it must have been another couple of years as Christmases alternated between Wellington and Renwick or Cambridge.

We had a great time catching up and exploring with them. A day in Toowoomba to see a cousin of Dad's, wandering around the shops in the craziness before Christmas, cruising the river on the free City Hopper, checking out the flora and fauna at Mt Coot-tha, Roma Street and in local parks. Walks along the riverwalk at Southbank, dinners, ice-creams to cool down in the hot sticky heat.

All too quickly it was time to say goodbye - but in just a blink of an eye it will be our turn to fly.

#52Stories, Week 52, 'Tis the season..

Christmas

It has to be my favourite time of the year. I’m not sure exactly what it is about it, that makes it so.

Maybe it is because all over the world people are celebrating together.

Maybe it is all the great (often cheesy) movies…

…or the baking – so many choices

…or packaging – it’s the craft geek in me, I can’t help myself

…or the sharing.

The counting down,

Carols in the park.

Taking time to breathe,

Searching for the right gift – not just a gift for gift-giving’s sake.

Making time to appreciate life…people, and to thoughtfully give to others who might not share the same opportunities.

Following traditions, making memories, reminiscing, starting new rituals.

Summer days – although a white Christmas is still on my bucket list, even if it is only once.

The joy of homecoming (not that there is much of that goes on in our family) – maybe next year.

Ours is always a quiet day – 2, maybe 4 people. Those rowdy, fun cousin packed, extended family events I always long for aren’t really an option. Maybe I wouldn’t enjoy them anyway, as used to solitariness as I am.

Mostly I think it is that cosiness, mindfulness feeling…

…seeing the joy in others – young and old.

It is MAGIC.

B E L I E V E

#52Stories, Week 50, Which of your childhood holiday traditions have you carried on into adulthood. What new traditions have you started ?

Making a fruit cake is the obvious tradition which I have continued. (Although it has been missing the last couple of years since I became a bit of a gypsy.)

I still send cards each year, not as many as I did once. Not because there are less people to send to; more that I make my own and lack of organisation often means I run out of time. It is also more costly these days as postal services struggle to run their businesses. But as connected as I am on the web, I still believe in snail mail. If we all give up and don’t use it – it will be lost forever. (In New Zealand anyway. Other countries who complain about their services still have effective services operating today. Don’t get me started on the indefinite amount of time it takes to send and receive mail on three teeny islands.)

So, making cards is a new thing and there have been many different designs over the years (I just found about 15 or 16 years of photos !).

Packaging. This has become a real part of the process for me. The thought which goes into the gift and then the presentation.

Writing a Christmas newsletter to update friends and family of the happenings during the year.

Decorating with a theme. This too has gone a bit by the by since moving around more. White tree/Red & green tree/Gold tree/Silver tree/Red & white tree

I have a bit of a thing about snowmen – like Frosty who I made some years ago.

I have a couple of other snowman ornaments packed away. I like penguins too – not so many of those ornaments though. Santas too – big fat round ones, tall skinny wizardy looking ones; and then houses. “Claire’s Card Shop” which was given to me one year as well as a gingerbread house and others lit by led lights run on batteries.

Then there is bunting – nowhere really to put this up this year so it is safely in a box with the others waiting for “one day” to arrive.

Carols by candlelight, or just carols in the park. One thing I miss from Wellington is the Onslow Brass Band. They would walk around the streets, stop at intervals and play carols, collecting for charity at the same time. Hearing the strains of a carol played across the valley or at the bottom of the drive always had that “feelgood feeling”. Like Christmas really is here.

Going to church for Christmas Eve carols, sometimes going to the same church each year, other times going somewhere else, a new faith or a church in a different suburb.

Checking out the Christmas light displays. This probably started when we lived in Hamilton when Lauren was 2 or 3 and we went to the lights at the Temple in Tuhikaramea. Lots of late night driving to streets and suburbs far afield ensued. Sometimes we’d go after the Christmas Eve church service as well. This year, no car, so it will depend how far we need to walk.

Some traditions have gone for now; retired – letters from Santa, snowy footprints under the tree, cookies and milk left on a table and water outside for the reindeer.

#52Stories, Week 49, What were some of your favourite holiday traditions from childhood ? How far back do these traditions go - to your parents or grandparents' generation or even beyond ?

For these traditions I am sticking with Christmas. Apart from Easter there aren’t really other specific holidays that we celebrated growing up in New Zealand, unlike Thanksgiving or Independence Day in the States.

Making a fruit cake seems to have been something which has happened every year. Standing on a chair, stirring (with a bit of help sometimes), making a wish. I remember helping Nana and Mum, and then I remember Lauren helping them both – and me, in later years.

Where did that start ? Did Granny Fuller make them as well, and so my Nana continued that tradition and passed it on to some of us ?

We used to get an orange or another piece of fruit in our stockings from Nana and Granddad – never coal though, so that was good.

The postie used to deliver masses of Christmas cards from friends and family all over the country and some even in other parts of the world. Some of these came with notes about what had happened during the year on the inside, others came with handwritten letters.

Thank you boxes of chocolate or similar were left in the letterbox for the milkman - and maybe for the postie too ?

Making crepe paper streamers and paper chains to decorate our bedrooms or the tree.

Decorating the tree – I remember some years having a biggish tree inside propped up in a bucket. We would go with a trailer to collect it from somewhere – a forest? someone’s farm? At some point though a small tree was bought and grown in a pot to come inside each year…then came the artificial ones; and no more hayfever from the pine smell.

We would leave a pillowcase on our beds on Christmas Eve and when we woke up – voila ! No idea how Santa got inside filled up the "sack" and back out so quietly.

Some part of Christmas Day would normally be spent with cousins, and grandparents at one house or another - or on holiday somewhere. One year, in the snow at Milford Sound !

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.

As 2015 slips into the past and becomes a memory

Well, Christmas and New Year have been and gone and I've been very remiss here. 

So just to get back on track, here are some pictorial updates of stuff that has been happening, and places we've been since the last time I was here.

Christmas Morning

The Mount (Maunganui)

Waihi

Port Albert (The Davys' emigrated on this scheme in 1862 but didn't end up settling here)

Raglan

Coromandel Peninsula

Pakiri & Hibiscus Coast