A New Zealand Christmas

Firstly you have to wait HOURS for the teenagers to wake up... this DID NOT go down well with the 11 year old. Teens in this house are a bit past Christmas... Santa is long gone too - really we do very little Christmas related things beforehand. The 11 year old still insisted on santa stockings full of junk food... Santa arrived with the 2 teens still awake - hence on the floor outside one bedroom and on the door handle of the other... A great relaxed day. Still eating leftovers.

 Quite impressed with the number of real Christmas cards this year and several I know still to come (and packages - mail hass been very slow this year)

 Cross stitch I did years ago at school in London...

 The pohutukawa trees are stunning this year....

 empty road - the only day of the year this happens! Usually it is full of the local shopping centre worker's cars. Auckland City Council did a roaring trade in partking tickets over the last week too.. They need to money  guess.

 Turkey, ham, glazed carrots, Oamaru benny jersey potatoes and salads were on the menu.. Prawns and dips and foccacia on the deck as nibbles beforehand.. The groovy cracker sent as part of a swap was our centrepiece - loved it!Pohutukawa flowers.

 Loved the Tom Smith crackers - they had been in the cupbaord for 2 years as I kept on forgetting about them...

 cousins...