Christmas holidays

Well, its almost the New Year here in New Zealand. I know that everyone else has a day or two to go still. What a crazy week we had in Tirau. Some days were full of misadventure and others full of longing for home. All in all though it wasn't a terrible vacation and Gordon and I enjoyed being with the family. We've made a game of guessing what phrases Roger will say to me and Gordon now that we are married. It helps me to cope with all the praise. I think we got up to 14 phrases this time around, a new record.

Before I forget, I didn't write about it last time. I have a new nephew! I was hoping for a niece but I love my nephews and nieces no matter what! His name is Ewan Chattan Martin. So congratulations to my sister for having the baby and their latest addition to the family. I look forward to seeing him sometime this year, hopefully! Gordon and I have been discussing names. We definitely are going to name our first son Clark but we decided to switch our first girls name to Eleanor. I really like the name and you don't hear it often anymore and we get to call her Ellie! If I only get one girl I would like her to be Eleanor and if I get two then I'll name the second one Suzanne.

I'll start with date night. It was great and I had the most wonderful time with Gordon. We definitely should do it once a month, even if it's going to Domino's for pizza and catching a movie later. We did it up this time around. We went to Speight's Ale House for dinner and were placed at a table for two. I had some chicken stuffed with cheese and fruit stuff and Gordon had the drunken steak. Which, if memory serves me, he also had in the Speight's Ale house we went to in Queenstown in March. It was lots of fun and that's where we came up with our standard phrases we would hear once we got to Tirau. We had an hour or so before the movie started so we bought our tickets and then went for a walk around the square. During that time, we got a call from Scotty. I guess Roger had invited him to join them for the holidays and he decided to take him up on his offer and was telling Gordon. After our walk, to settle our food, we went to our movie which was "Four Holidays", I think that was the name, with Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn. It was so funny! Gordon and I had a great time watching it. It was lots of fun to be out on a date with my husband.

On Christmas Eve we packed the presents in the car and headed off to Tirau. The way was pretty wet and cold but we made it there by 4pm or so. Kylie was asking us if we wanted to go to the pool with her and I said yes which made Gordon say yes too. We had dinner first and let our tummies settle before we took a swim. In between, I got a case of homesickness and started crying in our room. Gordon was nice enough to just hold me while I cried, missing my family and friends during the holidays. I probably would have cried some more but Kylie came up to the door asking if we were coming or not. We decided to go with her and as we set off Gordon thought we were taking the car so left his shoes off. He walked to the pool in his bare feet down the road! I felt awful and told him we could turn around and get the car but he said no and just kept walking. I had to cheer him up a bit because he was feeling bad that I was homesick and missing my family. I told him it was our decision to live in New Zealand despite me being away from my family. I didn't have my bathing suit on and so we arrived at the pool to discover that the changing rooms were locked! Gordon held a towel up in a little shower area for me to change in. Gordon and I just ended up goofing around and tossing a tennis ball while Kylie and another lady worked out.

After that we went back home and had a bit of rest and shower to clean ourselves up for midnight service. I think Gordon didn't want to go but when he heard I was going, he was in. It was a bit different being an Anglican church and all. We sang some Christmas carols in between people reading the Christmas story. I thought that I knew how some of them went but some carols go a bit differently here like "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" was different from the way I had always sang it. It makes me feel a bit out of place when something I thought I knew just isn't the way its done here. We survived the late night and had to wake-up bright and early the next day to make breakfast for everyone the next morning. We had a 7am wake-up call because breakfast had to be ready by 8am and we had to be in Tauranga by 10am! Sounds a little crazy for Christmas day but I would roll with the punches. We had to take two cars because we had six people now and we all wouldn't fit into one. So Gordon, Scotty and I took our car with the beautiful air conditioning, not too hot and not too cold.

Luckily, I found out that we were opening all of our presents in Tauranga rather than a few so I had Gordon open two of his that I had made for him. There were a bit sentimental and mushy and I didn't want to be teased about them. There was a mass of presents. I felt bad that all we had for the rest of the family there were a couple of chocolates and our Christmas cards. Gordon said not to worry about it. Opening presents took about an hour and a half to two hours. One of the kids, Ruth, helped distribute the presents with the help of Luke, Gordon's cousin. There were some really great things. I didn't have a lot of presents to open because I didn't get a lot for myself this year. I guess its different when you're the one doing the shopping, I tend to think about what presents I need for others rather than what I would like. We had a bit of downtime between presents and lunch so Gordon and I went to the porch area to relax. I guess we were kid magnets that day, or maybe because they had to play outside, because Ruth and Andrew wanted to play and talk with us.

Lunch was a hodge-podge collection of chicken, ham, rice salad (?), eggs, salad, beetroot and other things. I kept it light because I didn't want to eat too much. Dessert consisted of ambrosia (which was this whipped cream concoction), Christmas pudding, trifle, cheesecakes and fruit salad. It definitely was a bit different but I was able to pick and choose what I ate. Afterwards, we were all rounded up to sing some songs for Roger's video. Then we finally got to get out and do something! We went to the beach for a walk!

I really liked being able to get out of the house for a bit and taking a walk with Gordon on the beach. Some people stayed at the house and took a nap while some of us went to the beach. It was a good collection of people. We saw little mussels/clams digging their way back into the side while the water washed over them and there were jellyfish bigger than my hand with spots! We saw people playing beach cricket and a couple of times I caught Roger doing nothing but taping me and Gordon. I've become a very shy person since being in New Zealand around the family, mostly because I don't want to hear overtures of praise all the time. So looking up and seeing Roger taping us didn't make me too happy but it was Christmas so I didn't care. We then went back after our walk to the house and had supper, leftovers with some sausage rolls, and the leftover dessert. We all took another rest and I read the kids a story while they ate their dinner. We left at about 8pm! One thing that I did notice through the day was that I think Gordon and I are going to be very relaxed parents. After having to watch twin nieces, you feel like you can do just about anything.

The day after Christmas is called Boxing Day which everyone usually gets off. Gordon and I didn't have a gift for Scotty so we decided that we would pay for a round of golf for him. I was supposed to go with the boys to the course but I decided that Gordon and Scotty should go without me. I felt like I was monopolizing Gordon's time. I stayed at home while the boys went to play. It was a nice, quiet day and I got to know Gordon by looking through some of the family albums that were tucked away in a cupboard. The boys came back and Roger came home from the shop to watch the cricket game with Gordon. That's where things went a bit south for the day. Gordon was having so much fun watching the game with the guys that he forgot about me entirely. Needless to say, I wasn't in the very best mood but Christine and I got to have a nice talk while I was outside reading my book and later when we were sitting around knitting and reading. Gordon and I talked about the fact he ignored me for the rest of the day later.

We found out that we weren't going to have a family beach day on Monday, which I was eagerly looking forward too. Instead we were going to be going to dinner and a movie. So Gordon and I decided to have our own beach day. It was a bit of a shambles but with Gordon there, it was a great day. We decided to try a beach that Christine recommended on an island by Tauranga. First we went to the wrong location of the ferry, it turns out it didn't leave from Tauranga it left from Omokoroa. When we got there we had just missed it and had to wait two hours for the next one to come. We had our picnic lunch on a little sand inlet area. It really reminded me of Maryland and the river bank at the park except there was more sand and a bigger stretch of it. We were able to change into our bathing suits and get on the ferry by foot. We found that the island was a lot bigger and we couldn't possible reach the other side in time to have a swim and be back for the last ferry. We ended up just sitting in some water by a sandbar area, not the beach day I was looking for but there are plenty of chances to try again. Gordon and I had a really good talk about our future and where we want to be in the next decade or so. It would be nice to move back to America in ten years or so but we are just going to see where we are when the time comes. I was telling Gordon that I would like my family to be able to spend time with the kids when they're older if Gordon's family was going to be around them when they are younger. I decided that either way some one's feelings are going to get hurt if we decided to or not move back to the States. It was a really good talk and I came away from it a lot more content and happier with knowing where we may be going.

Sunday was a day for Cricket. Christine got Roger, Gordon and I tickets to a 20/20 match in Hamilton for Christmas. How could I not go, I would miss the chance to see Daniel Vittori! The game didn't start until 5pm but we ended up leaving at 3 to get there. I have to say that I really enjoyed watching the game. It was about 3 hours long but it was full of excitement and fun. I got some great pictures of the West Indies team and the Black Caps. There was an awesome catch by Jacob Oram right by us! There was one annoying person with a whistle and a runner onto the field, he was trying to steal the knobs that go in between the wickets, both were drunk. Other than that, I wouldn't mind going to more 20/20 games if we had the money. Roger was still hungry so we stopped at KFC to get him some more food. We packed sandwiches for the game so we didn't have to buy our food at the stand.

We had our family outing on a rainy day. We went to a place called Rapscallion's for dinner. They do gourmet burgers and such. I had a burger with fried onions, sour cream and honey soy sauce with a nice milkshake, my guilty indulgence, and Gordon and I shared some fries. The burger was big and nice but I don't think it can ever beat out the whopper we had at Fergburger in Queenstown! We bought our tickets beforehand so we were able to take a little stroll around Rotorua. It was especially pungent that evening because of the rain and clouds, on a clear day you don't smell it as much. Rotorua is a geothermal hot spot so there is tons of sulfur being released which gives the town a rotten egg smell some of the time. Gordon and I found a gelato shop! I couldn't not have any! It was delicious, tangerine and passion fruit gelato was so yummy in my tummy. We then went to Pak'n'Save to get some candy for everyone else, I was full enough and had way to much sweet things already. Then we went to our movie which was "Australia". It was a very good movie and you could definitely tell it was directed by Baz Luhrman, his style is very unique. Hugh Jackman was ruggedly handsome and oh so dreamy. I told Gordon that he's my Hugh Jackman, hehe.

The next day Gordon and I packed the car up and headed home. We got home at about 5pm, we left late from Tirau. When I got home I took a peak in the fridge and saw nothing but moldy leftovers. I think I was physically from having to empty them into the trash. We always put our fridge on vacation when we are gone for a long time, so it doesn't use up as much energy. I promptly poured bleach into the containers to get kill the mold and to wash them later. We had soup and toasties (grilled sandwiches) for dinner. It was a good vacation and I was so happy to be back in our bed. We had some wet and soggy Christmas cards because it rained while we were away but I enjoyed reading them.

I was also happy to find that my garden was flourishing. Me and the pruning shears had some fun beating back zucchini leaves against the cucumber, butter bean and pumpkin plants. We have some massive zucchini! I'm not sure how you can tell when a zucchini is ripe, do you guys know? I picked two of them and I'll be taking their pictures soon to show you how big they are. My watermelons are flourishing as well as the carrots and broccoli and cauliflower and... Well everything is doing great. We have to definitely add more soil around some of the plants because it seems whenever I water them they tip over and we can't have that. I'll take some more pictures so you can see my mammoth garden. Gordon and I are definitely going to expand the garden next year, if we are still in the same house. We might get to move if we have a bun in the oven which we will be working sometime in the New Year.

I hope that everyone has made their New Year's resolutions, I'll give you mine next week. I hope you enjoyed family and friends during your holidays and I miss you very much! I am doing better now though, I've started to let go, start over, and move ahead. With the promise of summer, its not that hard to do. I'll be working on my flower bed next, yippee! If no one wants to hire me, I'll find contentment in my house and making it pretty. I think God is trying to teach me a lesson and I'm just not listening but I'm trying very hard to open my ears to hear His message. Oh, sister, I received your last Christmas package. Thank you for the screen printing kit. I'll have to use an old-fashioned iron until I know that I'll be able to sell my things. The cookies were a bit smashed but I love them anyway. They are so yummy in my tummy, especially the bizcochitos! I can't wait to eat my cranberry sauce you sent. Everyone have a safe week!