A wonderful family Christmas

 Christmas is over for another year and we are sitting relaxing on a quiet Boxing day. We managed to do everything we wanted and I even managed to bake us a Christmas cake. I bought tins of biscuits and chocolates for the family instead of baking them cakes this year. I don't think they minded. 

On Christmas Eve afternoon in recent years our church has combined with one of the other local city churches to put on a free family festival. There are bouncy castles, food stalls and games and competitions and the last half hour is a presentation of the Christmas story. The local community has received it well and numbers have grown each year. I usually invite my little great grands and this year Arlo came along. He had lots of fun and food. The other two were away out with their paternal grandparents :)

That night I went to a Carol service at one of the local  Presbyterian churches as I'd been unable to attend any of the Christmas services in my own church for various reasons :(  It was a lovely service and I managed to sit with a friend I hadn't seen for quite some time. When I got home we watched It's a Wonderful Life on DVD, I always enjoy this movie at Christmas time.

Christmas Day dawned grey but warm and a bit humid. It was already 20C when we left to have breakfast with our eldest daughter at 9:30am. It stayed grey and muggy all day. Breakfast was simple, only the four of us and we had bacon, eggs, tomatoes and new potatoes chipped and fried with toast. Followed by tea or coffee. Just what we'd ordered. We never have a cooked breakfast so really enjoyed it for a change.

And then about 11:30ish we headed over to our eldest grand daughter's home to deliver presents and wish them Merry Christmas. We sat and chatted over a drink and Christmas fare for a while and headed home again to watch the live stream of our church's Christmas day service that had been held while we were having breakfast. Aaron had recovered from covid which was just as well as he was the service leader :)

Before long we were away again to our youngest daughter's home where most of the family were gathering for a late Christmas lunch. Yes, all the covid patients were finally testing negative by Christmas Day. Luckily we were able to open the doors and let the kids run around outside, and in. Lunch was cold ham and salads which we followed with cold desserts. Gifts were opened in stages, whenever someone felt like handing some out, which made for a nice relaxed time.

 Eventually in the early evening  we arrived home after a busy and enjoyable day - just in time for the King's Christmas message followed by the Princess of Wales' 'Together at Christmas' service. Tired but happy. I'd like to tell you I slept like a log but I think I'd eaten too much sugary food and found myself sitting up reading at 2 in the morning.

I hope your Christmas was as enjoyable as ours was.

Until next time enjoy the remainder of the Christmas season.

Diana.

A photo scavenger hunt

I am joining in a photo scavenger hunt this week with Hawthorn and friends over at I live, I love, I craft, I am me. Some of the photo's are from the archives, some I have used recently and some of you will have seen them before but I hope you still enjoy them.

1:  The setting sun

We had been up the coast to visit the blowholes and the pancake rocks. At the end of the day we headed back to daughters holiday accommodation for a pizza tea. This is the view we had of the sunset over the Tasman Sea from the upstairs sitting room :)

2:  My local wild place

This is a garden in the town where my GKB grew up, so although it is local it is not local local. It is on a hill on the other side of the city. It was established by the artist Ralph Hotere and overlooks the Otago Harbour. All of the plantings are native trees and bushes and those legs you see belong to a sculpture by Shona Rapira Davies titled They do cut down the poles that hold up the sky. A lovely peaceful place to sit and relax and enjoy the native bush without leaving the city.

3:  Mug of favourite drink in the garden

Christmas Day 2016. The family had gathered at youngest daughter's home to celebrate. Dinner was over, the dishes were all cleaned up and put away and it was time to take a cup, or glass, of our favourite drink and relax somewhere and chat. The photo below is me, my daughter and grandaughter sharing a quiet moment together in the backyard. The other two possibly had a glass of wine but my drink of choice was instant coffee, made the way I like it :) Goodness knows where everyone else was, there were at least 20 of us there for the day.

4:  My kind of beautiful

Isn't she beautiful? Well I'm guessing this is a she, cos she looks pregnant to me. Anyway I love these big draught horses and you don't see them around much these days. Don't ask me the breed, I couldn't tell you, I took the photo from the car while we were doing some sightseeing last time we were up Middlemarch way .

5:  Look to the skies

On the same trip up to Middlemarch this was early evening sky at the camping ground we stayed at. My GKB took this photo and some people have said the cloud formation looks like a giant hand in the sky. Anyway I think it is quite dramatic.

6:  Mini beasts

Well you can't see the mini beasts as they are inside the nest. 

This is the nursery web of a nursery web spider and the babies stay inside for couple of weeks. I guess if you don't mind spiders you won't think of them as beasts but if you see them magnified they are very definitely little monsters.

7:  Rain

One evening late last winter we had a shower of rain. Or maybe it was early in spring as I see new buds on these branches. Overnight we had a good old frost. In the morning my GKB took a sequence of photos. The raindrops had frozen on the bare branches of this bush and it looked rather pretty with the early morning sun shining on them. A little like the spindly little bush had been draped with a string of diamonds :)

8:  Something summery

Flowers always say summer but this is 
a photo I love, taken one hot day last summer.

Wouldn't you have thought it would be easier to just get under the table instead of clambering up on top of it to find the little bit of shade afforded by the sun umbrella? This puppy is a real character :)

9:  Urban wilderness

What can I say? An urban area in the wilderness. 

Queenstown, New Zealand.

10: My own choice

Parked up for the winter, caravans on a
 bleak winter's evening in Central Otago.

I hope I haven't been too wordy

See you next week.

Diana

Christmas in the summertime

I love looking at posts showing Christmas in the northern hemisphere but for me Christmas happens in the summer. So I thought I would show you some pictures from a summer 

Christmas Day past.

One year we kitten sat for our daughter, summer is kitten time, and she ended up decorating our tree. She loved the fact that we had put  a tree in the lounge for her and covered it with all sorts of shiny toys. She gave us a lot of laughs as she climbed from bottom to top and back again.

Of course there is always heaps of food and even with summer salads and cold meats it is easy to over eat if you're not careful.

And if you manage to behave with the salads 

maybe you won't be so good with the summer desserts.

Naturally there are delicious sweet and savoury nibbles 

scattered around in strategic places as well.

Afterwards there's always time to sit around out of the sun 

and just relax and socialise, have a long cool drink or two

 and wash all that party food down.

Or join the kids for a game of backyard cricket and maybe lose some of those calories you just piled on over lunch. Or what's more likely, lose the ball, probably on a neighbours roof :)

But before any of this happens there is the opportunity to attend a Christmas church service and celebrate the birth of Jesus, who is after all, the reason for the season.

Just a little glimpse of a 

summertime Christmas, 

I hope you enjoyed it.

joining Amy and friends for:

five on Friday

Diana

Unto us a child is born...

Luke 2:1-20 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to register.

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."
Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests." 



So it was, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, “Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.”  And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger. Now when they had seen Him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child. And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told them.

******************

wishing you all 

a blessed Christmas 

and all you hope for 

from the new year

Diana

Christmas Day at our place - in pictures

Christmas Day dawned beautiful and sunny and the clan came to our place for a traditional roast Christmas dinner. After sitting out under the gazebo and umbrella for youngest grandchild to give out presents (a family tradition) we went inside to eat and then outside again to enjoy the company and play with the new toys.



the dinner table finally set





some of the clan socialising



what can I find in here?




where did that go?




cheers



more socialising...




while the boys play cricket




preparing the desserts...




...only cold ones this year





deserted table ...