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

Te Harinui - glad tidings of great joy

Christmas greetings from my home to yours.

As you open your Christmas gifts pause for a moment to remember 

why we celebrate at this time of the year. 

'For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son

so that anyone who believes in him shall not perish 

but have eternal life'.

Two hundred years ago on December 25th, 

Samuel Marsden preached the first sermon on new Zealand soil 

to the Maori people and the pakeha (europeans)

 who were in Oihi Bay at the time. 

Today we commemorate that momentous event

 as we celebrate the birth of our saviour.

Let me finish with a well loved New Zealand carol

written in 1957 by Willow Macky.

Te Harinui 

Not on a snowy night  By star or candlelight  Nor by an angel band  There came to our dear land Te Harinui  Te Harinui  Te Hari-nu-i  Glad tid-ings of great joy But on a summer day  Within a quiet bay  The Maori people heard  The great and glorious word The people gathered round  Upon the grassy ground  And heard the preacher say  I bring to you this day Now in this blessed land  United heart and hand  We praise the glorious birth  And sing to all the earth

I wish you all a wonderful Christmas

and all you hope for during 2015.

Merry Christmas,

Diana

Merry Christmas

Pohutukawa aka the New Zealand Christmas tree

The presents are bought and wrapped.

The first pavlova is in the oven - one to go.

All that is left for me to do is get out my good cutlery to take

to youngest daughter on Christmas day.

Plus the serving dishes.

Oh, and make a salad, I'd better not forget.

Eldest grandson is here on holiday and is making

 a gingerbread house. The little boys will love that.

Then we're good to go.

Pohutukawa flower

I want to share a poem with you,
 written by Dawn McLean

Son of Joe 

Once in a manger long ago,

There was a man and his name was Joe.

His wife was with him there that night,

Mary her name, a pure delight.

She bore for him a child so famed

That everyone still recalls his name.

Jesus was the name they said

As they lay him down in his manger bed.

And the kings they came to see that night

And the shepherds too, by the star so bright.

Rejoice! Rejoice!

The angels sang,

For hope is born again for man.

So when you're feeling sad and low,

Remember Mary and the man called Joe.

But remember most of all this day,

The child that in the manger lay.



Merry Christmas to you all.