Other things that we've been up to

A day off in Hanmer Springs

Early in December I went to Hanmer Springs, a natural hot springs spa, with my friends Molly, Emma, and Jenny. We drove up in the morning and stayed until nearly dark (which is late here because it's Summer!). It was a great day without the kids and so nice to visit uninterrupted by wee ones. We had terrific weather for it and I was worn out from all the fun when I got home. :)

Molly and Jenny

Emma and I

Having some bubbly and admiring the menu.

Fun with underwater cameras!

Christmas

Christmas was just plain odd. In Phoenix it's warm at Christmas by traditional standards. No snow, not even frost, usually sunny without a cloud in the sky. After years of this, I started to get used to it because it was "cold" relative to Summertime when it's very, very hot in Phoenix. Here, however, it's been cold all winter and spring isn't my idea of "warm" and then it starts to get warm enough to wear capri pants and short sleeves and suddenly school's out for summer AND you're shopping for Christmas presents. SOOOO weird. Surreal even. I wanted to have a real tree like last year but it took me 2 weeks to find a place selling them. No kidding. They are very unpopular here. But for $20 I got a 6 foot tree from a gas station. They had 5 to choose from leaning up against a wall. I wasn't terribly hopefull but it was actually the freshest tree I've ever had, except for the ones my Dad cut down himself (picture the scene from Christmas Vacation).

Maggie in her sleeveless Christmas "frock"

Rudolph stopped by. Wait! That's Caty.

But decorating with the windows and doors open and the rose bushes and cherry trees in full bloom in the yard was weird. All the same, we went through the motions in hopes of getting in the spirit. It was kind of a bummer for Ben and Maggie that all our Christmas books show snow-covered scenes and fireplaces. We will have to get some new NZ and OZ ones for next year. Since it's a tradition to make Pillsbury cinnamon roles on Christmas morning and they don't have instant anything here, I made them from scratch. Although it had to be done a day in advance, it was very tasty! :)

The kids had a blast opening presents on Christmas morning. No amount of warm weather can dampen the excitement of Christmas morning for a kid. And this year Maggie "got it" about Santa bringing presents. In fact just this morning she was making a verbal list of things she wants from Santa next year. I don't think she realizes how long from now that will be tho!

Erik's birthday

Poor Erik. His birthday is right after New Years and everyone forgets him. But we tried to make it special with a gourmet mud cake, homemade cards, and a new biking jersey. 

Someone is always willing to help an adult out with candle blowing.

Did I mention the cake was pretty good?

For the ride to work.

Cate's trip to Livingsprings Summer Camp

Despite the chaos of the Summer, we did get Caty to camp. I think this was her fourth trip there since we moved here! It's a week every school holiday (school is 10 weeks, then two weeks off, then 10 weeks on, 2 weeks off... For 4 terms then 6 weeks for Summer vaca.) Camp is held for one week every school holiday. It's this amazing place above Governor's Bay with crazy-beautiful views. Just gorgeous. And lots of the kids go every time so now she has friends she sees every time she goes to camp and chooses her roommates and counselors (although I've been scolded because they are called something else here - can't remember what). After her week of independence, I picked her up and we checked out a restaurant that specializes in chocolate of all kinds. They have a bar too but had never heard of a chocolate martini!!! Oh the humanity! Anyway, I couldn't have had one as the road is as winding and steep as it could be with out being a slalom course!

 Catherine ordered and chose well! 

Eating the chocolate spoon on the patio.

View of the bay from the patio.

Caty outside the restaurant with our doggie bag.

Crazy New Year Happenings

Cate at Sumner beach with Erik, Ben, and Mags in background

It's been awhile since our last post. There are plenty of reasons. Life has been utter turmoil since just after Thanksgiving. December 20th was the last day of school and the beginning of Summer Vacation. BUT since it's December, it was also Christmas shopping/cooking season! And we had a week long camping trip planned for between Christmas and New Years. But then all that was screwed up. About a week before school got out, we got a call from our property management company that our rent was going up more than $400 per month starting in Feb. So, we decided that the house was not worth renting at $2400 every 4 weeks! But there is a huge housing crunch here. Erik summed it up by saying that getting a rental house is like interviewing for a job with 50 other highly qualified people. We waited until after Christmas and then, having cancelled our vacation, started our house search. We started by looking in the school district we were already in but couldn't find anything at all. We ended up searching all of Christchurch and even in the Selwyn district West of town. We looked and looked. When we found one that we liked but that would add 20 or more minutes to Erik's commute, we were outbid. Yep, people set an asking price for their rental but it's such a tight market that you go to the open house and then you write on your application how much MORE you're willing to pay. We lost out on that one after bidding more than $400/month higher than asking! I was about to give up hope when Erik got a call from a guy renting his house in Sumner. It was smaller than what we wanted but it was one block from the beach. AND it was LESS than we were prepared to pay. So we asked to rent it and the landlord said he'd already had offers but "I like the look of you." Sigh of relief! And some excitement about our new village, Sumner. That lasted at least a day.
Then, we started to think about the physical move. We had enough stuff to fill our 5 bedroom house and were moving into a 3 bedroom house! So then we started the long process of what my Mom always calls "de-junking" but this was extreme. Like we got rid of the piano. Not because it was "junk" but because it simply wouldn't fit. We also sold some other furniture and toys and tossed any clothes we could live without. Erik and I were going from walk in closet to regular closet with sliding doors. After that, it was packing and packing and packing! And then moving and moving and moving. It took three loads in the largest truck Erik could rent. The only thing that made it work was that some very wonderful friends helped move us. And one amazing friend helped me pack the kitchen on moving day and clean the new house before we moved our stuff in. Another came over to the old house and finished packing the last things - like toys and cleaning supplies. Erik and I haven't moved ourselves since Caty was maybe 3. Let me tell you that packing and moving with these three running rampant was horrendous. I wish I had taken some photos of the move to post them but I don't have any. I think the camera was packed at some point! :)
Did I mention that these activities completely overwhelmed our Summer and we didn't get to do anything much which was really disappointing since we waited all year for some decent weather to go do some traveling. Also, Cate and Ben and Maggie had to change schools. Again. So there was choosing and enrolling (enroling if you're spelling it Kiwi-style) in a new school, shopping for Cate's new uniform, finding a new preschool for Ben, getting him enroled (doesn't it look weird with one L?!), saying goodbye to his teachers and friends he just adores and who he was expecting to start first grade with in March. So he'll be at his new school in Sumner for 8 weeks and then will start at Cate's elementary school. In NZ you start elementary school on the day after your fifth birthday. So kids start year-round. He's excited to go to elementary and has started a series of visits to elementary to meet his new teacher and check out the playground and kids.

Caty's new school uniforms (hat is required outdoors) 

I just gave up with Maggie. I'm keeping her home again for a while. She used to go to Ben's preschool for one day a week but I don't really care for the one he's at now so I'm looking around before I start Maggie. She likes staying home with me. She yells: NO SCHOOL! If you even talk about sending her to school. Life is good at home I guess.
Now, once we were moved in and mostly unpacked - which took about two weeks, we were able to really enjoy life by the beach. We probably even have a few good weeks of sunny weather before Fall really sets in.
A warning to friends: we no longer have a guest room! But don't let this stop you from visiting, there are some cute bed and breakfasts in the neighborhood. :)

Ben in foreground. Shipping containers protecting the only road into Christchurch from falling rock in background (right).

Mostly only the kids get in the water. It's COLD! Penguins like to swim in it!

Ben LOVES the water and the sand.

Maggie is a landlubber and prefers the sand to the water most days.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is one of those quintessential American holidays that simply must be celebrated regardless of where you are. So, despite the impediments to a proper Thanksgiving I set out to celebrate beginning in August - the dead of winter. Some of the impediments included:

• No day off on Thursday Nov 22nd. It's not a holiday here so everyone goes to work. 
• Solution: Have the turkey on the following Saturday.
• This irked me but didn't stop me.
• November is Spring, not Fall. 
• Solution: None
• Secondary problems:
• Seasonal Fall delicacies are not readily available
• Solution: Pay top dollar for out of season pumpkins (which are freakishly green and not orange!)
• Turkey is not a popular food - to the point that our Kiwi babysitter had NEVER eaten turkey. Ever. Seriously.
• Solution: wait until the last minute (when turkeys were stocked in the groceries for Christmas) and pay nearly NZ$100 for a 12 lb turkey and a 6 lb turkey "roast" (boneless turkey). 
• I think Erik figured that it was like US$6 per lb for a turkey!
• Thanks to Sue, Erik's mom, for gifting us the turkeys!! 
• Americans eat some unique dishes at Thanksgiving that are simply not available in NZ stores. (eg.,Libby's Solid Pack Pumpkin, canned cranberry sauce, Durkee fried onions, Pepperidge Farm Stuffing mix)
• Solutions: 
• make cranberry sauce from scratch (no canned sauce here!) 
• I know, we do that in the States but I really LIKE the canned stuff.
• buy pumpkin, cut it up and scrape seeds out, cook pumpkin in oven, cool and peel pumpkin, mash pumpkin, strain extra liquid out of pumpkin, measure 15 oz and cook pumpkin pies! 



Strange NZ pumpkin. This is as big as they get - about the size of a cantaloupe.



This was the dress rehearsal pie. I didn't get a pic of the actual ones but their crusts looked better.

• This technique took multiple tries before I got it right but it was perfect in the end!
• Also, we should all be much more thankful for canned pumpkin than we usually are. Those poor Puritan women really went to some trouble with the damn pumpkin pies. And, what they did without Carnation evaporated milk, I'll never know. Without that, I would have thrown in the towel and gone for pecan pies instead!
• Sadly, no viable solution was found for the dearth of Durkee fried onions so the only solution was to forego the green bean casserole. (I know, right!?)
• Paula Dean has a great recipe for corn bread stuffing from scratch (as in: I had to make the cornbread and dry it out myself). But anything Paula does has got to be better than anything Pepperidge farm does - and it was, but don't ask how much butter was in it! 
• Side note on the stuffing. Fully a week after T-giving I saw stores starting to stock stuffing mixes for Christmas dinner. AARRGGH! Oh well, mine was better. :) 
• I have an oven a bit larger than the size of the puny turkey I bought. So, how to make dinner for 25 people? 
• Solutions: 
• Have a potluck and ask people to bring side dishes. 
• This worked out beautifully and made the cooking so much easier for me and it was fun to try other people's dishes. 



Thank goodness they have turkey bags here.

• Put the turkey in the oven, put the turkey roast in my crock pot (yep, it was that small), cook the stuffing while the turkey rested. 
• What to do about football? You have to have football on Thanksgiving. 
• Erik, being the awesome guy he is, managed to download the Redskins/Cowboys game for us. It wound up being mostly background but still was necessary for the atmosphere to be right. :) 

We invited some American friends and some friends from the UK, NZ, and Mauritius. We had 12 adults and 12 kids. Our babysitter came too so she could keep the kids occupied with Thanksgiving crafts (paper bag turkeys and Indian corn on a stick). She did a pretty good job and the adults managed to visit without our kids crawling all over us! :) 

The table was set and Sue sent us some Thanksgiving napkins and a table cloth that helped with the Thanksgiving feel.

Flowers from the garden looking nearly as pretty as Lindsay!

Erik and Jeremiah. Excuse Erik's Movember Mostash!

Lindsay, Emma, and I.

Molly (left) and Milo catching some football. Emma (right), our sitter, helped out a lot with the kids.

Beautiful Spring day with the guys outside. (L to R: Gareth, Tim, Graeme, and Ian)

Niva's son, Benjamin, checking out the playroom.

Amelia having some fun in the playroom too.

The older boys retreated to Ben's room and we didn't hear from them for hours! (L to R: Kai, Joe, and Ben)

Catherine took most of these photos. She got a nice one of herself too. She's become quite the little photog!

Maggie's little boyfriend, Milo, and his mom Molly. 

Doesn't Catherine take great pics?! lol!

Emma is always such a good sport. 

William, Emma's son, is also a popular guy with Maggie.

Our microscopic back yard. But there are three sets of sliding glass doors to let in the light - so that's nice.

Ian, Gareth, and Jeremiah enjoying dinner outdoors. (See Mom, I used your table cloth too!)

A thankful bunch. (Clockwise: Lovely Me, Molly, Tim, Emma, Graeme, Lindsay, Yuri, and Niva.

It was really fun to have Thanksgiving at our house and have our new friends (and two old friends) to celebrate with. It made the day feel "right" and so many days here have not felt quite right. New Zealand is a fun place to live but sometimes it's just exhausting to live in a place where everything is a bit different and unfamiliar. It was easy to feel thankful for the good things in our lives with good friends and great food (and football). 

Catherine's Point of View

I think N.Z. is cool. Literally cold. J  But I still miss my friends. L I wish my BFF can come. That would be cool. J I hope you like my point of view. Bye. J

Halswell Quarry Park

In an effort to get in better shape I've been hiking to the top of the old Halswell Quarry. Today the sun was out and it was warmer than it has been since February so I took Caty and Ben with me. We had lots of fun and Ben was able to keep up really well.

Catherine read all about the geology to Ben. There's Halswell Stone and columnar basalt and a layer of ash from the supposedly extinct volcano in the area.

 Stopping to enjoy the view but really to catch our breath! Ben didn't want to smile. I take too many pictures, he says.

Ben ran most of the way down with Caty.

The kids love to see the lambs. I just feel sympathy for the nursing mothers of twin lambs. :) At least there are no wolves in NZ

 There are lots of very pretty wild flowers. I especially liked these. Purple is my favorite color (oops: favourite colour!) We saw buttercups too. I haven't seen those in years - probably because they like wet, clayey soil. Not much of that in AZ. I showed the kids how to hold the buttercups under each others' chins to see if we liked butter. We all do. (Interesting fact about buttercups, click here.)

OK, this would so never fly in the US. You are at a city park and you are told to put your trash in your car, take it home, and recycle it. For real? On the up-side there are no over-flowing trash cans swarming with flies and bees and wreathed in dog urine.

 There is a section of the park with gardens representing countries in Asia and also an area for Seattle - no idea why Seattle though.
Anyway, I keep coming back to this Japanese structure because it has such beautiful wisteria growing all over it. It's not quite in full bloom yet, but I'm crazy about wisteria. Reminds me of my old school in Mougins. :)

 Caty got a pic of me.

 More great blooms and Caty.

 An offset bridge to confuse the spirits.

 Running the home stretch.

 Totally cool bench made from a wooden plank and two carved stones. One side is a fish face and the other is a frog. I would have gotten a closer pic but there was someone sitting on it and I didn't want to look like a stalker. :)

A cool totem pole (not sure the right word for a Maori one). Ben would not get any nearer and then started to whimper. I guess they can be scary.

Caty was in charge of opening and closing all the gates to keep dogs out and sheep in. :)
After this, we got the kids some ice cream and took some home to Maggie. I hope she'll be able to go with us in the near future. For now, her legs are too short and slow. :)