End of Year for School

This year has been a fabulous one for my 2 boys at school.
Even though they are both just 6 & 8 yrs old, they have worked hard and made us very proud.
Not sure if this is a good thing to be happening so early because then it leaves a lasting impression of what they need to continue to achieve in the following years to come!!

However we are very proud and have had an awesome year at school with them.
In the week before the end of term Alex had a Grandparent's Day and Flower Show. So mum kindly came over for lunch at the school with Alex and to view all the pretty flower displays they had been working hard on for the day or so before the presentation.
We also got treated to a lovely little singing show as well.
So here are some pictures of the wonderful displays that Alex created this year.

Ben this year has had a young male teacher (22 yrs old) and he has been fabulous. He has created a wonderful class of children who have all been very eager to learn and participate.
This has shown in all the testing the children were put through throughout the year and the wonderful results everyone got.
So sadly we had to say goodbye this term as Ben is moving to another class. The teacher is still going to remain at the school but end of year so next year new grade, class and teacher.
The kids wanted to do something for their teacher to say "Thank you for an awesome year" so a few of the mothers came into the class one day when the teacher was away and asked the children what made him such a great teacher?
Then all their answers were put together on a poster and this was given to him at a class morning tea in the last week of term.

Well, how to make a young male teacher cry, thank him for being awesome and tell him the kids will miss him.
He was so overcome, you could see his heart growing with care and proudness.
He has been an amazing teacher and it has been a privilege to have him as our son's teacher this last year.

The mother's were so impressed with his teaching style and wanted to encourage him to stay with it, that they nominated him for the "New Zealand Impressive Teacher's Award". There was 1 overall winner and 29 others recognised. He was awarded one of the 29 recognised.
I was there in assembly when it got announced and to say he was shell shocked was an understatement. He was speechless, gobsmacked and generally unable to comprehend or understand exactly what he had just been nominated for?
He, as most people do, couldn't understand what he had done so differently from anyone else to deserve being awarded something like this?
But let me tell you, he got quiet ones to come out of their shell, he got noisy ones to calm and listen, he got inactive ones to have a go and he got ones with wariness to believe in themselves and realise they can conquer the world if their hearts desire it.

He shall be missed as our class teacher this next year, but here's hoping he is still around when Alex gets to that school grade.

Happy Birthday

In 1961 a child was born, well in fact many were born, but for me I am only worried about one of them.
The one that was born that year today, my husband.

He turns 50 today.

So to my darling husband and father of our 2 gorgeous boys.

Happy Birthday

Merry Christmas

All the very best to you and your family on this Christmas Day.
May you have food, fun and laughter to see you through the holiday.

Merry Christmas to all

Quick Christmas Treat

At this time of year there are numerous morning teas, lunches and afternoon teas to attend.
And of course you are always asked to bring a small plate of some description or other!

Now I mentioned about some cool little recipes I discovered on Paisley Jade the other day.
This time I have discovered one of my own and will happily share it with you.

You require:

1 pkt Mallow Puffs

100g white choc buttons or melts

enough red or green smarties, M&M's, pebbles, Jaffas etc for 1 per mallow puff

Method:

Place the Mallow Puffs on a tray.

Melt the white choc buttons

Swirl white choc on top of Mallow Puff and add a coloured M&M.

Place on plate and continue with next one.

There you have it, simple little Chocolate Christmas Puddings.

What I Miss at Christmas

I have been here in New Zealand for the past 13 odd years, would I ever leave, depends where we are going, but would I move back to England...never!!

Even if it has taken me all this time to get use to having Christmas in the sun, I still miss loads to do with Christmas.
As much as we celebrate everything here, it definitely has a different feel to it.
I love the warmth of the sun but miss the warm snuggled houses with the fires roaring and everyone wearing their latest christmas inspire sweater!
I love the fact that people do decorate their houses with lights etc but hate that you have to go out at 10pm to be able to view them in their full shinnest gleam.
I miss the lights glowing in all the shop windows as you race round town late one evening for the last few gifts you desperately need or desire.
I miss the whole atmosphere that takes over in the whole month of December as you count down to Christmas with the lights, the music, the cold nights and the food. Here December wanders in and suddenly you are more concerned with the fact that the school year is closing, what are you doing with the kids over the summer break, are we going to have sunshine whilst we camp at Christmas and has summer actually started or not!
There never seems to be any real lead up to Christmas, just suddenly one day you remember and then think Holy s%#t, we only have xyz weeks to go and I have got nothing done!

I also, ultimately, miss Christmas carols.
Yes I can play a CD at home but it just does not have the same effect as standing in the cold listening to a beautiful choir fill the air with the round crisp tones of a full choir.
I miss hearing a soloist sing "Once in Royal David's City" and then the effect when the full choir comes in with verse 2.
I miss going to a carol concert leading up to Christmas, where everyone is in a jolly mood, happy to see everyone, enjoying the atmosphere and the music and munching on their christmas faire of cake and mince pies (although I will never miss either of those as I can't stand dried fruit, although never fear, we may be in full sun shine on Christmas Day but people do still insist on Christmas pudding, brandy cream / custard, Christmas cake and mince pies)

I also miss snowmen, seems a silly thing to miss but I have found that all decorations here have Santa on them, nothing seems to be snowmen orientated.
Mainly I think because we don't have snow!
So nowadays if I see something with snowmen on it and it is cute, then I snap it up really quick.

Overal, I do love Christmas here, it is very different to a winter Christmas but definitely something I would recommend everyone tries.

Merry Chrsitmas

Pays to Check

Sometimes I can be really pedantic about checking accounts and invoices and other times I trust the company involved.
The boys go to after school care and the amount of times they manage to screw up the inputting of the data is ridiculous.

Sometimes they will have Alex down for 2 hours but only charge us for 1 hour for Ben, like we leave one child there longer than the other!
Other times they have Ben starting morning care 15 minutes earlier than Alex, again like we would drop one child off before the other!

When it is something that benifits us, then I can honestly say that occassionally I omit to correct them, but when they do something that takes heaps more money from us then I am there with bells on correcting it.

This morning I received an invoice for the last week of term.
The boys attended just 1 session with them. An afternoon for 2 hours. Very simple and straight forward, 2 hour session = $12.40 for each child therefore total cost = $24.80.
However somehow someone had managed to put the wrong time in for Ben and it looked like he had attended the session for 14 hours!
How can someone have not noticed this?
That meant we actually got charged $12.40 for Alex and $86.80 for Ben.
If I had not read the invoice I would have missed this until they had complained further to me that I owed them $53.20 for last terms services, when I knew that we should actually be in credit!

They happily sorted this out for me but makes me realise that next year I will be checking the invoices every 2 weeks when they come through.

Movie Premier

At the end of last week I was lucky enough to secure 4 tickets to a premier of the up coming movie "Tin Tin's Adventures".

The boys heard me win them on the radio, so there was no deciding to take anyone else instead of them!

Now I remember Tin Tin from when I was a little girl and I can honestly say that it was not something I was into. My brother on the other hand had one or two of the comic books.
So having an understanding of the concept of the story I was a little worried about how the boys would take it, Ben I thought would do fine, but Alex I thought might get a little bored or scared. Me, well I really wasn't that interested in seeing the movie anyway, but was prepared to sit through it like any good mother does, because it was something for my children, but I would have snuck into any number of other movies if I could have!
Yes Alex did get a little bored, Ben did enjoy it and as for me, well I watched the whole damn thing from start to finish and would even go and see the 2nd one when it is made. It was actually good, I actually enjoyed it.

The movie is made in animation but not cartoon animation, the animation that they made "Polar Express" (Tom Hanks Movie) with, where they got the actors to do the actions and captured them in animation.

It was effective and very well done.
Would I recommend it as a movie to get to this Christmas time, yes.
Take your sons, your nephews and your grandsons, even your husbands and while your at it, take all you female relatives too.
It was just your good old young boy adventure story with goodies and badies, adventure and fun.

When the movie finished, we decided that seeing as we were already out, then we would go along to the Mormon Temple to view the thousands of Christmas Lights they put up each year around the temple grounds.
Check out this post for pictures of the glorious event.
Unfortunately what we didn't count on was the weather, that turned to custard on the way to the temple, however as we were already on our way then I decided that we were going to continue as a little rain never harmed anyone. It also meant that we could cross it off the list of things to get done before Christmas. Now gives me an evening at home tonight to get the presents wrapped!
So we stood with the few others, under the umbrella, in the pouring rain and watched the lights get turned on. Then we walked the steps up to the temple door and walked back down again, now with very wet feet, and then decided that we had achieved that one and went home to bed.

Once again though, I stood looking at the lights and had the same thought that I do every year...."really must get Grandma to come over and see the lights!"
So Grandma, please place this in your diary for 2012, sometime after Dec 12, you have to come and stay the night with us and go out to the Temple and see the pretty lights.

Interesting Figures About Christmas

The following survey was display in the newspaper.
Makes for some interesting reading.

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Christmas is as much a time for checking work emails as it is for going to church, a survey has revealed.


23% of 1060 people who completed a Colmar Brunton online survey said they would check their work emails on Christmas Day.
That is nearly as much as the 25% who will go to a church service on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.

Spokeswoman for the Auckland Catholic Diocese, Lyndsay Freer, said she thought people would "need to be a bit compulsive" to check work emails on Christmas Day.
But she said the statistics were a reflection of the fact a large number of people were not Christian, and of the increasing popularity of computers and smartphones.

Tradition also takes a battering when it comes to the Christmas tree, with 71% of those putting up a tree shunning the smell of pine in favour of a fake tree.

Santa Claus will go hungry during his dash around the country, with only 29% of households planning to leave out food or a present for him.

The survey also showed the average age people stopped believing in Santa Claus was 8 years old. (This I can believe as I am sure this year Ben is already wondering secretly in his head, by next year he is going to be questioning this in more detail, although I know he would never let on because of his little brother!)

But there is some comfort for those fearing the disintegration of society, with 84% of people saying for them Christmas meant getting together with family and friends.

34% of people said it was most about the birth of Christ, and 5% of people said the day only meant time off work.
Christmas will be spent with relatives for 53% of Kiwis this year.

And despite the tensions that can come with family reunions, 61% of those surveyed said they would be spending Christmas Day where they wanted to be.

Just 11% admitted they would rather be somewhere else!

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So where do you fall in these numbers?
Will you be checking work emails on Christmas day?

Vegetables

Each year we plant some vegetables in the garden.
Usually tomatoes, courgette, pepper and lettuce.
This year we managed potatoes, garlic, tomatoes, pepper and courgettes.
Due to rearranging and flattening the garden then out normal veggie patch has had to be moved, so all the vegetables are growing in mishap places around the garden.
Although the courgette seems to be loving its new position.

Here it is after having been growing for about 2 weeks

Dec 4th

Dec 4th

2 weeks later this is what it looks like...

Dec 18th

Can you spot the courgettes? There are 4 of them, they all have flowers on the end of them.

We have had so many courgette off this plant so far that I have had to take some to Judo to give away, cause we just can't keep up! It obviously loves its new position and has found some growth hormones from somewhere.
You only have to look at it to see it growing! Some of them are doubling in size in 2 days, you see one growing , think ok will pick it in a day or 2 cause it is just not quite big enough, you go back 36 hours later and suddenly you have a marrow instead of a courgette!
Man you have to be quick around here to get nice size ones!

This also means I have managed to achieve another of the challenges I set myself last year. Even though I didn't manage to achieve all the challenges throughout the year, I am still going to work away at them and slowly complete them.
So this post shows I have managed Challenge #43 - have a veggie patch and give something away from it.

But while we are on the sublect of Challenges, I did also complete #37 - pick some lavendar and place in your bathroom. I will take a picture for proof when I remember.
So 2 more completed.

Busy Busy

We all know that at this time of year it can get very busy, we all seem to manage to find 50 things that must be done by the end of the week.
I am trying to get things sorted and also remember to mail out birthday cards, christmas cards and postcards for Postcrossings.

However it shows that things are a little busy when you receive this from the mail....

Yes, that is correct, I sent a birthday card out in such a hurry I forgot to put a stamp on it, so they sent it back to me letting me know that if I still wanted to send this item then I needed to put a stamp on it!

My Little Brother

My little brother, who actually is not so little anymore! lives with his family in Rotorua.

When he moved here 4 years ago he decided to join the volunteer firefighters.
He successfully went through all his training and has been an active fire fighter since then.

I sometimes just take it for granted that he does this special job on top of his normal everyday job.
I know he gets called out everynow and then. I am aware that he gets called to car crashes and fires but because I am not in the same town talking to him daily it is not part of my everyday thought process.

However when they tell you (on the news) of a large fire in Rotorua that is using all resources they have available there plus a few appliances from neighbouring towns, then you know he will probably be there.

Quick check with his wife and our mum and yes it is confirmed, my baby brother is out there in his uniform, fighting that fire in the town centre. Has been since 6 this morning.

When you then see the following picture on the news it makes you realise just what he does, as a volunteer, because he wants to....

He has a very understanding boss. If he gets 'called out' outside of work hours and he is late for work then his boss is fine, his boss would prefer he didn't answer the call during work hours and that is fair enough, as a volunteer you only attend the station during the hours that you are available.
However on a day like today, when you answer the call at 6am and you are still not at work by 10.30am then you have to have a very understanding boss who understands that once you are at a fire or crash you can't leave and that you will be there when available.

So to my little brother...I am very proud of you, I regularly forget what you go up against when you are called out, but when it is shown on the news, then it hits home just what a special job you do, because you want to, not because anyone is paying you to.

Way to go little brother.

Other times he is just down right disgusting!!

Hope for Everyone

As many of you know, I am currently, very slowly, gaining my Bachelors Degree in Nursing.
This is coming 16 years after I qualified as a Nurse, but when I qualified, degrees were not the normal to have.

It is actually amazing how many people you will find nowadays who are working towards getting a qualification many years after they have left school.

I saw this news article today about one such man, who after 40 years has finally completed his Degree in Law.

So there is hope and inspiration to us all, if you want it bad enough then you will make it happen.

Burning Energy

A crematorium in England wants to install turbines in two of its burners which would use the heat generated during cremation to provide enough electricity to power 1500 televisions.

I was quite shocked when I first read this article in the newspaper, but on further reading I could actually see the sense of it.

As they said, they have all this energy being produced that could be better used elsewhere and for them to conserve energy.
Apparently it is the burner itself that creates the energy not the body, so don't suddenly think it is the human body they are powering off of!
According to the article, this one crematorium has up to 2100 cremations per year, and further more about 75% of the dead are cremated

Apparently one of the biggest problems with cremation is the amount of mercury, from fillings in teeth, that accumalates in the air. About 16% of mercury in the air comes from crematoriums, so they are all trying to sort out their burners so they half such emissions by next year and eliminate it totally by the end of the decade.
Some have already fitted systems which use the heat from the burners to heat their offices, nearby offices and also a swimming pool.

It seems a morbid thing to talk about, but at the end of the day it is a business and they need to conserve energy just like all other business's, it is just that it is a sensitive area for all to consider.

Gardening

I am still working my way through all the pictures of our garden to be able to show you what we have been up to out there.
However one thing that has not changed is the Ivy Hedge we have!

This is boardering one of the neighbours and they tell us they love having the green wall!
We on the other hand do not like it so much! Although what we would put there in its place I do not know, so at present it will be staying!!

It can at times look really nice, glowing in the sunlight, although at other times it is a pain, always needing trimming etc
The biggest pain of it all is the fact that when it first needed trimming after we moved into the house, it soon became apparent that Steve would not be touching the hedge ever again due to coming out in welts and itching! Yes turns out my husband is allergic to the ivy!
Shame we had to discover this 6 weeks prior to our wedding, when his hands were swollen and red raw! Lots of soothing cream later and his hands looked great on our wedding day!

So he is banned from touching the ivy, so muggins here now has a permanent job in the garden, I am the ivy trimmer.
I am the only one who can trim it, tidy it and even clear up afterwards because he is not allowed to touch anything to do with it!
It is a little high for my liking, and everynow and then I do try to trim it, and I mean really trim it! Not just a measly 2 inches, I try for 6-8.
The next time I trim it I will try to give the top a really good cut that way it will be a little more manageable.

So the ivy hedge remains and will continue to be the bain of my exsistence in our garden.

Do you have something in your garden that annoys you but just can't go at present?

Downfall of New Clothes

By having a new job it means I need new clothes, well not exactly new clothes, I just need to think more about what I wear to work each day.
Previously I just rocked on up in jeans and a shirt because as soon as I got there I got changed into scrubs.

I have quite a decent wardrobe of clothes at home but it has taken me a few months to get use to having to think each morning about exactly what I am going to wear.
My shoes have all been fine and as summer is now upon us I have been able to utilise all my pretty sandels.
All my pretty dresses are also getting a nice airing out in the world.

However that is where the problem lies, I am wearing stuff that I am not use to wearing. I am not use to wearing skirts and dresses all day. I am not use to wearing shoes with any type of heel on them all day.
And the heels have been my down fall. I don't wear high heels, just little ones, enough to give me a little lift and look really nice.

Yesterday I wore a pretty dress with a nice pair of sandels that had a heel, I got compliments all day about how great I looked.

Today I am wearing trainers on my right foot and a moonboot on my left foot and downing painkillers and anti-inflamatories and getting compliments / questions about "what did you do?"

"Yes what did I do?"
I wore heels all day, walked a lot and managed to roll my ankle a little at some stage during the day. It didn't hurt at the time, but by last night it was a little tender. I decided that rest was all I needed and so did none of the Rest. Ice. Compress. Elevate treatment as I didn't feel I had done anything.
This morning it was uncomfortable so brought a tubigrip bandage on my way to work and wore that. However by mid morning I decided that it was too painful to totally ignore and got an appointment at the Physiotherapists.
I have strained a ligament in my ankle and they are painful. She wants me to get my foot in a neutral position, so leg and foot in a 90 degree angle, however mine won't go there, so she has placed me in a moonboot for 4 days to keep it in a good position and allow it to rest!

Rest with your foot in a fixed position? Hum yea how? It is more uncomfortable in this than it was previously, however this moonboot is of course keeping it in the right position while it fixes, heals and recovers. Previously I was letting it rest, painfree in the wrong position, thereby doing more damage.
So now I am hobbling round ever so elegantly with this black monstrosity on my foot.

My pretty dresses will look lovely on Monday at work with one foot strapped up!
Maybe I need to fight to wear jeans to work everyday?

Earthquakes

Here in New Zealand we are pretty well known for our shakes, rattles and rolls.
Poor Christchurch have been rolling with them for the past 10 months.

Wellington, our capital, is also well known for the odd rattle and shake. They have been having them for much longer than Christchurch.
Yesterday they had another little rumble, in the line of 4.2 magnitude.
People said that after Christchurch they are now more aware of them, they tend to move to somewhere safer nowadays because they just don't know what to expect anymore.
The website I read this on, had the ability for you to comment at the bottom of the news item, what was interesting was the messages of support and advice the people from Christchurch were offering.

Especially in this new modern technology age, we tend to take things for granted and forget that most of what we do daily now may not work when there is no electricty.
So here are some little tips I read that are usefull for all to remember:

1. Think twice before ever considering getting rid of your land line telephone. Christchurch people said that having a mobile phone was of no use to them at all, they were unable to use them as the cell towers were down and the network, if it was working, got overloaded. Also ensure that your landline at home is a plug in the wall telephone, not one of these ones that you can walk around with, as you need electricity to power those and therefore do not work in a power outage, however, if you do not want a plain basic telephone in the house, consider storing one somewhere in the house so that when you have a power outage, you have a phone handy to plug in and use.
2. Do you have any cash in your house? When you need cash where do you get it from? If the power was out would you still have cash on you? Bet your answer to all of that was No and from the cash machine! Well have you ever considered the fact that if the power goes out you can not get cash out? Probably not, I hadn't. The people of Christchurch recommend that you keep maybe $50-100 in cash in the house somewhere so you have the ability to purchase things if the power is out.
3. Do you cook with gas? Do you light your stove / oven using the automatic starter button? Do you have matches in the house? Maybe you might need to store some somewhere, because if the electricity is out you won't be able to boil the water without them to start the gas.

The above 3 things are such simple little things that we all take for granted nowadays. We don't even think about how they work and what would happen if they weren't working.
Hope this has helped you in some way/

Roses

At the beginning of the year, Alex decided that we needed roses in the garden.
At some stage we brought 3 rose bushes and planted them in the front garden.
As mentioned here they took a little time but then suddenly bloomed to all their goodness. He was well chuffed to have pretty things out the front.
Well of course here in New Zealand, November is the month when most roses are in full bloom and looking beautiful. Towns have their local parks rose displays at this time.

Hamilton is no exception, with the Gardens right on our door step, then we couldn't not go to the weekend special for the rose gardens.
The boys loved it, the weather was gorgeous and the roses shone like no other.
We all had our favorite ones, ones that had glorious colour or even weird colour. Ben loved the fact there was one that was close in name to him, well it had the same first name!

So the pictures that follow are the glorious shots we got viewing the beatiful roses at the Hamilton Gardens Roses Day a couple of weekends ago

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M*A*S*H

I don't think there is anyone who doesn't remember this programme.
You either loved it or hated it.
I remember watching it in the late 80's in the US, at that stage you could, if you really wanted to, watch 5 episodes a day, although the 1 shown at 11pm was a repeated the next day at 10.30am, so really only 4 a day.

However, the reason I am having this little walk down memory lane is because sadly Harry Morgan has passed away today.
"Who was he again?" I hear you say.
He had the wonderful pleasure of playing Col. Sherman T Porter.

He was 96 when he died of pneumonia and he had lead a full life.

I looked up M*A*S*H on the computer and found some useless little facts about the show.

• Did you know that all the paintings in Col. Porter's office were actually painted by Harry Morgan.
• Ron Howard, Patrick Swazye and John Ritter all had small parts in an episode at some stage throughout the 11 years of the show running.
• The dog tags worn by Jamie Farr (Max Klinger) were his own actual tags from when he himself served in the U.S. Army in Korea in the 1950s after the Korean War. Alan Alda also served in the U.S Army in Korea.
• The outdoor sets for the show were built in Malibu, California
• The last episode aired on Feb 28, 1983 and was apparently watched by over 125 million viewers.

I am lucky enough to have the complete set of M*A*S*H on DVD at home, and still enjoy sitting down and watching a few episodes.
Now it is even funnier to watch as I am a theatre nurse by trade so interesting to see how they did things in the OR during the show.

More Judo

This past weekend we also, along with the big party, had a Judo Tournament.
I almost died the night the Sensei (Terry) announced that we were having a tournament day on the 4th. I sat there shaking my head thinking 'no, we are away that weekend but I know the boys will want to be here!'

So we reshuffled our weekend plans and raced back from Rotorua, after the birthday party, late on Saturday evening ready for a very early start on Sunday morning. (why they have to start tournaments at 8.30am I will never know?)

Anyway, as per usual, we both got roped into helping on the day, but at this tournament I was working on the mat area, so got to watch all the boys fights, unlike last time when I worked in the kitchen and managed to miss some of the fights!

The boys both fought hard and good. They won some, they lost some and they both had a lot of fun, which at the end of the day is important.
Ben desperately wanted to be part of this because Judo is almost ending for the year and this is when Terry does a lot of the grading. Ben knows he isn't at Orange belt level yet, but he is hoping he might get a notch towards it on his yellow belt. So fingers crossed for next weekend when Judo has their fun day and awards ceremony.

The boys, however, did walk away with a few medals.
Ben got a silver in his class fights and a bronze in the open fight.

Yea for me

 Alex managed a bronze in his class fight.

I got another medal, yea

He did enter the open fight, but sadly did not get placed, although we are proud of both of them for the effort they showed on the day.

with their big friend Jarod

End of year party next weekend and then summer holidays off!

Advanced Birthday Celebrations

If your birthday happens to fall over a major holiday, then what do you do?

Celebrate 6 months in advance? Celebrate the week before? Or even 4 weeks before?

Depending on when it is then I guess you celebrate when convenient.

A friend has a child born on Feb 29,  she said they choose which day suits them best Feb 28 or Mar 1, although she says they do try to stick to the same day each year!

Alex is born over a public holiday weekend here in New Zealand. We always celebrate his birthday on the right weekend but when you want to hold a large party then you have to celebrate the week before or after due to everyone going away for the said weekend!

However, the biggest one we have is Steve.....his birthday is Dec 26, Boxing Day.
And this particular year it is important to celebrate due to the fact he is turning........50!

So we discussed it and decided to celebrate his birthday at the beginning of December. Why I hear you ask, well because everyone, including ourselves, are away over the Christmas period (it is our summer holiday after all). We can't celebrate closer to the day because everyone knows this is the manic period of everyones life, what with work functions, school functions and any other organisation function you happen to be involved in.
This week I am out Monday and Wednesday night, the boys have Judo on Tuesday and Thursday and Steve and I both have a work function Friday afternoon/evening. So this is one of our busiest weeks before Christmas.

So this past weekend we had a party to celebrate his 50th Birthday at my mum's house in Rotorua.
Sadly I didn't get pictures of the party in full swing or even of any of the guests having a great time playing pass the parcel! But I did manage a picture of the birthday boy with his birthday cake.

The weather did not cooperate quite how we would have liked it too, but we all had fun anyway.
So thank you to everyone who came and celebrated with us this past weekend. Steve had a wonderful time and loved catching up with family and friends.
Thank you to mum, who kindly loaned us her house for the party and also helped us by doing some of the shopping and helping us cook the food.
It was all delicious and nothing was wasted, in fact for once it was the perfect amount required for the amount of people attending.

I think it was a great way to kick start the festive session ahead.

Christmas Yummies

At this time of year we are always having morning teas and shared lunches.
Doesn't matter how many recipe books you have, when it comes time to make something your mind can often go blank and you race around the kitchen muttering to yourself "what can I make? what is simple and easy? what will keep overnight?"

Why not pop over here to Paisley Jade's place and see all the yummy simple recipes she has just posted about.
I have had a quick drool through them all and already worked out exactly what I am making tomorrow for the shared lunch I have to attend on Thursday at work.

I do love coming across a blog that saves the day.

December 6

December 6 is the 340th day of the year (341st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar.
There are 25 days remaining until the end of the year

Events on this day:

1897 – London becomes the world's first city to host licenced taxicabs.
1967 – Adrian Kantrowitz performed the first human heart transplant in the United States.

2001 – The Canadian province of Newfoundland is renamed Newfoundland and Labrador.


Births on this day:

There were people born on this day, but Wikipedia only mentioned American Baseball and Football Players, no one of any importance that I could see.

Deaths on this day:

343 – Saint Nicholas (b. 270)

1988 – Roy Orbison, American singer, guitarist, and songwriter (b. 1936)

2001 – Sir Peter Blake, New Zealand sailor and environmentalist (b. 1948)

Due to the death of Saint Nicholas on December 6, this is the reason that many international countries in Europe celebrate Saint Nicholas Day where it is a festival for all the children and little gifts are received.