Saturday, December 31, 2011

No view at the top


Our Melbourne relatives, Regina and Kevin, dropped in for a visit yesterday. We took them to see a few of the local sights, our favourite being the top of Maungawhau. The only problem was there was no view to be had. You couldn't see the Sky Tower or Rangitoto :(


It was a wet and windy in much of the north island, but at least it wasn't cold.

Left-overs picnic


What better thing to do with your left-over Christmas prawns and ham than have a Boxing Day picnic. We decided to walk up Maungawhau (Mt Eden) and have an evening picnic.

Sunday, December 25, 2011

A pear-shaped Christmas

Well finally, it's here! Santa came to our house last night and we feel quite privileged knowing that New Zealand is one of his first stops on the globe.


Things were a little rocky yesterday and I had to admit that maybe I bit off a bit too much. I don't profess to being Martha Stewart, but I like to think I am reasonable competent in the kitchen. After a week-long stretch of feeling like I had Christmas preparations well under control, things went a little pear-shaped, and I'm not talking about a partridge in a tree. It seemed like everything I attempted to create ended in disaster.

Instead of looking like this:


My macaroons looked like this. They were not even worth filling but the kids still want to eat them.


I was also going to take a hazelnut, coffee and brandy cake to our friend's place for dinner tonight, but I don't think so.

On a happier note, the chocolate gluten-free Christmas cake I made did turn out (no pic, sorry). And I used the left-over egg yolks from the macaroons to make traditional custard to have with it. The custard will also come in handy when mopping up the dregs of the hazelnut cake – the ingredients were far too expensive to just throw it out! I think I'll just play it safe and whip up a pav to take to Helen's tonight.

I was also pleased with the Christmas bunting I made and the outdoor candy tree. This is us enjoying brunch which consisted of pancakes, waffles with mango and cherries.



The girls were really pleased with their new outfits.


Merry Christmas everybody and all the very best for twenty-twelve!!

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Free at last

Ava finally got her cast off yesterday. She was very excited but initially a bit worried about the saw.


Now it's off, she is slowly getting back to the idea of using her right arm again.

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Finished!

Despite very windy conditions and huge chop, I managed to complete the ocean swim I've been working towards. I was about middle of the pack which is somewhat reassuring.

Eadie also did her first ocean swim. The kids course was 200m along the shore line in waist deep water. For weeks leading up to the swim she kept asking: Have you entered me in the swim yet? -- over and over again.

Well done to both of us! I wonder what the next challenge will be...

Thursday, December 1, 2011

School photos

With Miss Ruby heading off to intermediate school next year, this will be the last sibling school photo we get for a while.

What treasures!