Family Christmas

Our Christmas was spent in rural Kiwitea, just north of Feilding, at my daughter and her family’s smallholding.  We were staying in our caravan, tucked around behind the house.  Just through the trees was the chicken run, and we could hear the chooks cluck clucking away.   I went with Nicky into the chook run to feed them some scraps and see how they were getting on.

Daughter Nicky with one of her hens

Grand-daughter Emma welcomed us with a pre-Christmas gift, home baked Christmas fruit mince pies and shortbread, such a lovely surprise.

Pre-Christmas gift from Emma

Emma loves Christmas so knocked on the caravan door door  bright and early on Christmas morning.  This family always have a Christmas tradition of hot croissants with ham and cheese for breakfast,  delicious indeed, so much so that we have borrowed their tradition when we have Christmas on our own.  Then came the presents, and what a stack there were.

Presents galore

I’m pleased to say that the hand knitted secret socks were well received.  Grand-daughter Megan had asked it I could knit her a pair “sometime” so I thought it would be nice to also knit some for Emma and my daughter Nicky as well.  Emma got the purple ones, Megan got the yellow, pink and blue ones, and daughter Nicky got the navy ones, all knitted with   Zauberball 4ply sock yarn.

Socks for the girls for Christmas

And this is what was waiting for us under the tree

Christmas lunch was a feast of BBQ chicken, glazed ham, salads, yummy desserts and a glass or two of bubbly, eaten picnic style outside under the shade of the gazebo.  We were fit to bursting and I must admit to a nana nap in the afternoon. 

Megan glazed the ham

The family dog Noodle kept us entertained as he demolished his Christmas piggy toy.  He gets one every year and when he heard the squeak inside his wrapped parcel, he could hardly contain himself.  There wasn't much left of piggy by the end of the day.

Noodle and his Christmas pig

Poor Gemma was traumatized by the household cats.  The older cat PK (Psycho Killer) had gone missing for several months and only just returned home.  Meanwhile, the family had just acquired a young kitten, so both of the felines were rather put out with each other.  And then, we arrived with Gemma in the caravan, so there was a bit of hissing going on and Gemma couldn’t cope with this at all. We decided that it would be better for Gemma, and our peace of mind, if we kept Gemma in the caravan, away from the other two cats.

PK is waiting outside the caravan door

The weather has been lovely and warm, and I’ve sent some time under the gazebo doing a little stitching.  This is going to be a set of placemats for the caravan.

Stitching time

We have had a lovely time here in Kiwitea, the girl’s boyfriends have been staying so we got to knw them a bit better.  And several neighbors have popped in, and stayed for a meal.  One of them was relating how she had two sows almost ready to farrow, this was a first for her so it was rather exciting.  Such is life in the country.