Christmas, here we come.

The caravan was packed, and we were on our way to Kiwitea, to stay with my daughter and her family.  Santa Bear and the Christmas cushions were coming away with us on this trip, and we mustn’t forget the bag of Christmas gifts for the family.

Christmas in the caravan

Expecting the holiday traffic to  be very busy, we kept off SH1 and drove along some quieter rural roads. It’s always good to be safely off the roads in the busy holiday period, and we were soon parked up on the property.  My bacon and egg pie went down a treat for our evening meal, with baby new potatoes and a salad.

The next morning we drove down to Feilding for a family and friends brunch.  Friendly Feilding, as it is   known is a rural town in Manawatu, and the iconic clock tower is slap bang in the middle of town.

 

Feilding clock tower

Our group all enjoyed a nice brunch, I ordered waffles with fruit, so yummy.  There was plenty of happy chatter around the table as we all tucked in to our breakfasts.

Brunch time

We took a little tiki tour on the way back to Kiwitea, and stopped in at the local honey business, Down Under Honey.  What a cute little shop it was.  We were after some comb honey, and also purchased a jar of Kamahi honey too.

Down Under Honey

And we certainly weren’t expecting to see ostriches on this property, but there they were, right by the driveway.  If you didn’t know, a group of ostriches is called a herd.

Ostriches at the Honey Farm

Christmas morning dawned rather wet, and much cooler than the previous few days.  After the traditional family breakfast of croissants with ham and cheese, it was time to open the gifts.  Granddaughter Emma loves Christmas, and dressed as a Christmas Elf, took over the responsibly of handing out the gifts.  Lots of lovely gifts changed hands, with cries of “just what I wanted” from the happy recipients.

Emma dressed as a Christmas Elf

I had knitted the granddaughters a cozy pair of socks each, which will be put away till the colder weather.  Knitted with double knit together with 4 ply sock yarn, they knit up as triple knit and don’t take too long to make.  Pink socks for Megan and green socks for Emma.

Socks for the granddaughters for Christmas

And amongst my gifts from Nicky was a lovely skein of pretty pink sock yarn.  How nice, I’ll be using this to knit socks for me!

Pretty sock yarn for Christmas

Of course, the next big thing was Christmas Lunch.  Robin and Robert got the BBQs cranked up for roast pork and chicken and bacon roll-ups, another family Christmas tradition.  Lovely smells of cooking wafted around from the BBQs.

Cooking Christmas Lunch on the BBQs

The weather cleared up late morning so we could eat outside on the deck.  Neighbours arrived, and we settled down to lunch.  With pork, chicken, various salads and the neighbour’s home made rye bread, we were very well fed indeed.  Glasses of bubbly were raised in a toast, and everyone was quiet as we enjoyed our delicious meal.  After a respite it was time for desserts.  Granddaughter Megan had made a layered berry meringue dessert, simple but so delicious, I’m certainly going to borrow this recipe for the future.  She also had made a chocolate cheesecake, and the neighbor had brought along a chocolate mousse.  We  were certainly well fed.

It was a lovely afternoon indeed, and I have to admit that we both sneaked away from the festivities for a quiet nana nap in the caravan.  Too much food and bubbles in the middle of the day out in the sunshine, I think.  Merry Christmas to all our friends and readers, thanks for reading and wishing you all a lovely day.