Meri kirihimete! (Merry Christmas in te reo Māori)
I’m sitting in Annemarie’s backyard with the sun on my back, listening to Bob Marley singing No Woman No Cry while her flatmate, Rewi, gathers plums for a crumble he is making for dessert tonight. The flat cat, Beanie, keeps coming over for cuddles. Not a bad way to spend Christmas afternoon.
I started the day with a hug from Annemarie, an especially big deal as I haven’t been able to celebrate Christmas with her for the last two years. We laughed because it happened to be 6am, much earlier than she expected to be up. When the kids were little, the rule on Christmas day was not to wake up mom and dad before 6 AM. They were allowed to open their stockings before that time, but they couldn’t open presents until we were up and had our coffee.
I went for a walk around the neighborhood passing the zoo, our old house, the local playcentre and up into the green space above Newtown. It was a peaceful morning, not many people out at that hour.
After I got back, we opened our presents for each other. It was so much fun unwrapping all the little things we had found for each other. Annemarie made a delicious breakfast of bacon, eggs each one had a different colored yolk!) and scones. Per our family tradition we opened our Christmas crackers with breakfast, this year they were of a more homemade variety, from mainly recycled materials by a local nonprofit. Instead of a tissue paper crown, the cracker itself converted into the crown, and the prize was the best I’ve ever had in a cracker – a fabric bookmark that sits on the corner of your page – very ingenious!
Later we had a video chat with my mom and sister, Christina. It’s definitely a bit colder there, though nothing like the east coast and mid west-brrr!
After we digested breakfast we headed down to the local park so I could play on the flying fox ;), it was so much fun! I’m sure the older ladies eating their Christmas lunch at the park thought it was amusing.
In New Zealand pretty much everything is closed on Christmas Day. The buses run on the Sunday schedule (and they are free Xmas Eve, Xmas Day, NY Eve and NY Day) but all stores and restaurants, including fast food like McDonalds, are closed. Many businesses close for the period from Christmas to the week after New Years, and I saw a sign on a plant shop saying it was closed until Feb 15 for long service leave. Long service leave is not required, but apparently relatively common and can be several weeks of paid leave (employers are required to give 4 weeks of paid vacation each 12 months of employment).
Since it’s summertime, many people have barbecues, or go to the beach on Christmas Day or Boxing Day, which is also a holiday. I could hear many of Annemarie’s neighbors outside starting their barbecues about mid day. We grilled steaks for dinner, they were delicious! Dessert was a variety of New Zealand Christmas treats – meringues, Christmas mince pies and shortbread.
We had our second video call of the day with Emmy when she got home from work. She’s working Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, so we got to talk to her in between shifts. She and Eddie have most of their trip to New Zealand planned-sounds like it’s going to be a lot of fun!
Early bedtime tonight, we take the 6am ferry to the South Island tomorrow!