Christmas summer holdiays

- yes, for us here on the 'other side of the world' Christmas is about summer and light and warmth and beach visits and picnics, as well as friends and family and being generous of spirit and time and energy (patience with small children, adults and all visitors falls into this category). Being summer and south of the 42nd parallel the twilight makes some Christmas traditions trickier to pull off. The tree decorated with lights is a good example, you would think that with 160+ years of New Zealand experience and tradition to draw on we might have come up with a tradition more suited for our long twilight light summer nights.
No, we have not, we decorate or trees as if it is winter, and dark, and then wait until at least 10pm or latter to see the effect.
Its worth it, although this year I only woke up the elder cub to view it, the younger one I left sleeping, I did creep into her room and call softly .. but let sleeping cubs sleep should be any sensible parents motto.

Christmas day has passed here, and all is well, it was a quiet day for us, we are away to visit my dad and younger brother tomorrow. There was catching up via the internet and old fashioned phone calls, and long periods of quiet about the house as we all played with our new 'stuff', or explored the new stuff of others.

Me I had fun, watching Poppy play with her toy family, she had them all lined up to make lunch followed by having them dry the dishes, Toby spent the day seemingly knee deep in lego proving true that if lego is your thing .. well lego is your thing, and lego seems to be the thing for which that small boy falls. Bear gathered us all up for a walk around Sullivan's Dam for the afternoon .. it was a grand day, 24 degrees C (75F), sunny with no wind to speak of.

Me... I was spoilt, there were no arguments, no tantrums, and it was an easy day, spoilt totally, new fibre, signature needles, and new yarn ... so I fluffed around on Ravelry finding a suitable pattern to break in my new Signature dpn needles (no real breaking required - I'm hooked - as soon as they do circs in sock sizes I'm in). the sock is TTL Soctober 2008 Mystery Sock, by Kristen Kapur. I'm loving the needles, the yarn is Vintage-Vintage Purls Sock, one of her early editions (the packaging was different).

So much fun, sharp, smooth, stiff, light - luxury, that was just the needles, the yarn is soft and silky and pretty. The pattern interesting and I love the look of the finished sock.
... next the Waimate Rodeo (where every year I threaten to buy a cow-girl hat and wear it).

na Stella