Well, it's official - we celebrated our first Christmas in the Summertime. We could definitely get used to it too! We were hosted by our friend Mark's family. They were incredibly gracious to not only welcome us into their home for Christmas, but also Trey's friend Adnan who has been staying with us from St. Louis, MO. We had a beautiful, hot summer day to celebrate. We spent most of our time outside in their gorgeous backyard talking over salmon and cream cheese dip and 7 layer dip that we contributed to the gathering. Mmmmm. Those Kiwis loved that 7 layer dip! :)
Mark's dad bbq'd lamb and Mark's mom put out a great spread of ham, veggies, potatoes, crayfish with avocado and prawns. Everything was soooo delicious. For dessert of course we had the traditional pavlova with kiwi fruit and fresh fruit as well as some yummy raspberry ambrosia that obviously Jocelyn could not take part of, but Trey said it was very yummy.
People gathered around the tree and exchanged gifts. Mark and Lily had even gotten presents for Jocelyn, Trey and Adnan! Jocelyn got a stuffed animal Kiwi to add to the "family", Trey got a Kiwi words and phrases book and Adnan got traditional Kiwi candy (or lollies as they are called here!) It was incredibly thoughtful and felt good to be included.
There was much merriment and drinking and soon enough, the boys got up to playing some touch rugby. I think the game may have gone smoother if they weren't all so drunk! LOL It was fun for the girls to watch though.
A bit later a few of us took a walk to the Riccarton Bush which is a short walk out of Mark's family's backyard.
Riccarton House & Bush is a heritage site located in the Christchurch suburb of Riccarton just 3.5 km from the city centre. Covering almost 12 hectares our visitor attraction consists of two historic buildings set in parkland and gardens bordered by the River Avon and a native forest reserve featuring Kahikatea trees up to 600 years old
The site, known to local Maori as "Putaringamotu" ...the place of an echo, was home to Canterbury's pioneering Deans family, the first Europeans to settle on the Plains in 1843.
It was a nice little piece of history on an otherwise food-filled day!
The best part of making so many close friends so quickly is getting to see things like that which is not a typical "touristy" thing to see but we were so glad we learned even more about Kiwi culture and history.
Enjoy a few pics from Christmas and we will post a link to more soon.
More stories coming re: our trip to the West Coast shortly and more pics too!!
P.S. The last two pics above are from the day after Adnan arrived - we took him to the gorgeous Botanical Gardens here in Christchurch :)
