To start our Christmas celebrations we FINALLY got to go pick up Bradley & Shamini from the airport and get our holiday off to a good start. They arrived on Thursday (22nd) evening. Their flight was delayed by an hour and because I couldn't get off work early it worked out quite fine for us. Their flight got in after 6pm so I managed to leave the office come home for Cam as he had the day off and go straight to the airport. We stood around waiting for what seemed like forever and the airport was really packed. We love the arrivals lounge at the airport, especially around Christmas, it's always so exciting and happy and I love watching people's reactions when they see their loved ones. Because I get really stiff and sore if I stand on my feet for too long, as soon as there was a chair available we sat down, so when they finally came through the doors they couldn't see my pregnant belly. But when I stood up, their reactions were priceless... Shamini's jaw dropped to the floor and well, in between Brad's excitement to see his brother his eyes kep diverting to my tummy as if it was a mirage... PRICELESS!!! Shamini reached out to touch it to see if it was real and couldn't pick her jaw froom the ground til at least the next day!
Friday the 23rd was meant to be my first day of leave but because we've been caught up in the recent MV Rena grounding down in the Bay of Plenty I had to wrap up a few things before I officially began my leave. So was back in the office on Friday, thankfully these 3 were still asleep so I didn't miss out on anything!!! We had a quiet Friday as they were up til ungodly hours on their first night (that seemed to be the theme of the entire holiday). Come Christmas Eve we went to Westgate Mall for Brunch and then did last minute shopping for Christmas lunch. Once we were home we got into the kitchen to get our prep done for our big Christmas lunch.
Christmas morning was an early one for me. First things first was to get the ham into the pot to boil and prep the Chicken for roasting. Thankfully Shamini had helped me get the pie filling and the stuffing done the night before so it was just the roasts and sides to be done. While cooking my mum skyped me from SA. It was good talking to her, especially since she hasn't seen the pregnant belly either so she got to see how big I am. Honestly, I don't know if she wanted to cry or laugh when she saw my belly but I know she was happy to see her baby in full pregnancy glow! After chatting to her and after everything was done I quickly got ready for all the guests to arrive. We had invited Premika, Lenny & Kajal as well as our friend Romarlon for lunch so we had a pretty full house. We had to bring two tables together to fit everyone around the table for Christmas lunch and well as our dining room isn't big enough for that we rearranged the whole house to fit the two tables into the lounge. Okay, I have to apologise, I didn't take any pictures on Christmas day. I was exhausted and well, that was the furthest thing from my mind! I know Premika did take a few so will have to try to get some from her. We had an amazing lunch together though, this was our menu:
Roast Chicken with Pork & Sage stuffing
Gravy
Christmas Ham with a apricot and honey glaze
Steak & Mince pie
Salad
Sauteed Asparagus and Green Beans with chive butter
Steamed Carrots
Herb Roasted baby potatoes
The weather held up and we had a good time just sitting outside under the gazebo and enjoying each other's company. We then had Evelyn & Api, Jared and two of their friends join us that evening to continue the Christmas Celebrations. I was the stick in the mud though, by 11pm I called it a night.
On Boxing Day we had a lazy morning and headed off to Lenny & Premika's place for the afternoon. We took all the food over as well because there was still so much left over and had that for dinner that night. The guys enjoyed an evening of playing playstation (FIFA 11 I think it was), while us girls chatted about everything babies! We're all at different stages so it was good to share our stories.
We had planned to go to Hobbiton on the 27th but after the rush of the last few days we decided to just relax on the 27th and plan a full day for the 28th. We headed off early that morning, straight after breakfast and drove the 2 hours to Matamata to see Hobbiton. Anyone who has watched or even heard of the Lord of the Rings movies will understand why we HAD to go see this place. And with the new "The Hobbit" movie coming out we really had to take the opportunity to go. Only thing though, we all signed a confidentiality agreement which prohibits us from sharing any pictures of the actual set (the exciting part really) on any social website or for any personal use, so sorry people I can't share these until the release of "The Hobbit" movie in December 2012... which really sucks... But here are a few of the ones we can actually share...
It was a really long day and was even longer considering we had to drive back to Auckland the same day. So when we got home although we had planned to go out that night we were all really exhausted from the full day and just called it a night and decided we'd go out for supper the following night. The 28th brought the rain and well, it hasn't let up. We went out to Wildfire for dinner and ate til we were almost sick! We haven't been there since my 27th birthday so it was nice to go back and have some really great Brazilian Churrascaria!!!
The last few days have been really full on and I cannot believe we have one more day for 2011.
