Christmas in Auckland

Christmas for 2009 has proved to be one to be remembered. We are blessed to have Bradley & Shamini (Cam's brother & his wife) come over from Australia and spend time with us. After spending last Christmas without family we really are grateful to have them around. And because we haven't seen them in 6 months it was quite an excruciating wait, counting down the days and nights until Christmas eve when they arrived. And even more so when their flight was delayed.

When they got in though, it was like we had never been apart...



Once we got home we could finally put our Star on the Christmas tree... Cameron was adamant we would not put it up before Brad arrived because he wanted it to be a special time, where we could enjoy it as a family. Once the star was on we could put on the lights and finally get to enjoy our Christmas tree.







We then partied the night away, opened gifts at mignight and just enjoyed our first night together. Brad particularly was thrilled about our new 42" LCD TV and well Cameron couldn't get over the fact that Bradley & Shamini had got him the Tekken 6 XBox game....





We had to have an early morning on Christmas day because there was so much to prepare. But no matter how early I got up, nothing went as planned. The oven decided that it would not work so all my preparation went out the door and panic set in... Then brainstorm... either Cam or Brad decided that we could get the BBQ going and put the roasts in there... so Brad got going with the lamb prep and got that in there... meanwhile I decided to try the oven again, but this time only put on the "Lower Oven" and viola it was hot and in went the rest of the food. My mum handed down her famous Stuffing recipe so my Christmas was complete!!! On the menu was roast lamb with gravy, roast Chicken (cos we don't enjoy Turkey too much) with stuffing, roast potatoes, Lasagne, Steak & Mushroom pie and salads. For dessert Brad was going to make his famous peppermint tart but I forgot to get the cream so luckily we had some Sara Lee desserts in the freezer and some ice-cream... at the end of the day, we had the Christmas dinner we were hoping to have.







One of Cam's work friends, Matt, joined us for Christmas as well so Cam had fun entertaining "Sagren style". Cameron is his father's son through & through. He loves having a good time and entertaining people and giving everyone a good time.





After all the cooking and eating, we just sat around the table and enjoyed each others company.



I can't wait for next Christmas where we will have the whole family together and will hopefully be in South Africa with all our friends and loved ones...

Merry Christmas Everyone...