Xmas Kids Hash

Today the kids met Santa (again) although this time he was looking so odd, that even our kids agreed it couldn't be the real Santa! But he brought presents, so it was all good!
It was at the monthly kids hash - which was as usual good fun!





(Note: These photos are taken with the new phone, they come out great, huh?)

A fourth of Advent miracle

Today it's the fourth of Advent. Lucas looked at his nearly empty Advent (package) Calendar this morning, counted the few remaining presents, and his whole face shone up with delight - "Mummy, it's almost Christmas!".



We have also experienced a miracle. The furniture we ordered OVER six months ago (!!!), finally arrived! Amazing! Now finally, the downstairs too looks inhabited properly. We got a bookshelf for the hall part (it's still a bit empty, but I will get there), and a buffet table for the dining room part (it's all one big room really, but you know).
Now we just need some more rugs, some more wall decorations for some empty spaces, a few mood creating lamps and a bar of course! Then it will be just perfect!

Happy office

Here is the office - now filled with happy, bright colours! I love this lime green, it's so vibrant and suits the colour of the walls so well:

Revamped upstairs

Before we went on holiday, I ordered new curtains for upstairs. I decided it was best to do them all at once, otherwise it would probably never be done, so I ordered new curtains for all five rooms!
They had been delivered while we were gone, so it was really exciting to come home and see how it turned out.

This is Linnea's room. Note she has also got a new bedspread, I really like that old-fashioned dark pink:



The master bedroom, Lucas' room and the playroom below all have four panels of curtains, but they had only given us tie-backs for the outer panels (?) unfortunately. So I had to call them back to have them make a few more. Here in the playroom, I'm currently using some toy snakes (...) to hold the curtains back, so you get the idea how it will look, eventually:



I chose this colour, cause it matches the colours on our world map that is hanging on the opposite wall from the window, sea green something. (The before picture here actually looks quite nice, but it's just an illusion - those curtains were old, worn and yucky.)

I will show you the rest when I get the tie-backs. I'm really pleased with all the colour choices though, and it feels so nice to have our own things. Even if it's "only" curtains! Certainly helps making the house a home.

Being married to a gadget man

It is no secret that my husband is a real gadget man, it was even mentioned in a few speeches on our wedding! Our house it teched out with every possible gadget you can imagine, and he always has plans for the next cool toy or fantastic new gizmo he is planning to get.



Sometimes, there are things he would like, but can't justify buying - like f.e an iPhone. The thing is, his flying log programs aren't compatible with that. But... that doesn't stop him from getting it for someone else in the family - me.
For the record, yes, it is a nice phone.
I must say though, I think it's totally overpriced (even if we bought it in NZ, which is one of the few countries in the world you can buy them unlocked, and cheap) for what it is; and I was very against this purchase. I actually really liked my old Nokia, it worked really well (even after it's recent swim) and suited me and my needs perfectly.
But, now I have a new baby. As I said, yes - it is a nice phone!

I have a white one, and am currently spending some time getting to know it and synchronizing it with my other baby, my Mac. Just call me Gadget Woman!

Home sweet home

Yes, we made it home this time! Everything ran pretty smoothly (would have been strange otherwise I guess, considering we had had a full "dress-rehearsal") and after a long flight, we are now back home, busy unpacking!

It's good to be home.

Watch this space

After having told us that there were no seats until practically after Christmas - we are all of a sudden now leaving tomorrow!
At least, that's what they are saying. I'm not believing it until I'm actually ON that plane. The plane has left Brunei, but it's going via Brisbane, so anything can still happen, ha ha.

But, the bags are packed, again, and we are ready to leave just after midnight, on another long drive up to Auckland.

Watch this space - it will be exciting to see if the next post will really be from Brunei, or if we are back here again in the morning...
So long!

Get your camera mummy!

Linnea met this fella yesterday, and straight away ordered me to get my camera out. She wanted a picture with her and Santa. Understandable, he is the favourite person right now!

Dear Santa

Lucas wrote his wish list to Santa this morning. We thought we better cover ourselves since Santa might now be a bit confused about where we will be at Christmas...



He did a very good job and he only wanted two things, let me decode it for you:
1. Ben 10 Alien Force (check out the spelling of 'force' = 4s, very clever!)
2. Bumblebee Transformer (he insisted on that 'transformer' didn't start with a 't' but a 'ch'...)

Bless!
We better make sure Santa pulls through, even if we have to stay here for Christmas.

The nightmare before Christmas

We are stuck. In NZ. Until we don't know when. Crap.

We had a little sleep early last night and got up just before midnight, to drive up to Auckland for our flight. That's a 3,5 h one-way drive. Our flight was supposed to leave at 05.30 this morning, but did we get a surprise arriving to the check-in counter only to discover that it was canceled!

The kids and I had initially planned to stay on down here for a few days longer than Nathan, but chose not to do so after we heard all flights for the rest of the week were overbooked. We didn't want to take our chances and maybe be separated for Christmas.
Well... guess how good our chances are to get to Brunei at all now..?

We drove the 3,5 hrs back to Taupo again. The next few days it was over-overfull of course, due to the cancellation today. So we will just wait and see. I'm not going back up to AKL again until I know we will get on the flight!
We are not sure yet what they will do with Nathan, since he kind of needs to get back to work. Hopefully (he only has two flights until the 29th) they will let him stay here, and we can all go home together eventually - maybe they will come up with another solution. We are just standing by at the moment, until they figure that one out.

I guess it could be worse. At least we are with family, where we are comfortable, and we have all our stuff.
But those of you who know me also knows how much I hate last-minute change of plans, how much I hate not knowing when things are going to happen and how much I hate packing suitcases - so this for me, is really a nightmare.
Crap.

Grey weather = Shopping weather

Today it's grey and cold, so we won't be going on the boat - perfect weather for shopping. We better make sure we get everything with us back that we need for Christmas etc. There is still room in the suitcases for some last minute shopping, hourray!

We are off again already early tomorrow morning, it was a short stay this time. The kids and I had thought about staying on for a few extra days, but since all the flights from now until Christmas are overbooked, we don't want to take the chance - so we are all leaving together.
But not until I have filled the suitcases up!

Carols in the Park

Last night we went down the park to listen to the Great Lake Big Band and some school choirs singing Carols. There was lots of people who had brought their picnics, blankets and camping chairs and it was really nice. Of course Grandma had prepared a top picnic for us!





The kids inaugurated their new camping chairs:



There was a lollie scramble...



... but Lucas didn't manage to get any the first time, because all the big kids were a bit wild.



Lucky Mummy got into it the second time it started, shoved a few of the big kids aside and got a few lollies for her kids! Peace restored.

Lunchtime on the boat

Today we took the boat out and went fishing for a bit. Grandma made us lunch on the boat, and it tasted delicious!



The kids wanted to swim, so Nathan had to go in (brrr!) too. Here they are contemplating it all, it took quite a while for Nathan to get in:



Linnea jumped in but swam straight back and got out again. Lucas jumped in too, but I tell you what - I have never seen anyone jump out of the water quicker than in! He was out of there in a flash! The water here doesn't really have the same temperature we are used to from Brunei...

Two goofs:



Linnea with wind in her hair:



Me practising driving Granddads boat, before Nathan will let me drive ours :) :



It was a great afternoon on the boat though, and now we are getting ready for a picnic in the park in town, we are going to "Carols in the Park". I'm hoping for some beautiful singing!

You are beautiful

Granddad took Nathan on another bike ride this morning. The kids were watching as they geared up earlier, and Lucas looked curiously on Granddad and said:
- Why are you wearing Grandma's helmet? (It's pink you see)



Granddad giggled and asked him: "Don't you think I look cool Lucas?". To which Lucas answered:
- No Granddad. You look beautiful.

Empathizing with the Wright brothers

This afternoon we had big winds here on the lake, and Grandma pulled out an early Christmas present for Lucas - a kite!

We thought it would be an easy task to get it to fly (after it took quite a while to mount it...), because it looked really flash, but ha - were we fooled! It just didn't want to fly!







After a serious amount of attempts, and Granddad having the kite violently crash on his head (!), he sighed:
-"Now I know how the Wright brothers felt"...

He's here too!!!

On Friday we met Santa in town! Lucas was surprised, "he is here too!", but content getting some candy and a promise that Santa would fly by in Brunei on Christmas Eve!

Swedish Lucia coffee!

Usually when I'm in Taupo I go into this one jewelery shop to have a snoop because they tend to have a lot of Scandinavian brands in there. A few times ago the lady in the shop heard me speak Swedish to the kids and revealed she was Swedish too. Since then, I always make sure I go and say hi every time I'm here.
On Tuesday when I was in we talked about Christmas etc, and when she said she was going to have some friends over for coffee for Lucia - I was quick to invite myself! :)

So, today we went over to her house the whole family, and met up with her family and some other Swedes; we were 17 in total.
She had been baking both pepparkakor and lussebullar, and there was yummy homemade glögg as well! Lovely!

One of the ladies organized a little lucia-tåg (=procession), and Linnea was happy to take part! They/we sang a few songs and it was all very beautiful!

A few pictures:













I got a proper infusion of Swedish Christmas spirit and the kids made good friends with the other kids. Hopefully we will be able to meet up again next time we come. It feels cool to have some own friends here in NZ too!

Lusse Lelle

This morning we celebrated Lucia down here in NZ. It was very beautiful, at least to me. The kids got dressed up and had practised the song "Goderafton..."; we had brought some Swedish pepparkakor for Grandma and Granddad and we had a little photo session, of course.
Lucia might have been a bit wasted down here, but to me it's important to keep up with traditions - so be it if we are in NZ, Brunei or wherever! Today it's Lucia, and feeling a bit homesick I'm going to have another pepparkaka or two!

Here is a little clip of a traditional Lucia celebration in Sweden:

NZ life

The days are passing by all too fast down here in NZ, even though we are just doing the normal stuff: enjoying fantastic food cooked by Grandma (she is better than any amah!), enjoying the view of the lake, enjoying some shopping and lunches at nice coffee shops in town; playing in the play house, throwing the frisbee around, watching tv, hanging out with Kiwi...



... drinking fab NZ wine, eating Peanut brownies, playing in the garden...



... and Nathan have got his bike and gear in order, and been enjoying a few rides with Granddad:

Learning New Zillund speak

We found this poster in town the other day, and I just love it!



It will be framed and hung on our guest toilet, so our guests too can practise their New Zillund speak, just like I'm doing down here at the moment. 'T' is for tin - the number after nine. Haha, priceless!