Today we celebrated a low-key, lovely Christmas in New Zealand just the four of us. As they say in Maori here, Meri Kirihimete!
Like most people around the world facing the challenge of covid & the need to stay safe, we greatly missed being away from our families for all the usual Christmas togetherness and festive, special traditions. This is the second year we've been on our own for the holidays. Last year we were on an overnight train in Vietnam. It was our first Summer/warm weather Christmas and it ended up being such a fun, unique way to spend the holidays.
This year we unexpectedly find ourselves in New Zealand, again away from our loved ones, making an effort to embrace what's around us and make the holiday special in our own way.
Festive Prep on the 23rd
The 23rd ended up being torrential downpour all day long . . . Perfect for staying indoors and preparing for Christmas. The girls huddle in their bedroom and made their top-secret Christmas cards for us (all their idea, sweetly). I wrapped all our presents (Christmas tunes going strong in the background) while the girls watched a Christmas movie in the other room.
Quick side note: Our family tradition (carried on from my family's tradition when I was growing up) is that we gift the girls an ornament each year. Idea being that when the time comes for them to have their own Christmas tree, they'll have a collection of keepsake ornaments all their own. This year's ornaments to the girls were New Zealand bird ones! Kiwi bird for Paige and Fantail bird for Sadie :)
I also took on the very time consuming task of making monkey bread/aka bubble bread from scratch on the 23rd. My family tradition is to eat the yummy treat while opening gifts on Christmas morning. It quickly became apparent I wasn't going to be able to readily find the ingredients I needed here in NZ. But I was determined. When I found this recipe, two things became clear: 1) Getting all the ingredients would be totally doable; 2) Making it on Christmas morning would not be doable. So instead I seized the rainy day to go the distance and make the monkey bread. I didn't have a bundt cake pan, but it turned out delicious! We scarfed down half of the batch over a game of dominoes when it came out fresh from the oven on the afternoon of Dec. 23rd, and enjoyed the rest on Christmas morning (quick reheat in the oven and viola!). Williams family Christmas tradition in tact!
Amusing video of Sadie instructing Paige how to prepare the dough balls. We're giggling at the end because Paige interrupts to add "and then you lick your fingers" :)
The girls whipped up our eve of Christmas Eve dinner. They had started their scheming a few days prior, so we had the kitchen stocked with all the necessary/requested ingredients. They served two starters: tomatoes stuffed with yogurt, herbs and seed mix, and bell peppers stuffed with quinoa, creamy feta cheese, garlic and bacon. Yum to both! Main course was a dinosaur shaped pasta with half homemade tomato sauce and half pesto (festive red & green colors, folks!). So fun to see them getting creative in the kitchen, taking responsibility for all steps of the process and proudly serving their tasty dishes!
Xmas Eve
We spent Christmas Even in an unconventional way . . . on a boat ride along Abel Tasman coastal National Park. It was an absolutely glorious day weather wise, and we all had such a fantastic day. Funny enough, we were on a boat last Christmas Eve as well! Maybe we're unknowingly making a new family holiday tradition :)
We wrapped up the Eve with the girls equal parts exhausted from a day in the strong sun and giddy at the fact that there was "only one more sleep until Christmas!" The girls put out the cutest little food spread for Santa. Knowing that New Zealand was one of his first global stops, they wanted to fuel him up with good, healthy snacks :)
Merry, Merry on Christmas Morning
The girls bounded out of bed just before 7:00am. They knew they weren't allowed to come out of their room until we gave them the official green light. They waited in their room another 10 excruciating minutes before we said they could come out. And boy were they excited . . . Santa found them! Surely because they mailed their Santa letters at the Queenstown Library before we left for our trip :)
We had a super chill morning opening our gifts, Christmas tunes pumping. The girls were so happy with all of their gifts. Phew! Truth be told, it's the first Christmas I can remember where everyone was genuinely happy with all the gifts they received (only exception: Paige & a shower cap!). Biggest hits for Paige were her digital camera (thanks Santa), All Blacks t-shirt (from Sadie) and charm making bracelet workshop (from us). Biggest hits for Sadie were her Kiwi snow globe & mountains necklace (both from Santa), remote control bug & art colored pencils (from us) and rock crystals making kit (from Paige). I was happy as a clam with my cribbage board and AirPods headphones, and Doug was pleased as a punch with his New Zealand birds guidebook. As usual, the best parts of the morning were watching the girls giddily gifting to each other, and the thoughtful cards and IOUs (free hugs, hand knitting session, tennis lesson, cooking lesson, game of cribbage) they made for each of us.
Video montage of a few special Christmas morning 2021 moments, including the girls initially bounding out of their rooms & seeing their gifts from Santa, the girls gifting some things to each other and verbalizing sweet notes to each other on-the-spot, and me & Doug exchanging gifts.
Zoom Service
We scarfed down the traditional Williams family Christmas egg sandwich breakfast (Bohaboy riff on it = added sauteed kale, bacon, shallots, garlic & fresh thyme). Yum! And then hopped on a Zoom video call with my parents (in Florida) and sister & fam (in Maryland).
Erinn had arranged a Christmas Eve service including passages read by different family members and us all joining together to sing several Christmas carols. You can tell from this video of our final, joyful song that we were comically uncoordinated in our singing at times :) But it was a really lovely way to feel more connected, as we traditionally go to church together on Christmas Eve when we're all together. So happy to see everyone, but definitely missing family this holiday season.
Split Apple Rock Beach
We spent our Christmas Day afternoon at a locally famous beach spot, Split Apple Rock. We'd seen it twice from a boat earlier this week (here and here), so it was cool to see it from the shore. The girls happily braved the chilly water, we explored some little caves and rocky coves, walked the black sand (in parts) beaches and had a picnic snack. Paige was sweetly snapping photos and videos left & right with her new camera :) Not a White Christmas, but definitely not a bad way to close out Christmas day.
Goodnight Christmas
All in all, we had a wonderful Christmas in our wee family unit. It's still trippy to not be celebrating Christmas in a cold-weather climate, cozy inside with our loved ones. This "Christmas in Summer/warm, sunny weather" takes some getting used to! We continue to feel supremely grateful that all our loved ones, near and far, are staying healthy and safe. We're hopeful that we'll ring in Christmas 2021 with some of those loved ones - celebrating together IN PERSON! At that point, we won't care whether it's in a warm or cold spot; just as long as the world is in a better, safe place that allows us to congregate in a festive way!
p.s. I can't let Christmas 2020 go by without a massive shout-out to Erinn & Diz who sent us one of the BEST Christmas gifts! Among a few other goodies, they sent us coffee grinds from our absolute favorite NYC coffee shop, MUD! Best way to explain how it made us feel is by just sharing the thank you note I sent Erinn. Amazing. Hearts full!
p.p.s. The MVP of the 2020 Christmas season was the matching Team Santa shirts from Grammy & Gramps! :)
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