GIVING THANKS--NEW ZEALAND STYLE

ROASTING "FRANK"

THE WISHBONE BATTLE

THE FEASTING TABLE

CHRISTMAS IN THE PARK CONCERT with Petra and Tim

Yea, us! We actually pulled it off! Starting at 9 a.m. cooking, a short 10 hours later we had a real Thanksgiving meal. In attendence was: Jonny, Megs and Sam, and two girls from work Petra and Marion (Germany/S. Africa). The menu consisted of: Turkey, dressing, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, bread, corn casserole, sweet tea and German apple strudel with ice cream.

We put up our Christmas lights in the den, had a centerpiece of lilies, and tea lights everywhere (thanks to Megs!). It was a lovely night. Blaine and I were pretty overwhelmed with everything, seeing that usually we are asked to bring a salad or bag of ice to contribute to the family Thanksgiving meal at home. Now it was all in our hands. It was worth it though. Everyone was jealous that they are not from America, where we get to have Thanksgiving every year. We even carried on the tradition of going around the table for everyone to say what they are thankful for. We had mostly trivial answers like "I am thankful for golf" or generic answers like "I am thankful for friends and family". Maybe next year we should give everyone a few days to compose their answer.

Hope everyone had a nice time with their family and friends at home. To our family: WE MISSED YOU!

Happy TURKEY DAY!

We wanted to say hope everyone enjoys Thanksgiving in America! We are so very sad to not be sitting at our families' tables for the holiday. We are going to try and replicate an American Thanksgiving dinner this weekend for some of our friends here. So many people here have asked us "what really is Thanksgiving, what do you do for it?". Funny. We said "well, everyone gets together with their family and stuffs themselves with turkey and sweet potatoe casserole (followed by the question: what is a casserole?) and then we take a nap and then we throw the football in the front yard or the boys go hunting". I have never had to explain Thanksgiving but it sort of is a strange holiday.

This picture is a beautiful example of a turkey sent to me by my friend Barry, who lives in Jacksonville, Florida.

Blaine's First Day at Work

I have now felt the feelings that a mother has when her child starts school for the first time. I took Blaine into work for his first day (actually a selfish motive so that I could have the car on my day off) and took pictures of him the whole way. He even bought new clothes, just like we used to do for school. One funny thing about New Zealand that we have discovered is that not many people wear khaki pants...most wear black slacks (they would call them trousers). So Blaine had to get in "style". On a more serious note, I really think Blaine is going to like his new job. He is actually catching a taxi to go pick up his rental car in the morning for his first overnight trip to the West Coast. He is getting a Blackberry (works as a computer, phone, PDA) and a few other "perks". He even has an office with a window!

Hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving. Suprising news, I know, but NZ doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving! But we are going to celebrate Sunday night with some friends...turkey, dressing, sweet potatoe casserole, sweet tea, etc. We'll tell you how it goes.

Show Day

It was a great Show Day at the Raceway in Addington. We were worried about the weather (even though it hasn't rained on Show Day in over 30 years) but it turned out to be sunny and warm. The day began at Meg and Sam's apartment for a brunch of waffles, bacon and fruit. We took the short walk (20 minutes or so) to the Raceway and luckily found a table on the front lawn with a good view of the race track. The girls had a good time people-watching and admiring the fancy dresses and outrageous hats with feather plumes, etc. The sport has British origins, so the races were "trotting" races where the horses legs are harnessed together so that they cannot gallop. Our driver in the taxi on the way home was a fisherman from Manchester, England and he gave us some good tips on fishing the rivers around Christchurch. I guess now we have a new adventure awaiting us.

Outdoor Pics




I have been trying to work on my photography skills and thought I would "display" a few.
We had a good weekend. Saturday we attended our first New Zealand BBQ at Emilie and Ben's house (Emilie is the French girl I work with at the hospital and her husband is a physician at the hospital). Also attending were Petra(Germany) and Tim, Marion(S.Africa) and Justin...two of the other nurses I work with and their Kiwi spouses. It was different to hear Emilie speak French to her 4 and 3 year old children and to hear them speak back in French and then to us in English. We had some interesting
conversations and even dared to discuss politics. I will say that we were the only ones who said anything positive concerning President Bush. We kept thinking we were over staying our welcome but ended up being invited to stay for over 7 hours!

Sunday morning we took our books to the Botanical Gardens. Church was at 1 p.m. then the boys went golfing. I decided to tackle the Port Hills on my mtn bike and found a dirt trail back down to the bottom (this is where the rays through the clouds picture was taken). After all of our physical activity we decided to ruin the healthy lifestyle and gorged ourselves on Dominos pizza.

Tomorrow we all have off work to go to the horse races, Show Day. So we will have an update and some pictures in a few days!

Slight Change in Plans

Okay folks...here is the latest news. I recently interviewed for a job with Holcim cement, here in Christchurch, for a position as an Alternative Fuels and Raw Materials Coordinator. They are a great international company with operations all over the world including the US. They narrowed the search down to two people after the second round of interviews and then presented me with a decision to make. In the meeting, Holcim discussed the issue of longevity with the company and asked me to make a decision based on if we could commit to 3-5 years in New Zealand. After much thought and prayer I told Holcim that I would only be able to commit to 2 years based on the short time that we have lived in Christchurch. Well...apparently that answer was acceptable and they offered me the job. So, I guess that means that our plans have changed a little and we will be in NZ for at least 2 more years.

What does this mean...more time for everyone to come and visit!

We are planning a trip home next Christmas, so we will be able to see most of our friends and family. *Sarcasm* I know that there are a lot of teary eyes hearing this news, since we are such amazing people and people can't help but miss us terribly. For all of you, we will be back...you don't have to go into a deep depression; we give you permission to go about your lives as normally as you can without us. *End of Sarcasm* We will keep in touch.