A Fabulous Christmas

Okay so my Christmas definitely kicked ass! It wasn't the traditional one I'm used too but it was fun none the less! Christmas eve was sooooo nice that I wore shorts and a tank top and got sunburned! When I load all the pictures up (later today or tomorrow) you'll see how red I was--I'm sure the wine didn't exactly help. There were about 11 of us that ate dinner on Christmas Eve together. Everyone brought something. We started with some appetizers and salads that Carol (new addition to the long-timers from Scotland) made. She made so much that we could have just ate those! Ed and Andrea bought us those Cracker things so we all got a little trinket, joke and paper crown that we wore throughout dinner. Beate (and I helped her) made the meat which is called something that sounds like "Roe-lah-den". It was these really thin slabs of beef without much fat that she put salt, pepper, paprika and mustard on and then stuffed them with cooked cabbage and bacon and a little cheese. Then she rolled them up like a mini-burrito and secured them with a toothpick. Then she browned them in a pan and the put them all in a big pot on low heat with sauce for a few hours to make them tender! It was amazing! We all had 2 each and there were leftovers! Then I made mashed potatoes and gravy and Gill made about 3 different veggie dishes: steamed carrots, cauliflower in a creamy cheese sauce and then 2 pans of roasted veggies with squash, pumpkin, turnips, etc. We didn't even dent the wine and beer that Bernie brought and we finished with a Blackforest cherry cake that Dennis made (which is native to the area in Germany where Beate's from)! Everything was fantastic and we had a ton of leftovers!

We ate about 8:00pm and then right after 10, Andrea, Dennis, Beate and I walked downtown to go to the midnight mass. We went to St. Patrick's which ended up being completely packed! I've never seen so many people in a church before! So we ended up leaving to try a different church where there might be some room. We heard the bells ringing from St. Matthew's (which I think was Presbyterian) and we ran inside. This place was packed too, but they were so welcoming that they let us and a bunch of other people sit on the floor! The service was quick with a couple of readings, a short little message and then a bunch of carols. We sang a Maori hymn (which I thought was cool) and then a bunch of traditional carols, but with different melodies than I knew! I mean I've been singing "O Little Town of Bethlehem" and "It Campe Upon a Midnight Clear" since I was a kid and most of the words were the same but the tune was completely different! Crazy!

We took a cab back to the hostel and stayed up for awhile longer since Beate wanted to call her family and I made the casserole for Breakfast the next morning. We woke up on Christmas morning and exchanged gifts (between the roomates). Beate got me a fabulous purse since I need one for going out and also a necklace with matching earrings! Dennis said he had something downtown for us. We ate breakfast with fruit and "bubbles" (as they call sparkling wine here) and talked to our families. Then we took off at about noon because we didn't want to spend all of Christmas day in the backpacker. It was kind of rainy but warm and so Dennis treated us to a movie! But this wasn't just any movie experience. We sat in the Gold class which means we got to go hang out in a lounge first and order drinks and food for then or for during the movie. We each had a glass of wine and then ordered some bread and dips for during the movie. We walked into the theatre which was small and we each got to sit in a big comfy recliner chair! It was heaven! We saw "Enchanted" which ended up being really cute and funny and the three of us even took pictures of the chairs that I'll post later!

We caught the bus--which was free because of Xmas--back to the hostel and warmed up and then spent the rest of the night eating leftovers, on the phone and watching "The Holiday". I had a fabulous time with my "family" of friends here in NZ and I hope all of you had a wonderful time too! I have less than a week until I leave for the South Island so it's going to be busy with New Year's Eve and a couple days of work left! I'll try and post pictures as soon as I can!

-Lisa