Haere Mai

We've had a fabulous time this past Christmas. My Mom, the Waikato delegation consisting of sister JJ, her hubby G and princess Moerangi all arrived the day before Christmas to spend it here with us. Very exciting times. Christmas day we woke up to the smell of yummy champagne breakfast prepared by Tau's nana Sue which consisted of croisants, ham, french toast, strawberries with chocolate dip, poached eggs and the lot topped off with champagne of course. So it was a scrumptious start to Christmas day.
Alex got busy with G to cook the turkey in the weber bbq. Nana Sue was busy in the kitchen all day as we come in and out to help clean and chop whatever was needed but Nana was in control of the menu for the Christmas lunch. My Mom and sis J were occupied keeping the kids entertained and at some point made it to their beds to have a nap. Come lunch time we all had our second wind and were ready to eat some more and party. Alex's Aunty Theresa and her family arrived with more food for lunch and then we sat down to tackle the turkey, lamb, ham and all the yummy desserts that followed. It's amazing how no self control can be exercised on such a day! After lunch we Grandpa Jim played Santa and distributed the presents from under the tree. It required the receiver of the present to dance their way to Santa before getting their present. It was a good laugh and fun. Many glasses of champagne and scoops of food later we were singing to Aunty Theresa's guitar strumming and taking turns playing the ukulele, dancing and trying to remember the lyrics to old songs. At around 12 the guitar player had to bid adieu as the kids were ready for bed and then we all called it a night, helped with the clean up and stumbled into bed.
It was a lovely lovely Christmas as my Mom made it and Tau had all of his living grandparents together that day:)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Samaga Pe'a

Image
The time came when the completion of the tattooing sessions were near. We went to Samoa for three and a half weeks and we were hoping that it would be done well before then but by the third week we were not so sure we'd be done well before or in time. You see in Samoa there are a lot of unforseeable circumstances that arise. One of those was the tattooist's family from ovearseas showed up for family meetings and all. So there had to be days off while the tufuga dealt with his family duties. On top of that Mother's day followed and then the final week was full on tattooing everyday until it was completed on Saturday. On this Saturday I dropped the two victims off to the tufuga's house, hung around to serve breakfast and then went back to our host family to help with the preparations for the samaga ceremony. Samaga is the ceremony that formalises the completion of the tufuga's work and where he lifts his taboos and bans and let's the new pe'as out into the wor
Read more

Fagu'u / Samoan oil

Image
Samoan oil in Fanta and tobasco sauce recycled bottles at Fugalei market. The bottle caps are made of coconut husks wrapped in plastic to keep the husk in place. You've got to love the recycling sense. Samoan oil is used as moisturiser, hair gel, ointment, antiseptic and mosquito repellant oh and used as 'glitter' when dancing. I remember going to school covered in it when we were little. I'm sure I had nightmares for years after whenever I smelled it. But then it was okay because everyone else at school was covered in it too. Oh and we made our own too. My grandma who was blind and paralysed sensed it was going to rain and would yell out to us to come bring the lolo (process or state of making Samoan oil) inside the house because water pollutes the pure oil. So I must attribute my smooth skin to the fagu'u that grandma used to remind us every morning to make sure we had covered our bodies with. Choo hooo fresh off the island ow:)
Read more

Jebel Sifa beauty

Early 2018 post We went to Sifawy Boutique Hotel last week with the family and we found it was quiet there. What a breathtaking set up they have there. Just beautiful with marina out front for the kids to ride their scooters and skate while we adults lounge around the pool and breeze bar. We ran into our friends there so the kids had friends to play with so it was lovely.
Read more