Christmas in November

Our Christmas season has begun a little early here in New Plymouth. Due to Jon and I leaving shortly, we decided along with the family to have a small Christmas before we left. Now we just bought our plane tickets and will be headed to the USA on the 6th of December. (We land on the 6th as well in Houston, but it will be midnight.) So last night, the family gathered for a pre-Christmas celebration.

Christmas number one was great. Two small Christmas trees went up, Christmas table clothes went out, etc. We had a nice dinner, opened presents, and then had a lovely dessert. Opening presents was sort of funny because we had one small gift for everyone and then the rest were for us. I am a bit used to that since I usually have two Christmas's and one is always late or before (one at Mom's and one at Dad's), but I think that was a new experience for Jon.

We got some cute Kiwi/New Zealand stuff including a flag, some mugs, a tie for Jon, earrings for me. Funnily enough we also got three kiwi themed baby shirts... no we are not expecting any one new in the family yet. I think they were hinting at something there, but they are really cute.

Last we popped Christmas crackers. They are a lot of fun and I think will forever be included in my Christmas celebrations from now on.

The Prodigal Daughter Returns!

Hi all! It has been a month since I have last sent off an email. With traveling around, some family-in-law things going on, and a lack of speedy internet or at sometimes the lack of internet all together, I hardly had a moment to post.

The excitement is that soon I will be on my way back to the USA with my husband in tow. We have had our interview with the US Consulate and have been approved for our visa and greencard. We have one more thing to mail into them before it is actually given to us, but that will shortly be taken care of.

We will be heading in to the states in the first or second week of December, which makes me happy to be back for Christmas. (And only sort of said that I missed the last weeks of Ren Fest.) So those of you in Houston or that may be in Houston at anytime after that, lets get together!

More info to come as we get tickets and all, but it is finally here!

An After Halloween Halloween Gathering

Jon’s Mum wanted some Halloween fun this year as she had an American in the house who usually celebrates Halloween. Unfortunately, Jon and I were away on the actual day of Halloween, so we just celebrated the holiday this past Tuesday.

For any of you who have been to one of my parties, this was a massive scale down of that. Basically, Halloween is a concept that New Zealanders just don’t really have. It has only become recently that anyone has started doing things for it to begin with – Poor deprived kids! So we had a few decorations that we put up in the kitchen, hallway and living room.

We made pumpkin soup, monster faced hamburgers, deviled egg eyes, and some fun creepy cupcakes. This was a mark for the Gaastra family. We not only had a small celebration over dinner, but we also carved their very first pumpkin. Now pumpkins here are not the huge orange pumpkins we get in the states. Our pumpkin was sort of whitish and greenish. I thought about putting a thermometer in its mouth and making it look sick. Haha. It turned out to be a cute little pumpkin I named Igor. (Here is Igor 2 days after the party.)

Now, I also roasted pumpkin seeds, but did not realize that the pumpkin seeds from these types of pumpkins have to be shelled first. Ours don’t need that, right? Or am I just forgetting? I am sure it was just as easy as scooping them out, cleaning them off, popping them on a tray with seasoning, and then eating away…. Am I delusional?

The Christmas Stocking I hope to make...

Yvette's Wedding

My dear friend Yvette got married not too long ago. Jon and I were excited to be able to attend the wedding. It was all very beautiful. They got married in Old Saint Paul's in Wellington, which has got to be my favourite church in the city. It is all dark wood inside and all classic gothic style.

The reception was fun too. Jon and I got to dance a bit, and even had a chance to waltz... I love the waltz! Yvette looked beautiful, and Matt looked handsome.

Our reception table... Mostly West Plaza Employees... I was taking the photo

Just cause it was a cute photo... :)

Texas is never too far away...

More Sunsets

Halloween Candy Fun

Weta Workshop

For those who may not know, Weta Workshop is one of the workshops that does special effects, costuming, structures, etc for films. Their largest accomplishments being working on Lord of the Rings and King Kong, though they have done many other productions as well.

Gollum, Gollum

Scary Ork Guy

We happened to meet the actor who played the sea captain in King Kong as well...



Anyway, they have a small museum that you can go through... so we had some fun...

Cape Palliser

We took Becca to Cape Palliser, which is sort of outside of Wellington. On the drive there we noticed a Tsumani warning sign! I didn't notice that last time I was there...


Then we saw the seals at the seal colony. It is so cool you can literally go right up to them - though that is not suggested as they will attack if you get too close, but you could!






(On a side note - seals may be cute, but they sure stink!)

Next we climbed up to the Lighthouse... We all made it up.