December Diaries, Part 9: Christmas Day, Kiwi Style!

Christmas morning!  Hooray!  Ever since the kids were very little, we've had them first line up on the stairs for a photo before heading to the Christmas tree.  Since our home in New Zealand doesn't have stairs, the kids lined up in the hallway instead.  Apparently, Luke wasn't quite ready to begin the celebrations.

Not surprisingly, Landon's first stop was to check on Santa's cookies.  Looks like Santa enjoyed what we presented (with a few little leftover bites for Mom to enjoy -- how thoughtful of him!).  

The stockings had all the kids' favorite New Zealand treats:

Steve and I were given some of our favorite American treats, which was a delightful surprise, too!

Here's just a random sampling of the gift exchanging, in no particular order:

For the final gift, each child opened an envelope with a photo inside…the twins had a picture of an airplane ("big jet!"), Emily had a koala bear, Cam's was a kangaroo, and Julia and Rachel saw the handsome faces of the famous Hemsworth brothers, Liam and Chris.  How are all of these things connected?  AUSTRALIA, of course!!  We found a killer deal on flights to Oz, and we are going as a family to the Gold Coast for a week in April.  Merry Christmas indeed!

After opening presents, we gorged ourselves on pumpkin roll pancakes with caramel syrup.  Yummmmm.  We waddled to different landing zones throughout the house and fell into a coma for a few hours.

While we rested and digested, our dear friends at the Kingi household were hard at work on the hangi meal.  We appreciate the missionaries for taking these photos and sharing them with us!  After several hours of burning, the lava stones were ready for cooking.  First, the remaining burned up branches had to be separated from the hot stones:

Next, the bags of watercress we had harvested the day before were placed on top of the stone piles and in the bases of the cooking baskets:

The wire baskets were then filled with a variety of meats, potatoes and stuffing and were placed on the stones: 

Burlap cloths soaked in water were positioned over the baskets, followed by tarps which were tightly tucked in (the edges partially buried) to keep in the heat.

After hours of cooking, the tarps and cloths were carefully removed...

…revealing the perfectly cooked meats, kumara (sweet potatoes), and stuffing inside.

We arrived at the Kingi home at this point in the process, when these master carvers were quickly and efficiently carving up all the meats.  

Seeing this next item in the basket was a little startling, but mostly awesome.  We couldn't help but stare at it for a few moments.  For the record, I gladly took a photo, but passed on actually partaking of this meat…there were plenty of other choices, so I thought I'd be a lady and not hog all the hog, he he.

The plates piled with meats and sides were placed on tables already filled with delicious salads and desserts…it honestly seemed like enough food to feed all of New Zealand!  Everything tasted amazing, and we ate to our hearts' content.

And then I nearly choked... 

but literally talked myself down from a panic ledge by convincing myself that choking and dying on Christmas day in New Zealand would be terrible and also extremely embarrassing.  So, after a few very intense moments, I was able to breathe fully again…although my legs felt tingly and my hands shook for 10 minutes afterward.

Some of the kids had fun taking turns riding the horses brought by Hawea's sister, Pania.  Here's Cam riding with Renee, our sweet and talented friend (Hannah and Hawea's niece)...

…and Emily enjoying a ride with Hawea's lovely sister Pania.

Hannah divided us up into teams, and we ran all over the area finding clues and performing tasks for a scavenger hunt.  All that running proved to be difficult (for some of us at least) considering all we had eaten that day!  It was still really fun to play along and to mingle with the other dinner guests…there were 30 or 40 (or more) people at the party by the end of the night!

At the end of the contest, each team was asked to come up with a chant or a cheer.  Many of the groups were entertaining, but the Elders and Sisters were my favorite…wish I'd gotten it recorded.  Who knew they could come up with such a catchy rap/beat in only a few moments?  It was great. 

Before long, folks started migrating to the adjacent pasture where Hawea was pulling people behind his 4-wheeler on a covered tire.  The activity was dubbed "paddock surfing" and was hilarious to watch!  Here's Rachel, Emily and Julia taking their turn:

Cameron had already had his turn when we arrived, but Luke and Landon didn't hesitate to jump on with Daddy:

Steve took a turn going solo, and tore up the field!  I can't believe he didn't topple over with how fast Hawea was driving!

After a wee bit of peer pressure, I agreed to take a turn as well.  I was wearing a long skirt, for heck's sake, but I did admit to wearing leggings underneath, so that "wearing a dress" excuse expired in a hurry.  Truth be told, I actually had a blast and screamed like a little girl.

We finished off the evening with a rousing round of karaoke.  I could have stayed all night, but the kids were cooked after all that busy fun, so we reluctantly gave our kisses and hugs and called it a night. 

We did miss our families and some of our traditions from home, but we all agree that this Christmas will forever be considered one of the best!