Merry Christmas!

Well it's Christmas Eve here, and although that means tomorrow the Wanke's will be at Aunt Perla's enjoing tamales and hot, hot chili sauce, I can't help but miss all those familiar traditions that my family, friends, and country indulge in this time of year.

For the past few days it's been a lot of family visits- mostly on Alison's side as her sister turned 60 on Friday and the surprise party was at the Vedder's home. Where fruitcake in America is a cruel joke, it's absolutely coveted here! Alison had baked her sister a fruitcake with an inch think layer of icing (marzipan) and everyone just died over it. I looked at that dark, dismal cake filled with candied fruits and super thick marzipan and graciously took it when offered. Bruce caught sight of my "funny expression" and I played it off by telling him we don't "have this in America" and the whole room just gasped. It actually wasn't as disgusting as I expected. In fact, it was pretty tasty, and Alison confessed it was the burbon that allowed it to keep so moist- she'd baked it over a week ago and stored it in the cupboard until the party! No ice cream on birthdays, no chocolate cake or brownies. They get fruitcake.

God Bless America.

More to come, & I'm uploading pictures to send soon too. In the meantime, have a Merry Christmas, and if you happen to get a fruitcake this year remember, there are children in New Zealand who are starving for it!

Over here, it's already tomorrow!

Jaime, it's your birthday right now, and I am thinking of you. I miss you my sister, and I wish I could have been there with you to play "True Colors". I was thinking about that game actually . . . were you still "a cactus" I bet not. Anyway . . . I so miss you and had a low moment today after spending quality time with Rachael for two days when she dropped me off at Bruce's and I walked into an empty house and the homesickness for my own sister, my phone, my reality TV shows came crashing in . . . did you know there are 3 whole channels here? And they show the exact same thing on 2 of them at the same time! And it's stuff like Extreme Home Makeover from 5 seasons ago and last season's Grey's Anatomy. They've never even heard of TiVo . . . and when I tried to convince them it was the wave of the future they thought I was crazy.

It's been a wet 2 days. It poured all day yesterday and Rachael (Bruce & Margaret's youngest daughter) came to get me in the morning for some girl time. I hadn't seen her since my last trip and when she came to the door her first words were "my, you're gorgeous!" then we hugged like old friends. She thought I was pretty entertaining when I tried to get into the car on her driver's side- "my dear," she said, "this is a New Zealand car!"
We spent time at the Westfield Mall (yeah they made it here) and then walked downtown through the shops there hopping in & out of the rain. A local vendor stopped me after looking at the wool-lined Ugg boots that Jaime gave me before I left. "Aren't your feet hot then?" He asked. Nope. If it's under seventy degrees and raining where I am from this is how I dress. "Okay then" He said. "Staying long?"
Rachael just smiled at the exchange as if she was dying to ask me the same questions. I, on the other hand was incredibly comfy! (Thanks Yaim).

It was great to spend time with Rachael. We haven't ever hung out together alone before now. She told me a little bit about how having Brandon at 16 has affected her life - how she missed out on growing up and finding out who she is. Now she's identified as "Brandon's Mum" or "Shane's partner" and that she's always studied things in school subjects that might impress her parents so they could forgive her for having a baby so early. "That didn't work." She wasn't sad about it when she spoke, it was just as if she was telling me about a piece of her personality- something simple . . . I loved her for it. I've always been dying to know her side of things. She doesn't think she'll have more kids. She's eager to go back to school when Brandon is more independent to become a speech therapist. She loves teaching & working with special needs kids.

We stopped in on Brandon's school and I got the full tour, then we went to her home and she reluctantly showed me around (she hadn't cleaned it up for visitors). It was very cute and small. Her dog Tyson, a Rottweiler/Lab mix greeted us and shoved his 100lbs. body onto my lap then moaned when her cat Diablo came over to demand our attention. I LOVED that dog. I loved him because I knew my brother would have instantly been rolling around on the floor with him, my sister would have scratched his rump and squealed "pooch!" while Tyson (my brother in law) would have politely smiled and quietly resented the fact that this big annoying dog shared his name.

Today was spent at Shakespear (spelled with no "e") Bay with Margaret, Rachael, Brandon & all the kids from Brandon's school. It was this incredibly large reserve with tons of grass and rolling hills littered with cows, sheep, and peacocks - all surrounding a beach (my first kite-surfer spotting). The kids were from 5 yrs to 12 and they gathered to play rugby and cricket and they were all different colors, mixed with Maori, Asian, Indian, Black . . . absolutely uninterested in anything but sports- pausing for the occasional snack. The girls who weren't batting for cricket were building sand castles on the beach while the older boys crashed face first into each other, skidded, plowed, and tackled without one fight, complaint, or tear.

Not one kid ever complained even after being dragged through the grass and thrown hard onto the ground. I made a mental note that if I ever have boys I would remember this day. I am always worried that I'll be one of those annoying mom's that freak when her kids get hurt. Today reminded me that kids- especially boys are grid-iron tough.

I asked Brandon to take a picture of me and his Mum and he said "Ah- This is a flash camera." I told him well we won't need the flash, and Rachael again giggled at my expense translating that "flash" meant "fancy".

Rachael brought Natalie's album from her trip to LA to me and told me I could keep it. I spend a good hour going through everything and there were pictures of us at an incredibly awkward age with HUGE t-shirts, scrunchy socks, and high top shoes at Disneyland when Aladdin was the newest attraction. Yikes. And she thought I was "cool". Right.

Natalie'd kept my first letter I'd sent to her introducing myself and Mom's letter to her that she gave her before she boarded the plane. I shamelessly read both. Also surprising were a series of pictures Natalie'd taken of my brother dressed up in my sister's night gown, slippers, and baby blanket- and then pictures of me and Jaime beating him up for it. Poor Brian. But what were you DOING in Jaime's clothes in front of a guest? Obviously we all felt REALLY comfortable together. HA!

It's rainy and gloomy still, but it's been a good few days. I am adjusted to the time, and helping make dinner every night and doing all the dishes everyday. The Vedder's don't protest.

Here is Lesson #2 for those of you who appreciated the first:

counter top= bench
closet= wardrobe
lazy=slack
take it easy=blob out
a little= wee bit
a lot= heaps
fancy=flash

Oh and Melinda & Shannon, don't get excited about the kite surfer. I am positive it wasn't Matt.

Speak-easy

I am finally officially "being kiwi". It was a rough road out, (with last minute drama as always) but man, did I feel supported, loved, and blessed by SO many people in the whole process. Guys seriously, the generosity & going out of your way for me, the gifts and the special "moments" you allotted before I take a vacation for a month is so precious to me.

As soon as Jaime & Dad dropped me off at Air NZ and I was making my way to the check-in counter with my luggage in tow and no one else to look after or look to, it hit me. I'm doing this, ALONE?

But there was this amazing peace that has since never left. Everything after that was incredibly smooth. Friendly faces everywhere, people making small talk in line and a woman offering me her window seat on the plane. Tons of movies to choose from on the way but I ended up only watching Superman and snoozing in the middle of "Invincible" (way boring by the way- skip it).

Bruce & Alison (his wife) greeted me at the airport and Bruce hugged me with a "welcome home!"

Since it was only 6:45am when I landed, we had a full day ahead and Margaret (Natalie's mom) came by to have breakfast with us and chat. She & Bruce didn't seem to harbor any tension, and she & Alison chatted like old friends. Later we went an ran a few errands and dropped in on Father Stevens, and his adorable wife Joleen. Father Stevens (mid-70's) just retired from their congregation (they belong to a Methodist church). He was wearing khaki shorts that exposed his wrinkly knobby knees and had a warm and welcoming disposition. He & his wife showed us their garden blooms and Father Stevens started cutting off parts of his magnolia plant for Alison to grow in her own garden. Then he just went crazy with the pruning shears - cutting off any & every brown leaf rearing its head - never breaking conversation, stating that tending his garden keeps him up and occupied during his retirement days. He can no longer stand long enough to preach so I could tell he missed it very much. Still the smile never left him, and he made Bruce tell him how he was doing.

"I'm back to work tomorrow." Bruce said.
"Yes, that's fine," Father Stevens said, "but HOW are YOU doing?" and Bruce poured out his true frustrations in waiting for his latest test results and etc.
I appreciated how Father Stevens was encouraging and demanding for the deeper truth. A man after my own heart! I also wondered if it was "in me" to be that caring, and that sweet in my own fragile elderly state. Joleen asked me how old I was and I lamented that I had a birthday coming up- and how I sometimes feel so old compared to everyone I know back home.

Oh darling, she says, you're just a spring chicken!
Even in voicing that opinion in front of her I felt ridiculous, but she's right and I am thankful that she's right.

That night we attended a "carol service" at the church and a younger priest ran the service with a very refined British accent, but I got the feeling he didn't have a sense of humor. We sang lyrics to old Christmas hymns I didn't recognize, and then they threw in a few contemporary "New Zealand" hymns where they sang about Christmas in New Zealand "being the first to celebrate the day of Christ's birth" and how the "Pohutukawa's blossom flowers at Christmas time, Heralding the birth of Mary's babe Our Lord's son so sublime . . . my feeling about the priest's sense of humor was confirmed when he stopped us 3 times to re-sing a stanza no one could get right. I watched as his lips tightened as people made light of the fact that it was a difficult tune, so we re-sang, and re-sang, and RE-SANG that stanza and by jolly we finally got it!

They followed that by a children's Christmas Pageant reminiscent of my own childhood Sunday School pageants . . . with 2 young girls playing Mary & Joseph (because the boys were too shy & giggly to handle the part of Mary's husband).

The night topped off with a side conversation I had with one of the congregates. He was a Maori man in his 70's - an ordained Minister. Bruce introduced me as "my American daughter" and the Maori man grabbed me and gave me a kiss on the neck. It didn't feel funny nor inappropriate, and then the Maori man told me about how he'd just come from Seattle because he was working with the Native Americans up there to try to salvage their original dialects. He'd been on a project in his younger days with the Maori culture too- he told me the black plague wiped out 40% of the Maori tribes, and the rest bread with whites or left their tribe to try to survive so the original language has since been lost. So, by using what they do know of the existing dialects and language, they try to develop one as close to the original- knowing full well it'll never fully be recovered.

Funny how telling someone you are from Los Angeles can sometimes lead to a history lesson (or just a very entertaining conversation).

Big first day huh? Well let me leave you with a few vocab words I am trying to get used to, then see how people react when you use them the way the kiwis do and think of me as I try to keep up and not look TOO lost while conversing with everyday people here:

Trash Can = bin
Can(of beans, etc.) = tin
your turn = you have a go
I'm tired = completely knackered
backpack = rucksack
Dinner = tea
all of it = the lot
Cheerios = canned sausages
Dollars = quid
Bathroom = loo
Thanks = cheers mate

Heather B, you asked me what on earth I'd do about the food here- So far it's been lovely - Pasta, veggies, cheese, salmon, fruit, tea- lots of tea. So not to worry! ;)

Well it's a typical summer day here. Overcast and low 70's. I am loving the fact I packed for cold weather and that it's perfect for running - in fact it's what I'm going to do next. I'm off . . .