A New Zealand Christmas in the USA!

Our last Christmas in the USA was spent with all Kiwis! Keith and Sonja hosted us and provided the meal and plenty of other goodies which were delicious. The guests were our family and Josh and Hannah plus Hannah's brother Hamish and surprise guest Hannah's mother Sue! How cool is that? The girls and I decided to wrap some small silly presents for everyone since I had accumulated quite a few free things through my couponing. It was fun to decide what funny present to give to whom and to wrap them all individually. I had managed to 'score' licensed printed plasters (band-aids) to give to the guests. The girls got given new PJ's from Keith and Sonja. The girls did wonder though how Sonja knew their sizes and their favorite colors etc. (PS don't tell them). Sonja gave us ladies a very cool silicone lid. What a great relaxing day! 

Hannah and Josh with their plasters

The ladies got nice bodywash :)

Oven mitts?

Grace

Michaela with her PJ's

Sue and her plasters, cool princess ones :)

Notice the plaster on his head
(Hamish)

Hello Kitty for Kate

Princess for Zara

Grace with adult size PJ's.
(She was thrilled with an adult size!)

Me with the cool silicone lid

Elsa PJ's! (Zara)

Kate with her PJ's
(her favorite color as well as her favorite animal!)

Michaela

Keith 

Hannah and Josh

Our feast thanks to Sonja!

YUM!

Pav thanks to Sue!
(decorated by our own NZ artist!)

Sonja playing games with the girls

Christmas Eve

We spent the day before Christmas just hanging out, making some ornaments (cinnamon/applesauce), finishing off the chocolate Christmas trees and wrapping some fun presents for Christmas. Christmas Eve was a family affair with unwrapping some presents that the girls had made for us and for each other. (We didn't actually give each other presents nor did we buy any for the kids). The girls also got some money from our lovely neighbors. Kate and Zara bought some more Friends lego, Grace bought some slippers and jewelry and Michaela bought a handbag she had had her eye on for a while. Spoilt girls!

An anonymous donor from seminary again spoiled the girls with a giftcard which we gave to the girls that night. Below is a video of their reaction. Since the gift cards were of significant value we told the girls that we should look at buying a family present. We did some homework on a Wii or an Xbox but after looking into it decided against it. Michaela then came up with the idea of buying a trampoline! What a brilliant idea Michaela! I did some homework online to see which one would be best etc and whether the store where the gift cards were from sold trampolines. The store did but only online which wasn't a problem anyway, the boxes are BIG! A trampoline has been on our wishlist especially since our good friends Garth and Brydie got one back in New Zealand which the girls LOVED! Once we got to the USA we didn't give it a second thought but yet God knows our desires, I'm speechless, we are so undeserving! 

We had fun wrapping the 'fun/silly' presents for Christmas

Grace and Kate helping make applesauce ornaments

Huge amounts of cinnamon and some applesauce

Thankful for Aldi for cheap groceries
(It did feel wrong to make ornaments with food)

Ready to be baked in the oven

All the stars for 11 trees.
I made them for Thank Yous 

Very cool huh?
(Thanks Sophie Gray for the idea!)

A few more assembled

Albert with one of the girl's handmade presents

Kate, Grace, Michaela and Zara
(opening their giftbags from the anonymous donor!)

Zara

The applesauce ornament

The Trampoline has arrived!
Albert checking out the contents

Zara and Kate watching

Two BIG boxes worth of trampoline!
(Set up will have to wait until the
warmer weather gets here)

Christmas Around the World Performances

During the holiday season The Museum of Science and Industry has a special exhibition of Christmas Trees from around the world and performance from various cultural groups. The girls and I have thoroughly enjoyed watching the various cultural groups perform. We even drove in to the city especially one Saturday in December (as Albert was studying anyway) just to watch the performances back-to-back. I'm not going to pretend that I can remember every group that I took photo's off so enjoy just a bunch of photos, a shame you couldn't have been there with us.

This drum group was AWESOME, you could feel it in your stomach!

My girls in the front row, Zara to the right of the middle in pink.

The girls in front of the HUGE tree at the Museum

Zara and Grace

Random November 2014

Albert making icecream with liquid nitrogen at the Musem

Random family photo?

Before the haircut

After

Michaela holding her hair donation!

Thanksgiving 2014

This was our last USA thanksgiving, kind of sad :(. We had a low key day at our good friends the Warners. The dinner was complete with all the trimmings thanks to Audra!

Thanksgiving with the Warners

Perfect cooked (BIG) turkey! 

Grace and Kate

Aaron carving the turkey

Ready for dinner