Bob the lamb and co.

'Tis the Christmas season, the slaughtering of our lambs, good Christmas bread and ham, old friend, the BBQ and the Christchurch man name Stan.

It was our first time owning lambs, and have them slaughtered by T a few days before Christmas. Dad, Boi and I helped round them up (with one actually tackled rubgy-style by Boi) and T efficiently slaughtered, gutted, hung and skinned them for us. Trust a West Coast Maori to be able to do that for us.

Then the BBQ - the weather was not fantastic as forecasted so the atmosphere was not as great. Plus, there ain't beer/cheese mussels so that took the joy away a little bit. Vowed to do this better next time. However, the gathering of the family was good and Zion enjoyed the bones.

YL was in town for the night last Sunday and boy, we haven't really seen each other for 9 years since I first came to NZ. The night was great catching up with good stories of when we were 14 and young and being school prefects etc.. I think we didn't change much which is good :) Core Assuntarians will always be loud, jovial and straight-to-the-point. These are much missed traits here in ChCh, so thanks YL for the reminder that sincere friendship still exist!

We visited Stan and chatted with him for awhile. A lively old man indeed with a strong love for his wife. Am sure many of the hundreds that has visited his home and lights really appreciated the joy Stan created.

Let us leave the presents, the West Coast trip to the next time round, eh?

In preparation for Christmas...

Featuring food from Auckland - yups, all the Asian food which most of them we can't seem to find in Christchurch PLUS the great snowy durian, first introduced to it by Yean. The soft cold durian with cream are wrapped in powdery rice flour and it just melts in the mouth. Mmmmmm...

Then the preparation, or rather trial for Christmas cookies. Dad got some nice second-hand cookie cutters from the Sunday market, and I baked away. I tried out 3 recipes and decided the first was the best. Anyway, mom and I managed to sneak in a shortbread tranny onto the baking tray and baked that poor thing which turned out yummy.

Then the cockle-picking in Dunedin turned out well. Was there right at the very middle of low tide, hence managed to rummage into the black sand for huge cockles. Thanks to DA and AB for the trip. :) At least this time, it was not as cold as when we went in May.