Wishing You a Smile, this Merry Christmas…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

I’m going to be really honest and admit that I have no clue why many North American’s use the phrase “ Happy Holidays”.

I know that not everybody in the world celebrates Christmas, or indeed may even have faith in any particular religion. For me that matters less because I believe that each person has the right to their own view and as long as they respect the views of others.

At the moment I am unable to drive because of my foot injury and so work pays for a taxi to and from work, I have a regular driver, who just happens to be Muslim. He observes Ramadan and Eid and we use the opportunity to learn more about the customs we each hold dear.

I know he doesn’t celebrate Christmas but he has no problem to wish me a Merry Christmas just as I wished him a happy Eid celebration earlier in the year.

Neither of us observes the other’s celebration but we like to extend our support to the other knowing that it’s important to the other’s family and friends. Harmony is different notes arranged together not a collective of the same note played all at the same time.

So just as I would wish someone a Happy Hanukkah , Rosh Hashanah, Eid Al-Fitr, Easter, Diwali, or Ramadan celebration, I now extend very Happy Christmas Celebrations to all who observe it, in whatever capacity.

Recently, world events involving children have left us with tears and breaking hearts, but ultimately one child was born (symbolically) on this day to relieve the heartbroken and to dry the tears.

Therefore for this post I’d like to leave you with a smile as I present a compilation of some of the smiles my children have given me.

I always try to jot down the incident as soon as possible after they happen, but surprisingly it’s been so long since I posted some of these that some of them took place quite a while ago… never mind, the smile is still the same. Enjoy!

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

***

Kiwi Daughter: I have an idea, when our little TV breaks down and you buy a new big one for the living room can I have the old one for my room?

(two second pause as she computes the logic of that, then giggles) “… err,  that isn’t right is it? ‘cos the old one would be broken!”

(Our answer is simple: Yes, you may have the little broken TV in your room (if that floats your boat LOL) but ” No working one , or  computers)

***

Himself went into the kids bedroom to wake them both up for school. Little Mr. usually chirpy first thing in the morning woke up on this day bleary eyed, sat up in his bed, looked around and asked “Papa, what did we do with the two people we saved?”

Clearly his fascination with anything ambulance, police  or fireman and had carried over to his dreams and he had been busy dreaming of rescue missions… Himself told him “I don’t know my boy but you are very brave to have been rescuing people”.

***

Little Mr aged 6 has come home with his first homework assignment: he has to write about his favourite fairy tale and then write one himself, with pictures.

I was busy helping Kiwi Daughter with a maths homework game she has to play, reading and a spelling test/revision so Himself took Little Mr to the heaving kid bookcase to look for a favourite out of the many many favourites.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Later Himself comes back to me laughing and tells me “Little Mr has chosen the book  ”Jack and the Beanstalk”, but  announced that he hasn’t gotten around to starting writing about it yet, because he still doesn’t know that the beans are talking about“

An unwittingly beautiful play on words Little Mr.,    Bravo…

***

Little Mr. wanted a toy plane in the shop but it cost Euro 20 and he only had Euro 3,– from his piggy bank to spend. I explained that he didn’t have nearly enough money and advised he to look at some of the small Lego figures instead.

The shop was quiet and one of the assistants (a very young woman) was pricing stock on an shelf a little further along.

Little Mr. was silent for a few minutes and then said “Mama, do you think I have enough money to just buy the wheels of the plane then?”  Trying had not to burst out laughing I explained that the shop doesn’t let children buy just  ”parts” of toys… because then some other child would not be very happy if they bought the plane later and discovered that it had no wheels.

Little Mr. “got” that, but meanwhile the young lady shop assistant was wiping away tears of laughter and was trying (and mostly failing) to keep control of her mirth, which made it really hard for me to keep a straight face too.

Suddenly I was forced to pretend I had a sniffle so that I could  blow my nose, wipe away tears and use the moment to compose myself.   Luckily Little Mr. was so seriously concentrated on his decision making process that he was oblivious to both of us,  but clearly this comment made this young shop assistant’s day.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

***

Little Mr. suddenly started a conversation asking me why in the last weeks everyone likes puppies so much.

I replied: “lots of people like puppies but sadly not everyone can have one“( thinking that this is leading to another plea for the pets that he knows we can’t have since Kiwi Daughter and I are both allergic to animal hair and I also to feathers).

Little Mr. gives me a quizzical look and says “No, no, everyone who wants one can have one I think… lots and lots of people on the TV have puppies, the people on the sports have puppies, the people on the News have a puppy, even the people on the Dancing all have a puppy (we have been watching Strictly Come Dancing on the BBC)  and lots of other people have a puppy too…  ”

Now I’m getting  rather confused, I certainly haven’t spotted any dog invasions on Strictly Come Dancing and nor have dogs been on the News much of late.  ”Do you mean that everyone has a dog, Little Mr.? I haven’t seen any dogs?!”

Little Mr. shoots me a funny look that shows that he finds my stupidity very frustrating and sighs… “Noooo,  Mama,  not ”dogs”.. I don’t know the real word, it’s a bit hard to say so I call them puppies, you know, puppies, puppies,  the red things we  wear when we have to be quiet when all the people died”  Ah Ha! the penny drops, he doesn’t mean puppies, he means  ”Poppies!”

Of course,  as a bilingual family we watch both Dutch TV and the BBC from the UK… and the UK celebrated  their Remembrance Day on 11th November and Little Mr. Knows poppies from the New Zealand and Australian commemoration of ANZAC Day.

***

Little Mr. at dinner table… “Papa, did you go to school?”

Himself looks rather surprised at the question, whilst Kiwi Daughter almost choked on her food laughing.

***

I hope that no matter where you are and what you do today, that your day is an especially Happy one. Merry Christmas!

Pōhutukawa… a Very Special Christmas Tree…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

One reoccurring memory of my childhood is that during the hot southern hemisphere Summer we could be found celebrating Christmas Day on a sheep station… or in small township close to it.

Even after we moved to the city we still de-camped each Christmas to a friends sheep station and so we never had a Christmas Tree decorated in the traditional sense until I moved here to The Netherlands.

That’s not to say we didn’t have a Christmas Tree at all though, the difference is simply that since the South Island’s High country is mostly tussock grass, thorny Matagouri,  (also a.k.a.”wild Irishman“)  which is a devilish bush full of thorns (some of them easily several centimetres in length) that can turn tramping (hiking) over steep high country mountains into an art form of unintended detours as you try and find a route to evade the stuff rather than to be scratched to death painfully wading though it.

Against best advice from elders, as a teenager I attempted wading though a Matagouri stand of  only  knee high bushes once and only once… it was more than enough to convince me that even stupidly long detours were well worth the effort.

However the Matagouri has several redeeming features:  On a botanical level, it is able to “fix nitrogen” from the air and enrich the poor soils it grows in. In fact they “give back” so much nutrition into the soil that they allow other less hardy plants  to live and thrive around them.

The Matagouri is very slow growing  too and can easily live long past 100 years of age.  They flower  around November but for some reason the ones near us flowered, or were still in flower  in December so we would carefully pluck off a few of the best floral branches (yes, I know that in the North Island Matagouri  is a protected species because it’s so rare, but in the South Island it grows like a weed, and anyway when I was a kid we didn’t know anything about “protected species” ).

The next “decoration” for our Christmas tree was either some lovely red Rata  or  Manuka flowers, (also see post:
http://kiwidutch.wordpress.com/2010/06/02/new-post-96/
  ) or even better if the weather was kind,  a  few  Pōhutukawa tree flowers.  Some tiny pockets of the High Country have micro climates and whilst  Pōhutukawa are generally found in the North Island there some in secluded parts of the South Island too.

Usually the Fates were less than kind and the  Pōhutukawa wouldn’t be in flower for long enough, so we would make do with Rata which was around in great profusion but the rare sightings of  Pōhutukawa meant that it remained special to me and I was surprised when later in life I saw large groups of them in the North Island.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

As a terrible gardener, I have usually not too much interest in non-food plants, but these New Zealand flowering Natives have always had a special place in my heart.

Once our “decorations” had been gathered the next step was to find a suitable pine tree in the plantation.

The Radiata Pines are wind-blown self-seeded pines for the most part, their height and fast growing properties making them excellent shelter-belts against the notorious hot dry Nor’west winds, but they are also an interloper that choke out New Zealand Natives without shame or guilt so felling  them for winter  firewood was never done with any remorse.

But no chain-saw or axe for our Christmas Tree,  instead, after picking out the smallest one on the edge of the plantation , it stayed happily growing in the ground as we added our floral decorations to it and then stood back and admired our handiwork. If there were wild flowers around they got woven into daisy-chains and added too. Sometimes we would find a larger branch that a Nor’ West storm had  ripped from a bigger tree and we would cart that back to the house, and decorate in the the same manner on the front lawn. (well, less “front lawn”and more “front paddock”).

The interesting thing was that the branch and it’s decorations always stayed outside. I  didn’t find out about the “inside” tree tradition with baubles etc until much much later.

So here we are in the North Island with  Pōhutukawa sightings at regular intervals, so I’m happy to take photos of a flower that I love but was a rarity in my South Island youth.

It brings back memories from my childhood and it’s even more significant that since the Pōhutukawa flowers in mid-December (more or less depending on weather and the trees geographical location) that it’s earned itself the nickname of  being  the “New Zealand Christmas tree”.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Season’s ….Greetings

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

When New Zealand’s Pākehā (pronounced ‘par key har” = New Zealanders of European descent) settled in New Zealand they bought with them and adhered to the traditions they had been familiar with “back home”.

These were not just things like the fashion of the day, religious traditions, methods of farming, ways of speaking and social structure, but also their traditions concerning food.

Many things were “transferable” and in fact improved because New Zealand had better weather than northern Europe, thus longer growing seasons and a variety in the climate that allowed for many different crops in various parts of the country.

That’s why still today, Otago in the south of the South Island is as famous for it’s apricots (and other stone fruits), Blenheim for grapes and wine, as Te Puke is for Kiwifruit, Kerikeri for oranges/grapefruit, Dargaville for kumara and Katikati for avocados are in the North.

Local Maori introduced  Pākehā to vegetables like kumara (a very specific tasting variery sweet potato)  and thus began the fusion of cooking style that’s popular in New Zealand today and which is still evolving.

Back in my Grandparent’s day it was totally unthinkable for anything else to be on your Christmas Day menu than a full roast with all the trimmings. It was just what everyone “did”.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

The big problem was that the New Zealand Christmas falls not at the start of winter per the Northeren Hemisphere, but at the start of a Southern Hemisphere summer.

December in New Zealand can be roughly compared to May in northern europe…

…weatherwise it’s an unpredicable month and there’s a fairly equal chance that it’s a temporate 17 C where a jersey (pull-over) is needed or a sweltering 28 C were everyone is happiest in tee-shirts and shorts and kids are running around with home-made water pistols made out of old, cleaned detergent bottles on the front lawn.

If it was the latter, then Kiwi families up and down the country literally sweated over a hot stove to get the roast onto the Christmas table and then found themselves sitting in front of a heavy meal of  roast meat, or turkey, potatoes, parsnip, carrots, pumpkin, onions, peas and gravy, and often followed by a dessert of trifle, custard etc.

Such fare is of course true winter food and delicious as such, but it’s rather heavy going if the temperature you are eating it in is closer to 30 degrees.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

During my lifetime I have seen a noticable shift in the New Zealand Christmas menu…

…mostly gone are the roast parsnips, carrots and pumpkin, there may or may not be a leg of lamb or a turkey etc but more often (at least in our circle of accquaintences) it’s being replaced by ham, regular or smoked chicken served cold, salads of many various sorts and lighter desserts like the famous New Zealand Pavlova.

New potatoes are boiled with sprigs of mint and not roasted, our freshly shelled peas picked just two days ago have been boiled and are on the table and there’s not a tankard of mulled wine in sight.

For many families, enjoying the long summer break at Christmas also means that they may or may not be at home.

They might possibly be camping, or at a “batch” (holiday home) (a.k.a. A “crib” if you hail from Otago) where stove facilites could be limited.

Wither that was the origin of the Christmas Day BBQ or not will probably never really be substantiated but more and more Kiwi’s are enjoying a Christmas Day BBQ even if they are at home to celebrate these days.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Christmas in New Zealand has definitely bcome a less formal affair. Of course there are still some people who still do the roast bird and all the trimmings but as far as I know from my own experience, most people will do something that’s a meeting in the middle, like roast meat (served hot or cold) and roast potatoes with salad.

Kiwi’s like to relax and enjoy the friends and family that have joined them and make the most of the weather.

Family Kiwidutch have been lucky enough to receive two invitations for Christmas 2011.

The first is from Rae and Pete at the B&B to join them for lunch and the second is with my Aunt and Uncle around the road for dinner as they already have a lunch engagement to attend.

We contribute to desserts and drinks and are treated to a wonderful time full of good company and food.

It’s a very different style Christmas Day than those we have in The Netherlands, but long hours of daylight and summer weather have quite rightly meant that Kiwi’s have adapted to celebrating the season according to the season…

One Christmas problem however appears to be the same no matter if you are in the northern or southern hemisphere, …the food was so delicious that despite our best intentions we all still ate too much. Look at this stuff…do you blame us? It was Christmas after all !

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Christmas Lights… Southern Hemisphere Style!

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

The good thing about writing about this trip a short while after  the event, is that we get to have Christmas twice over!

… On one hand it might have been nice to have posted this in “real time” but reality is that there’s only so much you can get done in a day and after any activities  I really needed my afternoon naps more than I needed to be logging on and making blog posts.

My foot is healing well, and slowly but surely gaining back significant strength and flexability but since I’m still without mobility in the area directly below my toes, the crutches are still a frustrating but necessary evil. We tailor our days so that I can have time to elevate my foot, take pain relief and sleep after exercise and so far that’s working well.

My aunt and uncle tell us that there is a house a short drive away that has an amazing display of Christmas lights and decorations and that if we can keep the kids up long enough (it’s summer so darkness falls sometime around 10:30 p.m.) that we should go and enjoy the light show.

Actually they also mentioned that there’s an even bigger one around here somewhere but didn’t know the specific address.

We tried to follow their instructions involving various reference points, rights, lefts and straight-a-heads but since we have a well known penchant for getting lost, it’s hardly a surprise that in the end we gave up driving around in circles and were content with a visit to just one really well decorated house.

The night is warm, it’s now well dark and the festively dressed gentleman owner is outside to welcome people who are loitering on the footpath  wanting to look but a little unsure if they should proceed further onto the property.

He assures us that we are all welcome to come up the side path and up to the front window to see it all.

Amazingly many parts of the display are mobile, the little group of deer at the back of the property gently sway their heads, the santa and snowman see-saw actually moves like one, and the myriad of little houses etc that are displayed in the front windows have combinations of winking or changing colour lights, skating, walking or turning figures, and even one with four tiers with trains of decreasing sizes going around on each level.

Around the roof of the house, along the fences and in the trees there are lights, lights and more lights.

I took photographs but they really can’t communicate the amazing atmosphere that was generated around this garden, Christmas music poured softly out of the door of the house and it was lovely.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

To be honest, Christmas decorating of this type is only just starting to catch on in the Netherlands, in recent years a few people go all out, often using the limited space that their balconies provide and but mostly people decorate simply or not at all.

We have a set of little lights that we can tape to our front window, and yes you can set them to flash annoyingly, disco style, but we prefer the slow colour change setting.

I’m in two minds… I like the fact that our lights and others like them bring a little cheer into a dark and cold winter street…

…some of the decorations inject a little brightness and  humour and as a parent the game of  “spotting” these lights in house windows or balconies is brilliant for distracting grumpy, fighting children who are sitting in the car, tired out at the end of long days of whirlwind of pre-Christmas events …but sometimes when the various bits are thrown together they can look a bit disjointed and tacky.

I like “tat”and “kitch” sometimes but in severe moderation… and I can never quite put my finger on why I might like one decoration and say  ”ooh, that’s sweet” and then go “um, maaaybe not” or “over my dead body” to the next.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Like most things in life, personal preference is everything.

Most of these bits and pieces are cute…but maybe the piled up soft toys (I didn’t take a photo) or the parachuting Santa were a step too far?

One item tried to be cute but looked a bit strange to me… a blow-up Santa inside a plastic blow-up ball, it as supposed to be a snow-globe, was plugged in and there were zillions of tiny polystyrene balls being blown around inside it …

…but I thought it looked like Santa was trapped inside a plastic bubble since you could hardly see the tiny balls and they certainly didn’t show up in my photos.

All in all though this was an amazing display and I loved it, the atmosphere was really magical and people were stopping and coming for a look from far and wide.

I talked to the owner of the house and he said that it took weeks and weeks of preperation, but that when he saw the smiles on people’s faces it was all worth it.

I certainly appreciated his hard work… the photos don’t really do it justice… it’s magical!

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

This Santa is huge! (it’s tied to a fence that about 1.8 m / 6 feet tall)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Parachute Santa…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

I think these are kitch… but cute. What do you think?

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

A Little Light Show on the way Home…

We have completed our Night Safari Tour and are heading back into the city of Singapore where we will need to transfer busses and then be dropped off back at our hotel on Sentosa Island. As we travel into the central business district we are delighted by the massive display of Christmas Lights… everywhere you turn, streets and building are lit up…

…like Christmas trees!

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(next photo is included because it’s a double deck bus next to a single deck bus, Little Mr. thinks this is ultimate coolness)…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Christmas is All About a Very Special Birth… The Miracle of Life (and the Distorted Facts)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Today is Christmas Day and millions of people around the world will be celebrating it whatever way suits their style and traditions best.  Of course not all people observe Christmas, but for people of  the Christian faith it is one of the most  important dates in the calendar year.

I’m sure that not just the birth of Jesus, but all impending births and the the miracle of Life have inspired many misconceptions and mirth because of misunderstandings of the events in progress by children.

I remember the story told by my New Zealand Grandmother:  in generations past it was not uncommon for young children to be farmed out to live with other relatives when a new pregancy became really obvious and the children were only brought back once the new arrival had been “delivered” by the “stork”.

Naturally at this time the Facts of Life were a taboo subject and little or no information was given in explaination as to where babies actually came from at any  time in many families.

My Grandma once recounted how one of my uncles asked where his new baby brother had come from and when he was told that they had got him  ”from under the cabbages”  he horrified my Grandfather (a very serious veggie gardener) by cutting off a whole row of cabbage heads  because he was “looking for another brother”.

Even sadder was that he got punished for doing so, even when the error had been on the part of the parents and what he had done,  he had done in innocence and childish ignorance.

Luckily these days we are far more enlightened and I have been having “the talk”  with Kiwi Daughter on the “Facts of Life”.

To be honest I had been dreading it, thinking it would be an embarrassing topic to explain, and Yes, when she was four, it was, but mostly that was because it’s so hard to know how to phrase things in a very simple way and four year olds have a habit of asking questions at the most inopportune moment and in a manner that throw you completely off guard.

Now that Kiwi Daughter is ten, and trying to ask intelligent questions, I’ve been surprised about how easy it’s been to just sit and have “little chats”  with her.

A very good  friend of ours is pregnant and this impending event has been the inspiration for some very interesting conversations with our children as they see her tummy grow bigger.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Little Mr’s. reaction: “Does that mean you are having a little kid?” (well we don’t think he means the baby goat variety, but baby human-being sort) so,  ”Yes“…

The conversation thereafter flowed simultaneously on two completely different levels, Little Mr having a rather edited version of the facts about babies than Kiwi Daughter who is almost 4 years older.

Kiwi Daughter asks about her own birth (natural) and Little Mr. his, (emergency caesarian section for medical reasons) so he knows that he quite literally came out of Mama’s tummy. He did however think a bit and all of a sudden he asked ” What do they do with the left over  bit of tummy“?

(yep…  you got me there, would have suited me fine if they had taken it away and not just sewed it up).

Kiwi Daughter on the other hand has in recent months had sex education at school and she and I have been having some in-depth discussions at home about all the upcoming changes that puberty will bring.

Most of these little chats stem from questions that she has, where obviously the exact and precise deails were not made clear, or if they were she didn’t  get it.

All of a sudden she started to giggle, and then she confessed that she had been quite shocked when it became apparent in the lesson that whan a lady has a baby, that her big stomach doesn’t instantamously just deflate the second the baby exits.

(After two kids, sigh, I wish)

… the look on her face and the question “Is that really how it is Mama?“  I said Yes, that’s how it really is, the Mama’s tummy slowly stretches and grows as the baby gets bigger, and then after the baby is born it takes time for all the muscles and skin (and a lot of exercise) to get back to the way they were before.

It transpired that Kiwidaughter had visions of the process being as simple as blowing up a balloon and just then letting the air rush out afterwards…

hmmm…  … jet prepolsion birth anyone?

The wonder of a new soul arriving into the world should be a happy event every time and for me each and every new baby is a Mircale of Life… complex, amazing, beautiful, full of promise, potential and hope…

Be it the Christ Child or any child, I hope that we keep true to the values of trust, honesty and faithfulness in all things and that we also learn to look at life though the innocent, delightful, wondrous eyes of a child… and giggle a bit and have fun too.

Whatever you believe (or maybe not, since that is a very personal choice) I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and whatever your day brings, I hope that your day today is spent with someone you love.

Merry Christmas!

Quick, Easy, Simple, Gorgeous and Delicious Christmas Tray Treats your Kids can Whip up in a Jiffy!

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Himself and I had a friend babysit our kids at her house whilst we sneaked out to the shops to “help Santa”  bring in some surprises for Christmas Day.

When we came back later to collect the children they surprised us with a lovely treat:  her son and our two had been busy in the kitchen making some wonderful little Christmas tray treats.

Simple ingredients, easy to make and looking amazing!

These little Christmas “puddings” are not “puddings” at all, but are really just mallowpuff biscuits, partly covered with melted white chocolate, and topped with New Zealand “lollies” (sweets/snoepjes/candy) in the form of  gummy spearmint leaves and a Jaffa.

Since these were presented fully-made and as a surprise, I didn’t get the chance to photograph the seperate ingredients, but here are links to photos that should shed some light on what the ingredients actually are .

Mallowpuffs are described as “Light fluffy marshmallow sitting on top of a shortcake biscuit, covered in luxurious milk chocolate.”  and you can see a picture of them here:  
http://www.griffins.co.nz/by-name/mallowpuffs

Spearmint Leaves are a soft-ish chewy gummy type sweet, tasting (naturally enough) of spearmint and shaped like a leaf.  Here’s a link to a photograph: 
http://www.lollyworld.com.au/pascall-spearmint-leaves-2kg-bulk-nz-lollies-624.html

And Jaffa’s are a classic New Zealand sweet that all Kiwi’s know and love, they are little balls of chocolate covered in a hard orange candy shell : 
http://www.shopnewzealand.co.nz/en/cp/Cadbury_Jaffas_140g

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Ingredients:
- Mallowpuffs
- White Chocolate
- Spearmint leaf lollies/sweets/ candy
- Jaffa lollies/sweets/ candy

Method:
Cut the spearmint leaves in half (lengthwise) , melt the white chocolate, put into a piping bag (or sturdy plastic bag with a corner snipped off) and pipe  it onto the top of the mallowpuff biscuits (cookies).

Then place the spearmint leaf pieces into the choclate and top with a jaffa for the “berry”  in the centre.

My friend melted the white chocolate and supervised the piping, her 11 year old son cut the leaves in half with a sharp knife and my 10 and 6 year olds made a little production line with the 11 year old to assemble everything.

They made a grand effort and doesn’t the result look stunning?  (I think so!!!)

Maybe you will need to find similar “style”  ingredients where you are if an exact match isn’t possible, but the idea is blissfully easy and if three kids can whip up three trays of these with  minimal  help from an adult, then it proves  that this would be a quick and easy winner of a recipe for any busy adult (or adult with kids) to whip up for  that work afternoon-tea,  end-of-year school party, or sports function etc.

As an addition to your Christmas baking trays, they couldn’t be easier and they look wonderfully festive!

The note reads… “dear Mama and Daddy, Love from …(Kids names obscured for internet privacy).

PLEASE NOTE: I’ve been warned that trying to substitute icing / frosting for the white chocolate is fraught with difficulty, because  unless the icing/frosting is of an exact consistency, it will simply slide off the side of the mallowpuff into puddles at the bottom, so DO use white chocolate  which I’ve been assured is pretty much foolproof.

So… How do they taste? Excellent!… I “needed” to taste several to make sure LOL . Enjoy!

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Felt Christmas Ornament, the Kiwidutch Version…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

It’s the beginning of December and for many western countries the shops have the  Christmas decorations out,  the background Carol music on and are cranking up their offerings of merchandise  to reap  the commercial benefits of the Christmas festive season.

I love the Christmas festivities too, but prefer to try and keep things  low key and true to the origonal spirit of  Christmas as much as possible by emphasising the value of gifts that are handmade with love, time and patience.

Tasks 11 and 12 on my “101 Tasks in 1001 Days”  project  
http://kiwidutch.wordpress.com/about/101-things-in-1001-days/
  are to make a handmade Christmas tree decoration for each of my two children, each year.

Many of my decorations in the past have been cross-stitched: 
http://kiwidutch.wordpress.com/2010/01/08/stitching-ornament-heirlooms-for-kids/
 but I’ve been branching out into felt ornaments in the last year and fancied making something a bit different  than cross-stitch  ones for a change.

Then I stumbled on a craft post on the internet that got me thinking… Jessica Okui  at  
http://zakkalife.blogspot.com/2009/11/craft-project-felt-christmas-ornament.html
  made a beautiful Christmas decoration from felt, ones that echoes a design of  paper or card decoration designs I have seen around  for years.

I liked the idea of working it in felt, but there were a few points about Jessica’s version that I still felt I wanted to tweek for my version.

First I knew I wanted all the edges of my ornament  to be stitched. Secondly, I knew I  wanted to stitch the two pieces of felt next to each other that radiate directly from the top and bottom of the ornament instead of leaving them oen as they are in Jessica’s version.

Lastly, I wanted not just to stitch the  sections together with thread but also to add beads. Shiny, sparkly beads, to twinkle in the light of tree lights.

So… here is a Step-by-Step tutorial of  the Kiwidutch Modified Version of a Felt Christmas Ornament.

Materials:
- 6 circles cut from felt  (mine each measure 6-7 cm / 2 inches across).
- Beads of your choice
- Needle that will fit through your beads. (a sharp needle goes though the felt easier than a blunt one)
- Embroidery thread of the colour of your choice ( mine match either the bead or the felt or both)
- Thread in contrasting colour  (for basting)
-  Decorative cord or ribbon for hanging up your ornament (20-24 cm / 6-7 inches)

Method:
1) Cut six circles of  felt fabric in the colour of your choice. I die-cut mine but tracing around a small jar lid would work just as well.

2) Place two of the circles over each other and with a contrasting basting thread, make a loose line across it vertically and horizontally, effectively making your circle into quarters. Then, still with your basting thread, divide each quarter in half again so that you finish with two circles of felt sewn together, and marked out in eighths.( This sounds more complicated when it is, the photograph below with the white circles and blue thread should make it clear).

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

3) At the top of one of the basting lines, and stitching through both layers of felt,  attach a bead then blanket stitch the two edges together until you reach the next basting line,  add another bead, blanket stitch to the next basting line and add the last bead.  You will now have three beads attached with blanket stitch joining the sections between them.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

4) Repeat step (3)  only  at the ends of a basting line with a bead on it.This will give you a circle with: bead-blanket stitch, bead-blanket stitch-bead, then a basting line with no stitching  or bead at either end, and then bead-blanket stitch, bead-blanket stitch-bead again. (Again, it sounds complicated when I describe it, but the photo will show  you how simple it is)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

5) Repeat this process with the other two felt circle pairs. Once they are all completed, fold your decorative ribbon (for hanging it up)  in half and secure it to one side of the middle layer, then line up the other two sets of  felt  on the outsides so that the beads match.

Hand-stitch from centre bead (top) to centre bead (bottom, through all six layers of felt. (Opps, I know the felt has changed colour, I forgot to photograph this step on the white one).

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

6) Starting at one of the beads that is not on the centre line, blanket stitch only one layer of the two  along  the unstitched edge until you reach half-way along the circle,  take  the closest piece of  felt from the next felt circle pair and join them together with a bead. (look at the stitched and unstitched sections of  the centre of the ornament in the next photograph to make this clear).

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

The easiest way to stitch this is to make a zig-zag pattern all around one side of the ornament, joining all the centres in the middle until you get back to your starting point and then to turn the ornament around and blanket stitch the remaining unstitched edges in the same manner.

Voila! a beautiful hand-stitched Felt Christmas Tree Ornament, made with love and that will make your tree sparkle for years (and even generations)  to come.

The eagle eyed amongst you will have noticed that in the red ornament photo above, there are eight circles of felt (4 doubles together) and not three, as in the white.   The  red and yellow ornaments were experients where I used eight circles of felt  (4 doubles together).  Whilst I first thought that eight would be better than six, the finished  product is I think actually too “squished” in appearance. If you pull one side to make it look right it immediately squishes up on the other side.

To the other extreme the even bigger white ornament was made with 24 circles:  twelve “doubles”and I quickly saw that it looks very cramped indeed. I also used white beads on that one and they hardly show up or sparkle at all (at least in comparison to the dark glossy beads I used for the others).

This means that six circles of felt (3 doubles) appears in my opinion to work best and these are my new Christmas favourites!

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

For a Kid the word “Love” is spelled “T.I.M.E.”

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Christmas Day is upon us and people everywhere are busy doing things for the occasion, stressing about timing the cooking of a turkey right, frantically sieving lumps out of gravy, wondering why you bothered when your toddler is playing more with the packaging than the so-called must-have gift that you had to go to six different shopping centers to hunt down and then queue ages to get.

Ok, my youngest is now five and is actually very  interested in the gift, especially if the word “playmobile” is stamped onto the outside of the box but actually there are many lessons to be learned from kids and Christmas if you stop a little and listen.

Having spent the last three weeks in plaster and having pain if my foot is lowered towards the ground, this results in being what might in the politically correct folks call “mobility impaired”. I call it frustrating, annoying, painful and boring. Yeah for sleeping and painkillers.

On the plus side, you get to have the kids run inside from playing in the snow for a cuddle (actually it’s their intent to steal my body heat as I’m currently the warmest person in the house and wow their little hands are cooooold when shoved onto your bare stomach or leg.)

And I have been reminded that some of the biggest gifts that kids REALLY want are either free or cost very little indeed.  I always knew this, but sometimes that reality of it gets pushed to the back of your mind a bit more than it should in the rush of everyday life.

Little Mr. does indeed worship little plastic figures with “C” shaped “hands” and he worships them even more if they come with fire hoses or ambulance or police accessories that fit into those little plastic hands, but in the end what he really wants for Christmas is exactly the same thing that he loves best all year round.

TIME.

He wants us to sit on the floor with him, showing him how Lego blocks can be shaped into funnily shaped buildings (Note to self, we appear to have ten times more Lego doors than windows and this makes for some construction quandaries). he wants a Big Person to put the mega fiddly steering wheel bits back together after he has pulled them apart for the fourth time , no wait, fifth time , no wait, sixth time…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

He wants us to build complex castles with the wooden blocks and even better, to play the bad dragon who’s coming to breath fire on the surrounding forest and burn it down, whilst he, the courageous knight comes out and gives the dragon a good telling off so that it becomes good again.

It’s the same with Kiwi Daughter, she wants to get her fingers sticky in the kitchen, deep in the remnants of the bowl that a short time earlier housed the chocolate cake batter, or taking a sneaky bite of a mini muffin fresh out of the oven, or grated cheese from the side of the grater.

She wants to choose colours from my plastic container of food colourings, to mix icing for biscuits (cookies) or gingerbread or … heck, lets be honest here:  icing on anything edible would pretty much suit that kid.

She wants to get her fingers dirty in glue and glitter and felt and thread and the sequins and mini pompoms that are crowded with the pipe-cleaners and various other low quality  items that were jam packed into a cheap box that she bought  herself for Euro 3.99 the other day with “holiday money” of Euro 5,- that I gave each of them the other day to spend.

She spent the rest on a pack of coloured pencils that cost 99c and Little Mr managed to spend Euro 4.97 of his share and they triumphantly handed me the change of a full 5 cents as they showed off their choices.

Himself said that he was pleased and proud to see that they both chose very wisely for the cash they had, and it made the lonnnnng and painful deliberation process that took place in the shop easier to withstand in the pre-Christmas rush.

Kiwi Daughter is delighting in drawing, wants to learn how and delights in colouring in… she and I have been making joint first attempts at folding origami boxes, playing board games on the bed and reading.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Little Mr has been watching kid movies on the dvd player and wanting reassurance that when it looks like the baddies are coming that it doesn’t all get too scary. I assure him that in most cases I have ever heard of the Good guys usually win/ find their way home etc and that helps… until next movie when he needs reassuring again. (And no, these are not ‘scary’ movies,  we are talking movies like Shrek and Toy Story).

I am reminded that my kids value TIME so much more than they value “stuff” and that they love to cuddle up next to me with a book,  even if they say they are “too old for that stuff now”.

Of course my kids are normal kids, Yes they have been fighting tooth and nail most of the day with each other, Yes there was a row about who was going to tidy up what when we were preparing the house for guests Christmas Day (not exactly a Spring Clean, but at least not let the place resemble the bomb-site i.e. a “toy grenade went off here”  it usually does).

We did manage to corral most of the kid-junk into the kid bedroom, and yes I know it never stays there, but I live in hope that at least whilst we eat Christmas Lunch that no one finds Playmobile figure body parts under their feet at the dining room table.

Yes, Little Mr. did manage a Force Ten Gale of a tantrum because I asked him pick up a single solitary woolen mitten… why? because it belonged to his sister and not him… so Yes they are normal kids and not saints.

That’s why I’m delighted to report that this Christmas Eve, Kiwi Daughter has been “secretly” drawing cards to give as presents to guests tomorrow, she’d been trying to make gifts from the sparkly, tacky, beautiful bits in her Euro 3.99 treasure trove of stick and paste…. she’s been delighting in it and making it personal.

To a lesser extent so has Little Mr ( and his fingers, face and clothes are completely covered in felt tip pen marks to prove it)

They been spending TIME, they have been delighting in doing it, they are very proud of their creative achievements and they’ve given great thought ( and ok, a few squabbles too) into what would be best for each of the people concerned.

So… tomorrow, Saturday 25th December 2010, they each find under the Christmas tree, a single large gift and two tiny ones, but I’m delighted to say that they have each discovered  the joy of giving and the Spirit of Christmas, and maybe, with the gift of TIME, that is the present that I am proudest that they appreciate.

So, Yes, Today for many around the world is about the food and festivities, and giving gifts, but I hope it’s also about spending time.

I wish each of you a brilliant Christmas, full of joy, laughter, happiness and TIME, with people you love.

Merry Christmas!

What do you mean “A Warm Christmas”? Don’t sweat it !

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Whilst large swathes of  the Northern Hemisphere shivers under layers of snow and plummeting temperatures  in December,  the Southern Hemisphere heads into their Summer.

December/January is synonymous with the 6-7 week Summer School Holidays and many workplaces close down completely between Christmas and New Year as everyone heads to the beach, BBQ and under the sun umbrella.

Decades ago the Christmas Cards featured snow scenes and Northern Hemisphere  Christmas icons like Holly and Robins, and the influences of  Northern Hemisphere  colonial past  persevered into the annual tradition of  massive Roast Turkey dinners, complete with stuffing, roast pumpkin, parsnips, potatoes, onions, carrots .. lashings of gravy and a heavy fruit pudding doused in custard or rum sauce to top it off.

I remember as a kid, hot days with even hotter kitchens and sitting down to a meal  in a heatwave where it was so warm that any attempt at formal attire was abandoned and we sat sticky and perspiring  in sun-dresses as we tried to enjoy an evening Christmas Day  meal that had been slaved over for most of the day but that everyone was really too hot to enjoy.

Times slowly changed in New Zealand as people realised that a bit of the “Old World” traditions were a great thing but that embracing all of them didn’t really suit the Kiwi climate… so Hams became as popular as Turkey at the Christmas table, Turkeys could be served hot or cold and salads and lighter fare replaced the enormous roast dinners.

It makes sense, it’s so much more refreshing, less work in a sweltering kitchen and easier to eat and enjoy when the temperatures are hovering around 30 C    (approx 90 F).

The Kiwidutch’s have been invited to my cousins for Christmas…  these cousins did a trip around Europe last year and stayed with us whilst they were in The Netherlands.. we had a brilliant  time.  When we arrived in New Zealand they were quick to invite us round for Christmas Day, so I have bought some baking and some Corned Beef / Silverside to contribute  to the table…

http://kiwidutch.wordpress.com/?s=silverside

…where it  joins an amazing smoked Ham, various salads, a chicken roasted in the BBQ outside on the porch, veggies and fresh fruit, bread and olives… yum!

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Christmas Day is a late and leisurely lunch that extends into everyone relaxing and chatting  in the shade around the outside table in the balmy evening sun…  and I make a vague attempt at an “Arty” tomato photo, with limited success LOL.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

All the kids are playing happily with their cousins toys and running around the garden. Now that’s a cool Christmas Day with family…