Mother comes for Christmas

This year for the first time in about 15 years Erle and I cooked Christmas Dinner at home and invited my 88 year old Mother to join us. Usually we all go to a small hotel for a wonder Christmas banquet, but this year they canceled the event and I was forced to resume Christmas cooking. Actually it wasn't all that hard, with a little serious thought I came up with a lovely 3 corse meal with very little bother. We started with crumbed butterflied prawns with mango and tomato salad, then the main course was a boneless Chicken roast pre-stuffed with apricots and lots of roast potato and kumara and our very own fresh green peas, for dessert a big tropical trifle with boysenberries and meringues and fresh cherries. Easy as.
Tasted as good as it sounded too.
Porsche got another wonderful Christmas present too, a Mother Sheep with little lamb that sings and dances, she likes it very much.
Porsche also received a catnip monkey that she enjoyed rather too much, it can be seen on Glennis's Other blog.

Merry Christmas.

I hope you have all been really good so Santa has many gifts wrapped up for you.
Merry Christmas to each and every one of my wonderful visitors who help make my life so much happier.
May the Angel of the lord bless you and make your dreams come true.
Warmest Seasons greetings from hot sunny New Zealand

Christmas decorations at Picton.

My World, Christmas decorations in Picton.
The big silvery Christmas tree is up on top of the War Memorial in Picton, the lamp posts have their flags flying and baskets of flowers looking quite colourful, so Christmas must be nearly here.
The Foreshore Gardens are looking pretty too, sadly the Champagne Fountain was not playing when I was walking past, but it most likely will be later.
Ours is only a small town so that is about the size of the decorations.
At night the silver tree lights up and flashes many different colours.
Do check out lots of My World posts to see many other interesting aspects of the World.

Pink stripes.

A soft pink stripe is all the sun set for this night.
Do check out lots of skies from around the world on this My World meme.

Mystical Family Festival at the Maori Marae

Mystical Family Festival. My World for this week.
The Festival was held at the Maori Marae at Waikawa, not a place I have been to often as I am not a Maori person, so I was keen to take some photos.
When we arrived I straight away bought a Rose Quartz Crystal triangle to put on my windowsill with other interesting gem stones I have collected, then we went into the dining hall and enjoyed a lovely Devonshire Tea of coffee and a delicious scone topped with jam and cream. While we enjoyed the scone I looked around the big room, which was nicely and simply set out for the morning tea and later for lunch, there were many lovely Maori carvings totems and beautifully intricately carved wooden panels that told a story and had great meaning to the Maori people. I asked a lovely elder lady called a Kuia ( a respected older wise women )who had a pretty Moko (tattoo on the chin) if she would allow me to take her photo and she agreed.
We went back outside intending to visit all the little stalls that were set up around the grounds, but the first one I stopped off at was a Reflexology practitioner, I got talking to her and asked for a short session of the lovely foot massage. Wow it was so lovely, I had been working all night the previous night so I was pretty tyred, she just relaxed me and made me feel so much better i decided to have a double length session, it was well worth the price. After that I was so lanquid and relaxed that I didn't feel up to wandering around any more, so I made my way back to the car, on the way I past the big Meeting house with its lovely carved poles and panels, there was a group of visiting entertainers gathered on the steps as I took a photo in passing.
There was also some interesting stone art poles and carvings on top of the palisade around the Marae.
A very interesting place to visit, but I do wish I had been feeling less sleepy had taken more photos and looked at more stalls as there were people taking aura photos, doing healings and tarot readings plus massage artists and possably other types of mystical alternative forms of treatment that I never saw.

Lemon and silver evening

Lemon and silver brightened the sky at Picton last night.
Do check out lots of other wonderful skies from around the world, here.