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First you need to cross your fingers for a lovely New Zealand morning. On Christmas Day 2009, it was 32 degrees.

This was our Christmas tree.

My mum does floral art as a hobby, this is her take on Christmas.

Christmas also needs some pretty flowers, I like Poinsettias because they have coloured leaves instead of flowers!

For Christmas I wanted a Finnish flag to take to Spa and Monza, this I got. My parents flag pole came in handy.

I also got the Roger Federer cap I wanted to wear to the Australian Open.

My brother got me a box of chocolate fish, which I didn’t ask for but they are very nice! They only sell them in NZ so it’s nice to have a supply in Australia now.

This was not a present but I did ask mum if she would pick some up for me. It’s one of the greatest beverages ever to be created by man. I would “200%” recommend hunting some down if you are ever in the country.

The roast was roasting nicely.

Every year there are nibbles out so everyone eats too much before lunch is even served.

One was fruit.

The other was not quite so healthy.

Our lunch table. I realised I have to buy some Christmassy place mats for next year because the pictures of houses really aren’t festive.

This is mint sauce, the picture is for Lukeh. You can be sure this is not going anywhere near my lunch!

Lunch!

I love gravy.

We’ve never had all the dessert on a trolley before, but it certainly made it easier to serve! Apparently it’s not a New Zealand Christmas without a pavlova, so we’ve got a huge one, but I hate the stuff.

Trifle on the other hand is my absolute favourite.

After sitting around for a few hours, it is customary to walk off some of lunch. We walked along the beach.

There are some whale bones buried out there but all the digging meant the hole was full of water. The ones sticking out of the puddle are very long, very deep and very heavy.

Then we walked around the block. My parents live in a lovely peaceful neighbourhood 30 minutes out of the city. I’m glad they moved there after I left home, I’m definitely a city girl!

In the afternoon some family friends turned up and we sat on the deck for a few hours catching up. I got a little sunburnt, oops. Over the weekend I discovered I like sitting on the swing seat with a cup of tea and my Kindle.

Because it was still such a lovely night we decided to have dinner outside. The BBQ area is yet to see a BBQ though because there were so many leftovers from lunchtime. Cold meat and salad is the usual Christmas tea!

As you can tell from the lack of people in the photos, we’re a family who don’t like being in front of the lens. I had to be sneaky to take this one.

The next day another flag went up. It’s a very multicultural pole

Boxing day was only 12 degrees so it was a lot colder than the day before! The Diamond Princess was in town. I’d say it was really not the best weather to be cruising in.

The Port is just up the harbour, there is always interesting boats coming and going.

And that is all the pictures I took because for the next 2 days of my stay all I did was sit on the couch or the deck.

Next time I’ll have to remember to take my togs so I can go swimming, the water is very warm because the sand heats up when the tide is out, then the sand heats up the water when the tide comes back in. Genius.