Well, I couldn’t get organised enough to write my Microblog Mondays post in advance, so I’m writing it now on Tuesday morning in NZ, which is also known as Boxing Day.
The season this year has been special, because of the return of the Californian branch of the family, for the first time in eight years, and the first time ever for Christmas, and so I am relishing the time with them, as the girls go to college next year and who knows when we’ll see them again.
One of my nieces is a talented (and hard-working) softball player, with a scholarship to a good college, and – through her father – has NZ citizenship and has been included in the squad for the New Zealand women’s team. So it was a real pleasure for us to take a four-hour drive last week to a provincial town where the team was playing, and see her in action wearing the fern and the flag and the New Zealand black uniform.
There have been inevitable discussions about life and politics in the US and NZ, about college aspirations and travel plans, and many other topics, trying to squeeze years of casual conversation into a few days, which is the sad thing about having family living so far away.
I was also honoured (and intimidated – I’m very much an untrained amateur) to be asked to take the twins’ senior pictures. The weather didn’t cooperate, as I’d hoped we could do it after Christmas Day when I was more relaxed, so I had to squeeze in mince pie and meringue baking with the photo shoots, and leave my husband to organise the pre-Christmas cleaning (inside and out), which he managed admirably. We got some beautiful shots in farmland, under native tree ferns, and on the beach, and I’m going to have fun going through them all and doing some editing, and will wait to see if they use my photographs or have to revert to other options back home!
Whether they use them or not, I would love to see some photos of the twins!
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I’ll have to check first to see whether they’re open to it!
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How fun that you got to spend the holidays with your CA branch of the family, and share your special gifts with the girls! I bet those discussions about politics were interesting…
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Next time you visit them, you must come to Vermont–just a hop, skip and jump from CA.
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Sounds like a grand event.
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I love opportunities to connect with extended family like this… especially at Christmas. Glad you had a good time with your nieces!
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