Upside Down Christmas

A belated Merry Christmas! For us it's been quite hectic but very good fun and in some ways more 'upside down' than last year.
As well as the decorations & shopping that always start well before December, working for a church means that the planning & celebration of Christmas also seems to come early. So much so that, for us, it was all finished by the end of Christmas Eve! The first nativity was organised by one of the smaller churches and set in a very rural location complete with Mary riding a real donkey and llamas substituting for camels to bring the wise men and their gifts to Jesus!
The pageant this year told about the birth of Jesus from the perspective of the angels in heaven preparing to bring the announcement to earth; a kind of Sister Act idea with a group of angels who can't sing at the start but become a heavenly choir by the end. We needed alot more practise to be a heavenly choir - that's about all I can say!

Though Christmas here is very different ('Upside Down Christmas' is a modern-day carol written about the beach & sun of Christmas in the southern hemisphere; it's a little bizarre but at least there has been a realisation that singing 'In the bleak midwinter' is totally inappropriate!) it was also quite strange in the Shepherd family back in the UK as the focus was the arrival of our first niece - Emma Lucy - on December 23rd. Welcome to the world, Emma! Very exciting but odd being so far away for such a significant event.

Christmas day started as semi-traditional for the eight of us gathered in Emma & Dan's flat; the rain poured down (but it wasn't cold) as we wrestled with a huge turkey and all the trimmings (though minus the sprouts, much to our dismay!), listened to carols from Kings (a replay downloaded from the Internet) and even watched the Queen's speech (@ 7 not 3pm)! The sun did come out in the afternoon, though, and we wandered to Hagley Park where the lads played off their dinner with football and the girls just wandered. It was a lovely day spent with friends and left us contemplating our 'traditions' of Christmas from years gone by and how (or should?) they change in such a different context. Answers on a postcard...

Boxing Day was much more Kiwi! Having finished Christmas I was definitely ready for summer to start with a vengeance - and it did. We went out for the day with our friends, the Trotter family, who have a boat (lots of Kiwis have boats - it's not the same as the UK). They took us to a couple of lakes in the mountains (one was way too windy to lauch a boat but a good spot for a picnic) where the the kids and Neil had great fun as they took turns in the biscuit/donut; sitting in an inflatable ring with a solid bottom which is pulled behind the boat. Ed's driving was quite sedate for Josh (8) and Ben (6) but he had some fun with Neil who bounced all over the place and did eventually end up thrown out and in the water. Jen was a little concerned but I knew he'd have loved it and it was a while before the grin left his face!

The rest of the week has been pretty chilled, though with steady preparation for Summer Wine - the camp we're at next week where we're leading the work with the 11-13 year olds.
I think the sun is here to stay for the time being. We were pining the English chill but now Christmas is over I'm ready for my summer holiday!