Every weekend we like to do these reasonably long walks - 3 to 4 hours, and this weekend we chose to walk around Auckland. So many lovely walks, and so many things to look at :)
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Per and I had decided to stay in Auckland over the Christmas holidays - but to make sure we had a lot of walks around Auckland and the many Regional Parks surrounding us. So we started out with Tawharanui - about an hour north of Auckland. And we left home early - around 7am, to make sure that we could do our walk before it got too hot... I was a bit worried about all the hills we had to climb, but made it without any big problems, so the training must be working :) Finally - 24th December and time for more good food and more gifts :) Per and I always choose to be on our own on the 24th December - it's become a tradition we really appreciate. And as always Per was busy in the kitchen. We were having some lovely little things to start with, and then he did a duck on the BBQ - wow that was good! And we had a nice red cabbage salad - very, very nice (we now make that at least once a week). And then for dessert... Ice cream with home-made strawberry sauce - oh my God - it was good, too good!! Besides the Danish Christmas dinner we also had another Christmas dinner this year - and then of course still the real Christmas dinner on 24 Dec. :) Each year we meet up with two of my girl-friends for a Christmas get-together, and this year it was at our place. Monica is Korean and Bonnie is Canadian - so it's a real mix :) Time for the annual Danish Christmas dinner with our Kiwi friends. I don't think we can ever stop doing these Christmas dinners, as everybody loves the Danish traditions by now. And each year we sing 'Højt for træets grønne top' - and they getter better and better at it :) This year we had something special for the rice porridge - we had real Danish Christmas beer - bought in Denmark in October and transported in our luggage to NZ. We have tried many other things for the rice porridge, like champagne, rose wine, etc. but nothing works like a Danish Christmas beer! So we started with rice porridge - with an almond, of course. And then we had pork and duck - and caramelised potatoes and red cabbage. And that's the same every year. And the star - the sauce of course.... (or gravy as they say down here). Nick usually get the left-overs to take home and have the sauce on toast the next morning :) And this year - instead of having gifts under the Christmas tree - we played a game - which we do sometimes, where you roll a dice to get the gifts - and you end up being able to steal gifts from each other - even though we normally 'behave' and end up with a gift each :) As always - it was a lovely, lovely evening - and I think with the best food ever..... HAPPY CHRISTMAS! We decorated the tree a week later than usual, as our overseas employees were visiting from UK and US in second week of December - and we wanted them to be part of the Christmas celebration. So we started with coffee and muffins and then decorated the tree - and finished off with a photo for our Christmas card :) And same week we had our yearly Christmas lunch, so that Rob from UK and Scott from US could participate in that as well. This year we had chosen to go to Long Bay, just north of Auckland. We were all picked up from the office by a mini-bus at 11am and got everything packed. And then off we went. So the only problem - is was raining.... And we were supposed to be by the beach, with a BBQ.... But - we soldiered on and luckily enough the space was covered, so we actually had a good time - and some even took a swim later. (Besides the ducks.....) |
G&PThis is our blog - we use this to keep track of what we've done and where we've been.... as we can't always remember :) Archives
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