Tuesday 23 December 2014

The Final Christmas Rush!

'Twas the day before Christmas Eve, and all through the house....not a creature was stirring...umm, nope, it certainly isn't quiet and peaceful here! So much is going on! Mum and I have stopped for a short break in between doing the typical Christmas preparations. What's on the agenda for today? We're cooking the second ham (the first we're giving to the lady who's currently milking for us), it smells divine with the red wine and plum sauce combination.
     This year, for a change, we're having a fruit salad - not the most cheapest dish to make (my gosh, the price of fruit!) but sometimes it's nice to do something different. And with a couple of basically everything (apart from Kiwifruit, which is gutting), it should be delicious!
     We've also been doing some chocolate making, and we decided that chocolate dipped marshmellows would be yum, and a nice addition to a selection of chocolates I'm giving two of my friends for Christmas. Homemade chocolates are cool, but you really need the patience of a saint to spend hours doing it, colouring the white chocolate and carefully putting it in the moulds etc etc, it gets frustrating and kinda boring after a while - no wonder we don't do it often!!

Tomorrow I'm back milking for another three days straight over this Christmas period (money! :D) and so much more needs to be done tomorrow. Can't really cook the desserts until Christmas eve, so the pav, chiffon (secret family recipe) and trifle will get done. My sister and her fiance are with us this year, so she's boning out the chickens to make our own kebabs (we tried some last night - omg! Yum!) Just a general tidy up needs doing too. It may not seem like a lot, but after a while it seems like a mountain load of things to do!

There are Christmas carols at the Causeway tomorrow night, so I'm meeting Sam and Chantelle there; 12 years in the area and I've never been! :O And I'm meeting them tonight to give them their gifts, and will probably go and see some more christmas lights at the same time. On Friday we finally caught up - after many months, and since it wasn't raining we bought some hot dogs and chips and went to the beach, time passed so fast but it was nice to see them. On the way home we stopped in at a house who had gold coin donations (sponsoring the local school) to look at their light display, it felt kinda weird waltzing onto somebody else's property, after 9 o'clock to look at decorations! It wasn't as good as the one on the main highway, but was still pretty neat :)

And Christmas came early for the local tyre shop today. Yesterday my car failed it's warrant due to needing two new front tyres!? :( It definitely wasn't what I needed to be hearing, this car has cost me the Earth in repair bills this year - I know cars cost money, but gosh! So today I went and bought some cheap new tyres, it's only a little car and I only drive locally. Doesn't need anything special, but the guy was good and cut $20 off each one for me. However when I came to pick it up, he had had to do a wheel alignment, as it was dangerously out of whack. Another $70 into the kitty, but hey. Gotta be safe, aye? Now I've just gotta get used to it driving differently to what I'm used to...


I can't believe that in a few days time I'll be 19 - the year has passed by so jolly fast. I've used my ID once and I feel really old and weathered in a way - especially after the year we've had. But I also look at myself in the mirror, and think. You're not 18! I see people my age all the time, and they actually look their age. I feel like I got to 15 and haven't appeared any older since!
     But at least I can go to work and have people realise straight away that I'm nice and old, mature and know what I'm doing. It's good to get respected everywhere I go. One farm I've worked at since October, actually prefers me over everyone else, and it's a real pain if I can't make it to them and have to swap with someone else. And it's odd to think they prefer me, with about a decade of experience milking cows, over someone like Dad...but it just so happens to be my favourite shed, so everything works out! Dad was also told the other day that I milked "like a machine". I've never thought of myself as a good, fast and consistent milker - sometimes I wonder whether I'm milking too slow, and holding people up! But apparently not, but hey - at least I do a good job :)

My birthday should be good, I get two days off and haven't really got anything planned - it's better that way. But there is a Jamie McDell concert at one of the local Taverns that night, so Nick and I are going, and hopefully a bunch of the Young Farmers will come along too - some of them reckoned they would. Hopefully it's good!
    Oh and also, we had a YF TenPin Bowling and Lazer tag the other night. I fully failed with the bowling, but Lazer....hehehehe she's The Man (actually that was my gun name ;) ) and I completely won. Was so stoked to have beaten everybody - shooting people with lazers is fun!

Aaaaannnnnd One more thing before I go - I will be meeting my friend XJ around New Years, when her family comes up this way for Christmas. I've known her for four years through correspondence, and finally we're meeting 'in person". Quite exciting :)

Hope all my readers have a lovely Christmas!



2 comments:

  1. ack! sorry about the tyres, I had to get my 2 front ones replaced recently, mangawhai tyres did me a good deal. we've been mega busy at work, absolutely flat tack, I can't wait for a break.

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    1. hmm seems like that tyre thing might just be contagious!! lol

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