Christmas in a Hot Climate

I grew up with hot Christmases and as a result that was my "normal". I never thought twice about the irony of the snowflakes and snowmen decorating the windows, or a seriously overdressed (and obviously sweltering) Father Christmas.
8 years in the UK, however, gave me a whole new perspective. There, although we never managed a white one, Christmas was at least cold enough that snow was a feasible possibility. In addition, due to short days, lights were actually visible for long enough to make putting them up worth the effort. Santa actually needed his beard, fuzzy hat, boots and fur. Evergreen trees were necessary because they were the only ones with leaves. In fact, real holly was readily available - no need for plastic imitations. Last, but not least,  we actually had a fireplace with a chimney over which to hang the stockings. (We actually have one in our new house too, but it's not generally in action at this time of year).
On our return to South Africa I found myself feeling somewhat rebellious when it came to Christmas. I wanted our celebrations to reflect our context, rather than meaningless (to us) traditions and so began the evolution of alternative practices.

Our 6th New-South-African Christmas looked like this:
Prequel
26 November: A trip was made to the nursery to buy an indigenous Christmas tree. (We buy a tree that we can plant out into the garden after Christmas). This year's was a Kiggelaria africana (Wild Peach). We had one at the old house, and the kids were annually fascinated by the swarms of caterpillars, resulting butterflies and birds that it attracted. I decided we needed one here, too!
Instead of using traditional Christmas decorations, this year we decided to try a Jesse tree instead. The kids took turns to design and make each day's ornaments. By day 7 it looked like this:

The Tree (temporarily out in the courtyard for a bit of sun)

On the 28th the Christmas factory opened and the Tordiffe elves got to work making Christmas cards for our far-away friends.  Factory labour continued right through until Christmas day.

The finished cards

We tend to try and hand-make gifts as much as possible (a bit of the old "reduce, re-use, recycle" theme, with some frugality to counteract the extreme consumerism prevalent everywhere else). It always serves as a lovely excuse for getting creative.

Wire baskets filled with chocolates, candles and bath goodies for the sisters- and Mom-in-law.  Tins of lebkuchen, tomato chutney, brandy truffles and oat-and-herb biscuits for the blokes

Scrapped photos of the ZooBabies for the Grandparents. This is  SirBiggs's  under construction...

...and MrTepps's. I neglected to take pictures of the finished products (and those of the girls) but will exchange these for some as soon as I can get into ZooGranny's house to take them. ZooDaddy built bee-yoo-tiful frames for them!

My gift to ZooDaddy: His favorite poem merged with  one of my photo and 2 of his and then printed onto  canvases 45 X 90 cm (1.5 x 3'). This is panel 1...

Panel 2...

...and Panel 3

1 December is always the official "decorate the house" day. The kids got busy putting up their advent calendars, the wreath for the front door and various ornaments. They also insisted on putting up the artificial fir with all the snowman-snowflake-reindeer ornaments (which I insisted be tucked away largely out of sight in the Notschool room).

The Big Day
Finally Christmas day dawned as the only sunny day in a very rainy patch (I think SirBiggs's fervent prayers must have been heard). Christmas stockings (filled overnight) were examined and then it was time to leave home. ZooDaddy was on zoo-duty, and I was doing the music for the Christmas service, so the kids got to decide where to go - LadyLol came with me, the rest went to the zoo.
We reconvened at home and began preparations for Christmas lunch and visitors. This year we were to be joined by ZooGranny and ZooGrandpa, the Pretoria Cousins and a friend from church.
The plan was for a braai on the patio next to the pool, with all contributing various dishes. While some of us got salads ready in the kitchen, others got busy laying tables and starting the fire. The kids had the job of moving the tree and presents out onto the patio, as well as setting out the picnic blanket on the lawn. This was interspersed with much cavorting in the pool.

Table laid, picnic blanket (and kids and dog) on lawn...

Gifts and tree in the ideal position for attack

Lunch was a marvelous affair, as usual, but interrupted by frequent queries as to how long the "grown-ups" were going to take.

The fare

The feast

The fun

The reason for this was that gift-opening was to take place between main course and dessert. This activity did occur in due course, much to the delight of the kids, naturally.

ZooMomma was elected by the kids as official gift distributor.  Official uniform was "the hat"

The rest of the afternoon was spent languishing in or near the pool, lingering over coffee and dessert (yum), playing with new gifts and watching an absolutely gorgeous film that the grandparents had brought along.
All in all there was complete consesus that it had been a wonderful day.

A Week in the Life of SirBiggs's Bed

After tearing my hair out for a long period at the state of confusion in which I found SirBiggs's bed on a daily basis (despite his insistence that he had made it) I was pulled aside by LadyLol for an explanation. It turns out that SirBiggs makes his bed every day according to a "theme". If only I'd known!
To celebrate my new-found knowledge I determine to keep a photographic record of just one week in the life of his bed. Here are the results:
Day 1: 29 October 2011
Theme: The Band

Gorilla (vocals), Lion (drums), Ted (guitar) and Rabbit (guitar) are the members of the band

The Audience are arranged on MrTepps's bed

The big picture

Day 2: 30 October 2011
Theme: Dog-piling Big-Big. Explanation: Big-Big is the large Panda; Dog-piling is when everyone dives onto some poor victim and lies on them.

Big-Big at the bottom of the pile

Day 3: 31 October 2011
Theme: The (orange) Black-hole

The photo does not show clearly how Blue-Teddy had already had his head sucked into the evil vortex. The rest spiral round as the gravity begins to take effect.

Day 4: 1 November 2011

Theme: The Big Fight

Everyone is fighting someone else

Day 5: 2 November 2011
Theme: Big-Big attempts to be Invisible

No-one is taking the slightest bit of notice of Big-Big. Is it because they can't see him or because they just don't care?

Big-Big's invisibility cloak slips

 
Day 6: 3 November 2011
Theme: The Diamond Hunt

Everyone fights over the diamond that Ted has (unbeknownst to them) already walked away with

Day 7: 4 November 2011
Theme: The Big Wave

The wave retreats leaving destruction in its wake

Seal lies recovering on the beach. Fortunately all survived.

Unofficial Sabbaths

A while back in our family's developmental history we went through a period where we were pretty religious about "Sabbathing" on Sundays. Not that we performed all the traditional Sabbath rituals, but we set the day aside for rest, family-only time, space for reflection and enjoyment. The kids were still at school and so we were not getting much quality time with them in the week, and ZooDaddy and I were feeling pretty burnt out. Those Sundays were literally life-saving.

As the family has evolved, though, the focus has shifted. The kids have grown up and their social needs are increasing. Most Sundays they go off with friends after church, or we gain extra kids. ZooDaddy and I have become less strict about catching up on work on Sundays because we're learning to live restfully during the week, and so feel less burnt out.

This Sunday, however, for some reason none of the kids visited or invited friends. ZooDaddy and I were feeling lazy, and no deadlines were looming, and so, spontaneously, this Sunday turned into one of those traditional Sabbath-Sundays. We cooked and ate together. We played in the pool together. ZooDaddy got a bit silly (which is unusual and VERY loved by the kids). It was a perfect day.

It's not something I feel we need to impose religiously again, but it was a reminder of how much fun we can still have when it's just us. LadyLol declared it to be her "The Best Sunday Ever". I'm sure there's a degree of hyperbole there, but it's good to know that as she and the others grow and explore their own separateness from the family, that they still appreciate the moments when we're "just us".