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WEEK 4
Dear Lincoln, Lilliana, Leni, Juliana, Evyn, Jack, Faye, Chloe, Emerson, Lake, Rita, Violet, and Ella,
I hope you all had a great Christmas and that Santa brought you some great gifts! I was at Aidan and Luke’s house for Christmas. They hung up their stockings before they went to bed and because they’ve been good this year, Santa filled them up with presents. Luke left a note and a drink and a snack and Santa even signed it and wrote, “Thank you, it was delicious,” on it!
The boys both got scooters and pocket knives, but I think Aidan’s favorite present was Rock Band 3 for his Wii. He spent most of the day practicing songs!
The boys gave me cards that they had made in school. Aidan’s showed a picture of their school mascot (a camel) and Luke’s was a very interesting bird. I’m not sure if it’s a kiwi bird or a turkey, or a mx of both! We had a great Christmas day and the boys went swimming in the neighbor’s pool because it was a hot summer’s day.
A few days before Christmas, Aidan and Luke had their final Beach Series day of the year. Beach Series is a big group of people, moms, dads, and kids, who all meet at the beach to do races.
They do running races along the beach (the moms and dads run 4km and the kids run 2km), swimming races (the moms and dads do 1km and the kids do 300m) and boat races (just the moms and dads) – both stand-up paddle boarding and kayaking.
There is so much going on, it’s noisy and crazy but everyone is having an amazing time. Most of the moms and dads who do the swimming races wear wetsuits as they have to go out so far into the ocean where it’s pretty cold.
Everybody who is racing has to wear a microchip around their ankle. This has their name on it and it tells the computer when they start and when they cross the finish line so the computer works out their race time. Swimmers have a special "beach series" swim cap they have to wear. 
The day I saw their races, it was their Christmas party, so everyone had dressed up. That’s how I saw an elf paddling a raft! Luke dressed up as an elf and came third in his running race.
On the way home from Beach Series, Aidan and Luke pointed out the Kiwi Christmas Tree. It’s not a real Christmas Tree, it’s a native tree of New Zealand and it’s called a pohutukawa tree (I’m still learning to say that!)
The pohutukawa trees are so special, they are protected, and no one is allowed to chop them down, even when they grow so big they are almost falling over. People just put harnesses around them to help hold them up.
They have beautiful red flowers that come out in December. People say that if the flowers come out before Christmas then it’s going to be a “long, hot summer,” which is a kind of joke because the flowers always come out before Christmas, so it’s always going to be a “long, hot summer!” They are pretty funny, the Kiwis, they all seem to have a great sense of humor!
After Christmas, Aidan and Luke went with their mom and dad to their grandparents bach (that’s what Kiwis call their holiday home) on the west coast of the north island. I stayed behind to look after their cats, Cody and Jazz, who are brother and sister.
They love chasing bugs and insects. They catch moths and cockroaches and skinks. I had never seen a skink before. It is like a little lizard.
Skinks are very clever. If a cat catches it by its tail, the skink can cut off its tail and run away, leaving its tail behind, and then grow a new one! It can even do that with its legs as well! Can you imagine cutting off your leg and growing a new one back?! Weird, huh!
When the boys came back it was Aidan’s 11th birthday. I helped Aidan’s mom make a birthday cake for him.We made a chocolate cake, put sliced strawberries around the edge, and then wrote Happy Birthday Aidan on it.
Then we had a party to celebrate his birthday and New Year’s Eve, so Aidan’s friends came early at 5pm for pizza and cake, and then all the moms and dads came later and we had dancing and games until midnight when we saw in the new year and watched fireworks outside and on the TV.
I met lots of new kids at the party, like Zo-Zo, who had pink hair! I had a great time with all of them, and did lots of dancing.
Because New Zealand is one of the first countries over the International Date Line, it was 2011 here before anywhere else. So when it was 2011 in New Zealand, it was still 2010 for another day in California, so we were in a different year for a little while!
I tried not to drink too much Champagne though, because I had to get up early the next morning to go camping with some new kids before heading down to the South Island. I will tell you all about that next week. Happy 2011!
Missing you all and sending you loads of hugs and kisses.
Lots and lots of love,
Susie xxxx
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