More of Waimiha!

Hello there....I am back to share more lovely images and memories of our wee pre-Christmas rush, beginning of summer, weekend away.

I mentioned to you that Black Fern Lodge was an old wool shed done up into a lodge. It sleeps 16 so there is plenty of room for all of us

and the table is definitely big enough for all of us to fit around in too!

 There is not much to do here...that is the beauty of the place...a place just to be, to enjoy the quiet

and to reflect on the blessings you have.

Like the blessing of...family,

The Budd children (they aren't all mine)
from left Nos. 1,2,4,6, and 8 are. The rest are my amazing nieces!

the blessing of nature and fresh air

and the blessing of time to roll down grassy hills!

 

Don't you just love the GREEN!

FRIENDS!
Biggest cousin and littlest cousin!



Merry Christmas to you all!

I look forward to sharing with you again soon.

Love Sharni xxx

Ps I would love to get to know my readers so please feel free to leave a comment and introduce yourself. xx

Bring it on!

I have been looking forward to this weekend for a L-O-N-G time.  The beginning weekend of December, the offical beginning of summer and my dear husbands birthday.  This year the challenge was issued...family against family (all in love of course) for....

Yeah I know what you are thinking... Black Fern Lodge,.....'Waimiha'  (pronounced Y-me-ha) where the heck is that?

Well it is actually in the middle of nowhere so you can be forgiven for never hearing of it.

Its an old wool shed that has been converted into a lodge that is big enough to sleep our two families. No cell phone coverage here!  Bliss!

Saturday saw us ALL (adults included) glue-ing, tying, cutting, sawing and constructing our rafts, using bamboo, ice blocks sticks, plastic bottles, bark, pieces of timber, string, fern and I even saw some Dandelions stuck on a raft.

 

 

 

I just love how everyone came up with their own design....created all by themselves.

Nearly race time.... First a pre-race meeting.

Off we go!

On your marks...get set....GO!

Miss Tahlia waiting to see who actually won!

This is one of my favorite. Kaitlyn rescuing her raft.  (Note the jandals in the hand) So cute!

  Any guess to who actually won???  Yep me darling husband won, of course he did!  BUT we all had fun, ALL got wet and all have GREAT memories.

Is that not what families are great at.... I love mine!  The whole lot of them.....Budds1 and Budds2

I don't care how poor a man is; if he has family, he is rich - Dan Wilcox and Thad Mumford, "Identity Crisis, M*A*S*H

(more Waimiha Photos to come)

Christmas Tree Shopping

One of my favourite times of the year is got to be Christmas time.  I LOVE Christmas!!!  Actually LOVE in an understatement but they haven't invented a word that describes how I feel about it.  
It conjures up those warm and fuzzy feelings.    I just love traditions too! I love creating new ones and carrying on old ones.   And I just pray that the traditions that we have begun as a family will long continue.  They are what connects us to not only family - past and present, but also to something much bigger than ourselves.  Christmas is a time for reflection. I could say quiet reflection but it so does not apply in my household!

To kick off the Christmas season in our family, is our annual Christmas tree shopping trip.
This is where we all pile into the car, drive to the Christmas tree farm, the same one we have been going to for years, weave in and out of all the hundreds of Christmas trees and trying to choose and agree on this years tree.  Not an easy task.

The kids take turns at carrying the measuring stick they give you and this year it was Sophie turn.  It was such a sight, a wee little sprite of a girl trying to carry a 2 metre long stick without taking anyone out along the way.  How precious!

Now not to lose any of the kids.

How about this one?

I think this is it!  What do you think?

Tiiiiiiiimbeeeeeer!!!!!!

Decorating the tree is NOT in the least like one of those sitcoms I used to watch as a kid, where the family all gathers round the tree, singing carols and drinking eggnog?? or hot cocoa and lovingly looking at each other.  But we do have fun and we all decorate it.  A lot of the decorations are child height and in between the arguements of who is going to put what where, there is a lot of laughing, a lot of "this looks pretty Mama!" and heaps of "can you reach up there?"

We all have our own decoration with our name on it, which adorns the tree and the years that I have been with-child we have put a blank matching decoration up, as the unborn child is already part of family.  I was a little sad that there was no blank one this year.

I love the end result of our tree.  It does not look like it belongs in a magazine - far from it!  But it is our tree, so carefully decorated with all the awe and wonder that goes with a five children. 

I love Christmas!

ps Just so you know, half an hour before we left to get our tree, the kids were fighting and yelling and I was grumpy and ready to cancel Christmas!