Jenny is working on a short story she's planning to submit into the "L. Ron Hubbard Writers and Illustrators of the Future" contest. As some of you may know, L. Ron Hubbard was the science fiction writer who invented the philosophy behind Scientology. Apparently, every year there is a contest to see who can come up with the best sci-fi short story, and - who knows? - perhaps spawn a new religion! Well, Jenny's not trying to come up with a new religion, but she is trying to get herself published, so contests like these are great ways to get her work seen and to keep those writing juices flowing. Anyway, while she's working on that, you guys are stuck with me as the blog poster, so please pardon the inferior eloquence and rambling nonsense.
Well, after we got back from our crazy tramp in and around Rotorua, I think we made up for our adventuring by doing a whole lot of nothing in the following week. It was SO nice to sleep on a mattress again. After our first night back, we both promised our inner-spring friend that we would never again take him for granted, despite how many times we had previously woken up with thoughts of buying a mattress topper to make him more comfortable. Mattress topper or no, he sure beats concrete on the comfort scale.
Given our current state of unemployment, we have been aiming to spend as little money as possible after our camping trip until the new year, when our odds will hopefully be more favorable for finding a new source of income. However, we decided that we couldn't just lock ourselves in the apartment for that entire week before Christmas, so on Saturday night, we ventured out into the city to check out some Christmas lights. Keep in mind, though, that it's summer here, so the sun doesn't set until after 8:30pm, which means it's not totally dark until around 10:00pm. That gave us time to have dinner and watch Shrek before finally leaving the apartment at 11:00pm. We had heard from several sources that Franklin Road was the place to go for some stunning light displays, so that's where we headed.
The houses in our neighborhood didn't get too fancy with lights - maybe a string of those hanging "icicle" lights here and there. Our landlord put up a few lights on the front of our shared house, but Jenny and I came to the conclusion that power was too expensive, the long days made the lights sort of pointless, and we could understand why so few houses were glowing with spirit. If anything, though, it made us that much prouder of those on Franklin Rd who went all out, regardless of cost and effect. That is, until we actually saw Franklin Rd.
Instead of one string of icicle lights, the houses on Franklin Rd had two. In front of a few special houses there was even a glowing Santa figurine, but that was about the extent of Auckland's "stunning" display of lights.
The rest of the week sort of slipped by amidst numerous loads of laundry built up from the tramp and a season's worth of Christmas music and movies. We don't have a TV, so we've been watching all of our movies on my laptop from a big external hard drive that my friend John set up for us. Unfortunately, we didn't have any Christmas movies on there, but John came to the rescue as our pre-Christmas Santa by transferring a few Christmas classics over to us, including A Christmas Story and Christmas Vacation.
So after weeks of shooing Jenny away from the enticing presents under the tree, Christmas Eve finally arrived, which allowed each of us the opportunity to open ONE present. She made sure it
was a good one by choosing the 2-in-1 gift from her brother: an awesome mixed CD and J.K. Rowling's The Tales of Beedle the Bard. Needless to say, she was ok to wait until Christmas morning for the rest of the presents. I should mention that, at this point, our tree was already STUFFED with wrapped treasures, thanks to our overly generous families, with our mothers as the primary culprits. I think we actually got more presents this year than ever before, despite the exorbitant cost of shipping. You guys are too much, and we love you all immensely.Also on Christmas Eve, we decided to make Santa some gingerbread cookies for coming all the way down to New Zealand to visit us; however, one of the essential ingredients needed for good gingerbread cookies is molasses, which we had not been able to find on our first look through the nearby supermarket. The cashier at the front had no idea where we might find it, but a fellow customer who overheard our inquiry told us she thought she'd seen it at certain health food stores. We had no idea why molasses would be in a health food store, but we eventually found a single jar of the stuff at a bigger supermarket toward the city, so we were finally able to get down to business. Sidenote: around this same time, two years ago, Jenny and I were mixing up gingerbread dough in her apartment at USC, during one of the very first times we ever hung out. Who would have thought that in two years we'd be doing the exact same thing, in our apartment, in New Zealand? Two years ago, the whisks I "accidentally" left in her apartment made for a great excuse to hang out again. This year, we mixed with a spoon.
Our New Zealand kitchen lacks cookie cutters, but if anything, that just allowed us to get creative with the paring knife. Jenny's cookies looked a lot better than mine, which is why I'm only posting a picture of her work; either way, it provided for a fun evening.
By the time the first batch was out of the oven, ready to eat, we were already on the couch wa
tching A Christmas Story before bedtime. As we bit into the first cookies, Jenny and I each felt a sudden wave of empathy for Ralphie with his mouth full of Lifebuoy soap - the cookies were DISGUSTING. Apparently, in our search for molasses, I had unwittingly picked up a jar of blackstrap molasses. The difference? Well, normal, everyday molasses is the result of the first boiling of sugar syrup. Blackstrap molasses, on the other hand, is the product of the third boiling stage of sugar syrup, at which point most of the sweet sugar is gone, and basically all that's left are the vitamins and minerals found in the sugar cane plant. According to Wikipedia, "Blackstrap is often sold as a health supplement, as well as being used in the manufacture of cattle feed, and for other industrial uses." Yummy cattle feed gingerbread cookies. Oh yeah, and what's more, a two-tablespoon dose of blackstrap molasses can also have a laxative effect. The recipe we used had us put a half-cup of the stuff in our cookies.After doing our part to keep ourselves and Santa very regular, we went to bed and woke up to an AMAZING Christmas day. We ripped through our plethora of presents before getting ready for the day, which worked out well, because then we had brand new clothes to wear, thanks again to our various Santas all over the world. Jenny got me an awesome shower radio in the shape of a frog, which I put to immediate use. You see, our car radio is from Japan, so it only picks up the lower range of station frequencies that they use in Japan. Therefore, we only get
two stations here in Auckland where the frequency ranges overlap, but NOW, with this awesome, singing frog, we can listen to New Zealand radio wherever we go. And in the shower! Ah, the luxury.Jenny made some incredible Christmas crepes filled with homemade banana sauce, strawberries, and jam, and we spent the rest of the day chatting with family on Skype and playing with our Christmas goodies. Then, since we're a day ahead here, we had Christmas #2 on the following day while our families were having Christmas back in the States. It was a little weird not being around the rest of the family on Christmas, but with the amazing technology and accessibility of communication, it was remarkable how close we felt to everyone. Even my parents, tucked away in the mountains of Southern Utah, were just a 2-cent/min phone call away. Though, I think both our sets of parents have made it clear that we're allowed 1 Christmas away every 25 years, so next year we'll definitely be home.
On Christmas night, our friends Geoff and Lisa came over, bearing gifts, to make sure we weren't feeling too lonely or homesick. It was extraordinarily sweet of them. Geoff had just been down to Christchurch visiting his mom, so he brought us a bucket of fresh-picked raspberries from her garden, a jar of homemade feijoa (New Zealand berry) jam, and a set of cheese knives and cutting board. We spent a few hours playing an epic game of Five Crowns - the addictive new card game Jenny's mom gave us - and watching Christmas music videos on YouTube. Jenny won the game, Geoff and Lisa went home, and we hit the sack after a long, lovely Christmas.
Since then, we've been trying to get up and go for a run every morning. I'm motivated by the cool new running shoes my mom gave me for Christmas, along with the little pedometer chip that fits inside the left shoe and links to my iPod while we run. It measures calories, distance, and time, and keeps track of all my separate workouts and personal bests. And I think we're both just trying to get a head start on some New Year's resolutions. We play at least one game of Five Crowns every day, in which Jenny usually kicks my butt, and we've been applying for any job openings we come across, even though almost every phone call we've made goes straight to the office voicemail saying they'll be back on January 5, which is apparently when everyone goes back to work here. In general, though, we're finishing off the year having had a truly wonderful holiday season, thanks to our loving family and friends, and we have freshly charged hope and excitement for all the undoubtedly awesome opportunities 2009 will bring.
Tonight, we're going to take a bottle of bubbly to Coyle Park, overlooking the Auckland skyline, and feel privileged to be two of the first people in the world to get a glimpse of 2009! We'll be thinking about you all, and while we would call you at midnight, that'll be about 3:00am for most of you, so we'll just wait until tomorrow.
Happy New Year, everyone, and we'll see you all in 2009!
Lots of Love,
Jenny & Brandon
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