Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. We, the Harrisons, shall celebrate Thanksgiving tomorrow (Saturday) with a late lunch, early dinner starting at 2:00pm with family and our friends Allison, Mike Ruby and Soren (although Mike is opening a bike shop tomorrow so he may be a bit late.) There will be a group of about 15 adults and 10 kids. Should be heaps of fun. We will cook two turkeys on the Weber and enjoy nibbles stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole (or orange kumara if you are kiwi) asparagus, green salad, corn bread stuffing, pecan slice and some lovely little individual pumpkin pies made by Anne. I think that is all of it. Oh, Anne is also making some orange cranberry sauce as well! I made "Chex mix" for the occasion - but sadly, they no longer sell the cereal I used to get in place of Chex, which is called Shreddies...so I had to use Cheerios! Didn't turn out too bad but not quite the same.

We should have lovely weather for the day, if not a bit hot. I can't believe I am going to say this but I hope the wind picks up a bit!

I hope everyone out there in blog land has a lovely weekend and if you celebrate Thanksgiving, a wonderful Thanksgiving with friends and family.

All my best. XXOO Jen

Photos from Cousin Ray's 40th Birthday

Jack cleaning Ray up after he caught an eel by hand in the local stream.

Vaughan and the girls!

Lucy loves swinging almost as much as she loves Gabe!

I snuck in a photo.

"Running! Running!" Is what Lucy yells when she is RUNNING!

I tried to get them to all look up at me and smile but they couldn't do it, too bright and Lucy wouldn't have a bar of it!

Lucy, Gabe and Ethan

Swarming ducks!

Great Grandma Phyl with Margot.

Julia and the kids!

Lucy's first haircut

Lucy's first haircut took about 2 minutes with no fuss. She needed some "fringe" as they refer to bangs in NZ as her hair kept getting in her face. The middle photo is the end result.

Lovely Lucy

Week 29, Third Trimester!

I am still feeling pretty good. I am tired, but that is to be expected and I have aches and pains again of things stretching. This baby moves heaps and I feel all sorts of kicks, bumps and movement - I enjoy feeling the baby move and it is reassuring. Not long now!

Lucy Mowing the Lawn

Movember

Do they do this in the States? November is men's health month in NZ so men who want to help raise money for cancer and mental health issues grow a mo in support...and thus, Movember and the growth on Vaughan's lip!

28 weeks

Well, I am now 28 weeks pregnant. Last week I had a booking in appointment with the hospital and learned about a VBAC (vaginal birth after Cesarean). I also had an appointment with my doctor. At that visit the baby was measuring the average size of a 30 week old foetus - with a due date of 19 January! So we shall see when this wee one arrives. My last day of work wasn't planned until 22 January.

With a VBAC they won't use any induction techniques, they will let me go into labor naturally. If I don't progress well they will preform another c-section instead of any induction techniques as most of the techniques can increase the risk of a uterine scar rupture. They will only let me go over by one week as well. The baby's head is currently down, so that is a good sign as the reason I had a c-section the first time around was that Lucy was breach, head up, bum down.

Elections

The New Zealand National Elections were held yesterday (voting occurs on a Saturday). At 7pm the poles closed and then the votes were counted, by hand! The returns trickled in and by 10pm or so it was obvious that the New Zealand population had selected a new government - National. National is a little right of centre and Labour is a little left of centre. Labour has been in control for the past 9 years and led by Prime Minister Helen Clark. Helen resigned last night and John Key is the new PM - just like that.

I heard a great deal of New Zealanders say they were ready for change and thus National - and their leader John Key, were voted in. It is not clear to me that many think National will do a better job or that there are any clear differences between the party platforms. In my opinion, which is not based on anything other than my observations, National was helped by the Obama bump. The coverage of the US campaign and Obama's win in the US had an impact here. People are seeing the US differently and I think the passion and excitement over a new era in US politics inspired some Kiwi's to kick out the old and bring in something new - even if nothing was going terribly wrong with the status quo. Thus, the Obama bump.

I must be honest, however, and say that I did not do a lot of research for this election nor was I presented with much to consider regarding the varying platforms of the parties and candidates. I kept my eyes and ears open but one is not bombarded with messages here. Politics in New Zealand is in the news but very low key on a personal level. We never received any calls or people knocking on our door. People don't really put signs in their yards, wear buttons or slap bumper stickers on their car. Elections and who you are voting for are a private and necessary activity - not entertainment. I reckon if a Kiwi had been in the US the last week of October this year they would have run back home totally overwhelmed and shocked by the US system. Nonetheless, I am sorry I missed being present in person in the US for this year's election. I voted though!

So, Vaughan and I voted yesterday. You get one for the representative of your district in Parliament and one party vote. It is an interesting system that has lead to coalitions having to be formed in the past in order for a party to gain a majority to rule. This time, however, National and only one other party, ACT will need to form a coalition to govern.

History

Lucy witnessing history!

Trick or Treat

Our kiwi pumpkin

Spider cookies.

Hanging out with Batman.

Mummy kitty

So obvoius she is my daughter!

Perched at the window.

The Fruits of Vaughan's Labour

Our raised vege gargen where soon I will grow artichokes!

The backyard

Front yard

The raised garden

New gate

Vaughan has done all the work on the yard and raised vege garden on his own. we will all get to enjoy it soon and Lucy will love running around in the backyard.