New Years Activities

I know I need to write about Part 2 of our trip to Northland, but I thought I should write about New Years before it is any more out of date. I am suffering from rather intense neck pain, and am therefore typing this laying on my back as much as possible, as sitting at a computer aggravates it. I will try to keep this post short, and then go back to resting it.

J had to work, starting at 5:00am, on New Years Eve, so rather than go out to a party when he got home, we just relaxed at home. It turned out to be a good thing, because Holly was scared of the fireworks, and I'm glad that we were with her. By the way, fireworks are illegal on New Years here, but our neighbours don't mind that law on any day, so I don't know why they would then.

It is legally required that all businesses in NZ close on New Years Day, except Dairies (we would say convenience stores) and petrol (gas) stations. Lots of people go camping over the night and then have a picnic all day, or just relax with family. January 2nd is a national holiday as well, although businesses can choose to be open if they want. Many small businesses in Whanganui closed around the 20th of December, and won't reopen until between the 6th and 13th of January.

On New Years Day, we slept in, had a nice brunch, and then started in on our annual holiday craft project. This is only our second Christmas/New Years being married and far away from family, so only our second craft project, but so far so good. Last year, we made these wall hangings from nails and thread - one for us, and one for our dear friends Matt and Kathy.

This year, we decided to make finger crochet rugs out of old T-Shirts. J loves to crochet, although he usually does it with a hook. He taught me how, and it was quite fun. We had a movie marathon, watching as we cut endless strips out of the shirts, connected them, and then started in on the rugs. It took us much longer than we thought it would, and our rugs are less than half done, but it was a truly lovely day.

J cutting and tying fabric.

J is working on the one on the left, and me the one on the right. For the record, it looks like mine is much smaller, but it's because I got the stretchier fabric, and we really did about the same amount.

We worked all day, even staying up late working, watching movies (and then TV shows), and talking. It was such a pleasant, relaxing day, and I was pleased at the prospect of getting up and doing it some more on the 2nd. No such luck. I woke up barely able to turn my head to the left at all, and not able to do anything at all without severe neck pain. I assume it was my hunched-over position on the couch, combined with a much more sedentary day than I'm used, to that killed my neck. Pain makes me exhausted, and so I spent a lot of the day just laying around.

In the evening, however, we had a lovely time of dinner and games with Harry and Jonathon, which was a welcome distraction. I went to bed as soon as they left, and after a night with a heating pad on my neck, today is a bit better. I still mostly just had to lay around, and I took a 3-hour nap this afternoon, which I never, ever do. The nap helped quite a lot, and I think I'll be back to normal tomorrow. Which is good, because we're going hiking and then having another game night, both of which will be great!

I'd say that counts as mediocre success on the "keeping it short" front. :)