Holiday memories

2012 has finally come to an end, and has ended with a BANG for us! Our surprise-visit from our family in Dubai turned our quiet, plain December into a spectacular bonus we won’t ever forget. About a week before Christmas my brother Leon and his girlfriend, Kerry, arrived unannounced to celebrate Christmas with us. It was the cherry on top! I was missing my Mom very much and many times wished she was with us to enjoy it all, but she is in wintery England, working this Christmas.

I had to laugh many times when we landed up at ‘spots’ we as a family would have avoided this holiday season because of the influx of tourists – crowds, ques, lack of parking and all the busy-ness that goes with tourists just really isn’t our scene. But, we had fun accompanying our ‘tourist-family’ as they explored this beautiful Garden Route we are currently living on. Time and time again conversations came about this being THE best part of South Africa to be in, and I couldn’t agree more! A real bonus was the sunshine that suddenly appeared on the 12^th of December, just days before the locals predicted it would arrive!

Chantelle, in co-hoots with Oupa and Ouma, had organised a holiday-home for us to all stay at together in Great Break, a small coastal village just outside George. There was space for 10 of us to sleep very comfortably, and Dieter, Ethan, Aimee and I even had our own little flatlet under the house. We had a lovely open plan kitchen-cum-dining room where most of the action took place and the beach was only a 5 minute walk away. We definitely had the BEST beach in the area almost all to ourselves! We spent a lot of time at the beach, visiting markets, shopping, eating, laughing, playing and just generally having fun together.

We must have a good few hundred photos of our time together, I’ve chosen just a little of those and created a few collages to share with you of our time together. 

Us Giffords love our food, and every day was a culinary delight! Mike and Chants make a great chef-team and whipped up some wonderful meals for us. Aimee had fun helping make toast one morning and making the meatballs for Christmas Eve dinner! Dieter did his snoek-braai speciality and he and Mike did a few braais for us. No shortage of meat here in SA - and big meat too! Mike and Chants made us some amazing toasted samies on the fire on 2 different mornings, once when we had a 17-hour power failure .... ingenius!

The cousins had great fun together, from playing snooker, to building sand-castles and body-boarding .... to playing Monopoly and having fun in the park! They're a photogenic SIX!

We went fishing at the train bridge in Great Brak one morning .... the kids each had a turn to catch a small 'rock fish' or two, which made the whole trip worth it!

We had Grampa to ourselves for a couple of days and had so much fun exploring Mossel Bay and Great Brak together.

There never was a dull moment! Aimee had both her uncle Mikes building puzzles with her, one of her favourite past times! We played cards, chess, 30 Seconds, Monopoly and lots of pool too!

Leon and Mike Innes played a couple of games of golf together (ag, shame!, ha, ha!) and we played a couple of great games of family cricket! We braaied alot, visited some great markets together, travelled extensively across the Garden Route and just LOVED being together!

Ethan and Aimee had GREAT fun picking strawberries with Chants and Mike and also riding horses at the local Strawberry Farm. Ethan got to ride in the train with one of his homeschooling buddies too, which was very exciting!

Being able to walk down to the beach, sometimes twice a day, was a huge blessing! A jog, braving the wild waves, picnicing and building sandcastles were just some of the fun things we did on the beach together. There was a day we couldn't swim because a shark had been spotted in the shallows, so we had played an amazing game of cricket together - no pics of the cricket because everyone was playing!

We visited Timberlake's Wildwood Tree Adventures the one day and had an AMAZING time doing all sorts of exciting obstacles up in the trees. There was even a 45 minute course for Ethan and Aimee to do - they did almost all the things we older people did, just at a lower height than us. This was so much fun!

Everyone from youngest to oldest took part and we had a ball! It was an exciting challenge to be so high up in the trees and doing some monkey style tricks! The 2 courses we did kept us busy for about 2 and a half hours, and demanded every bit of strength, courage and determination we had! What a lot of fun!!

On Christmas Eve we gathered at Oupa and Ouma's house for some finger snacks and a evening of devotions and singing as we remembered the birth of Jesus. It was our first Christmas in SA in 11 years, so it was good to be with Dieter's family at Christmas. Opening the gifts was a huge highlight, but I think the hugest highlight was the lighting of 2 sky lanterns we'd bought at the Carols by Candlelight held at Fancourt a couple of nights earlier. It really took a team effort to get them into the air! Grampa timed them both and neither stayed lit for longer than 3 minutes, so we're sure they never started any veldfires!!

Leon and Kerry treated us to a gourmet buffet lunch in the Wilderness on Christmas Day. It was a wonderful occasion to get take some special family pics. After about 3 hours overlooking the sea while we ate our delicious meal, we all moved en-mass to Leon and Kerry's house where we relaxed together till late in the night enjoying each other's company!

 

Already, we are missing our family who has all moved on again. Chantelle and family, and Grampa, have all returned to Dubai and are back at work.  (Michael is back in Iraq already!) Leon and Kerry are holidaying in Cape Town over New Years and Mike Aldendorff is visiting family in Pretoria.

This visit became a wonderful, exciting holiday for us marked by fun times together in an area we haven’t yet explored together as a family. We are so blessed, blessed out of our socks! We’re back home again, resting and regaining our strength after many late nights and busy days ….. preparing for the exciting things 2013 has in store for us.

My birthday of surprises

Its been 2 weeks since I turned 40 and so much has happened since then. I didn’t have any real plans of my own for the day, I just wanted to spend it quietly with my little family. The children, especially, were very excited and my plans for a family picnic and a quiet dinner at home were more for their benefit. In my own mind it was going to be just like any other birthday and I didn’t want to make any fuss about it.

The people who love me had other plans – and kept them well hidden from me! Ouma and Walda arranged a lovely surprise breakfast in my honour at my favourite Coffee shop in town. Coffee and More is a rustic little joint and is a great place to relax and ‘kuier’ (visit) over a cuppa or a meal. Ouma, her sister Aunty Betsie and my friend René from Pretoria are the only people who were there that I knew before March this year. The other ladies are all friends I have found in the homeschooling moms I’ve met. It was a very precious breakfast and I was greatly touched by the things each one said to and about me and I was reminded again of how I am blessed! I’ve been so spoiled and don’t take these women for granted!

Walda, Ouma's partner in crime!

With Ouma and her younger sister, Aunty Betsie

Vicky and Yannick

Elizabeth's sister and Sylma

Nettie and Elizabeth

Walda and Melisa

A group pic - awesomeness!

Showing off my beatiful bouquet from my Sis and her family

It was an intensely emotional day for me! In the build up to the day I had been thinking of all the precious friends and family I’d so want to have around me, celebrating with me and was especially sad to be so far from my family. There were lots of tears! I was touched by all their messages and calls very early in the morning, and the beautiful bouquet of flowers my sister and her family sent to the breakfast for me! I was just so sad that they were all so far away!

After a quick cup of tea at home with Dieter and the children we headed off to the library to get a fresh supply of reading material. We were going to the sea for 3 days and going well stocked!  We got home to another surprise when Darryl, an old college friend came out of the lounge carrying a huge bouquet of gorgeous flowers for me. I had no idea he was going to come and see me and was so touched by his thoughtfulness!

After a quick lunch and a short nap we headed out in the mid-afternoon to our beach house destination. We stopped on our way at a house in Great Brak, and quickly all went inside ….. and there, to my great surprise was my Sister, Chantelle, my niece and nephew, my brother in-laws and my father, all the way from Dubai to surprise and celebrate with me! Fresh tears flowed again, how spoiled can a girl be????

2 weeks ago our very flexible plans were hugely interrupted by a series of well-planned surprises!

Chantelle had chosen 40 pictures of my life in progress and had sewn them into a banner with a gorgeous fabric that matches an apron and an album she made me for my birthday! Balloons, banners, decorations galore, this was a party well-planned!

After a short time at the beach we returned back to the house where I spent a good hour opening TONS of beautiful presents, including gifts from special friends and family abroad! It was great fun and I am so spoiled! The album Chantelle and a Debbie spent weeks putting together was a scrapbooked collection of photos and recipes of special friends and family all around the world. Fresh tears flowed as I turned each page – what a very special gift, and what very special people I have in my life!

The only thing I did for my birthday was bake our favourite Beetroot and Chocolate Cake - WONDERFUL to be able to share it with my family.

A coffee table FULL of gifts, a STACK of tissues, a CROWD of beautiful family and decorations GALORE!

The beautiful apron my Sis made for me!

The album Chants and Debs made for me, filled with photos and recipes from very special family and friends all over the world

 

A scrumptious Greek dinner was on the menu for the evening and was absolutely delicious! Ouma and Chantelle have been organising this special surprise for me for many months and I was so touched! It was a very special and one of those precious memory-making moments! I couldn’t have dreamed of having a more special day, celebrating with friends and family who are very special to me, regardless of how long they’ve known me. My cup truly runneth over!

Celebrating in style

All the Gifford cousins together

My beautiful, generous, kind-hearted Sis and her wonderful hubby

Two more cheesecakes to just top it all off - a day of my favourites!

I turn 40!

(I prepared the post to blog on the actual day ... but didn't get it up in time due to internet restrictions. Here it is anyway)

I was born on 11 December 1972 into the Gifford Family. Today I celebrate my 40th Birthday. Nothing's changed too much - I was cute then, am cute now!

In the week preceeding my birthday I was very sad. Here we are in 'deep, dark, Africa' and the people I would really like to have celebrate this special milestone with me are spread ALL over the world. I prepared a collage from all the digital photos I could find of some of those people .... There are many, too numerous to mention and I definitely don't have EVERYONE on these collages!

(I am very fortunate to be spending my birthday with Oupa and Ouma this year, for the first time in about 11 years! And, I have made two handfuls of really special friends since we've moved here!)

(PS:  My birthday did end very differently to what was planned - according to MY knowledge - but I'll do another post on the actual day and what we did)

So here is a sort of tribute to the friends and family I love so much that are spread across the globe:

My beautiful family!

Cyprus friends

Friends from far and wide, new and old

Last football match of 2012

 

Aimee climbing the goalpost .... no nice trees in sight!

Our gorgeous girl!

Field player in the first half, and having a ball!

Ethan goes in for the tackle - love those closed eyes!

What a goalie - what a save! (Wasn't as easy as the pic makes it look!)

I'll get it guys!

Facing the tackle head on

 The photos I have taken are NO WHERE near as good as the photos Di takes at the matches ... have a look on our Facebook page for unblurry, stunning close-up action shots of Ethan and Ryan ... and Jed in action!

Photos in the Garden

I love photos! Particularly photos of people. And I often try to capture the normal every day moments of our lives for us to keep. Yesterday was a perfect opportunity!

After a morning math and counting and writing and reading and cleaning we were quite ravenous when lunch time arrived. It has also been a tad cooler with the continual light rain we’ve been having and a nice warm lunch of beans on toast hit the spot perfectly!

Dieter and I were preparing for stock deliveries of playdough and chalk later in the afternoon when Annelie texted to say she was going to the Botanical Gardens with her 3 little boys and would love us to join them. I love spontaneity! It didn’t take long for us to restructure our plans and get everyone in the car. On the way to the Botanical Gardens we dropped Ryan and Jed off at the library to get some new books (Jed even managed to read 2 thinner books too while they were there!)

Dieter dropped Ethan, Aimee and I off at the Gardens before heading off to visit various nursery schools and toy shops in town. We had about an hour and half to spend with Annelie and her boys before we had to head across town to Ryan and Ethan’s 4 o’clock football practice. I am so grateful it didn’t rain at that time and we could all be outdoors! We arrived at the Gardens first and so Ethan, Aimee and I walked clockwise around the small dam there and I quickly took my camera out to capture them in action – and they loved it!

Oh this is fun!

He, he ... silly, silly!

Little eyes taking EVERYTHING in as we look for mice, birds, flowers

Beauties!

"one of me by myself, please Mom!'

Watching the girls and their Dad feed bread to the HUGE fish

I didn’t realise Annelie had baked a batch of delicious choc-chip muffins – that was just the cherry on top of a really love time together, her and I talking non-stop (well, almost! It’s a bit hard to do when you have small children in your care!) and the children running all over the open grass areas and climbing trees together. It was lovely to see them again after so long and to be able to chat freely!

When we got to football practice I managed to convince Dieter to hang around for the hour rather than head home. That was great because we got to spend time with other friends waiting for their children.

So often, people are anti-homeschooling because of the idea that homeschooled children don’t get enough socialisation. Nobody ever stops to consider the parents! I love the socialisation that happened in my day yesterday and it did a lot to fill up my emotional tank! And I know that our children all had great fun too!

Kiddie Gourmet update

Its just over 3 months since we started selling our baby food at the George Agricultural Show and a lot has happened since then. Each week we’re getting new orders from people who are so chuffed to hear about what we’re doing, and customers who are coming back for more – which is a good sign. People are excited about the variety of meals we have on offer and keen to try them. The feedback we’re getting is encouraging.

Our partnership with Farmfresh Direct has also been good, and each week we get orders which they then deliver along the Garden Route. Again, the positive feedback is very encouraging!  We’ve just had our first price increase, something we tried to put off for as long as possible! Just after the Show the cost of veggies, petrol, gas, etc began to rise and has just escalated over the months, unfortunately! It doesn’t seem to have affected us negatively, yeah!

The truth is that for us to sell enough for us to draw a salary from, we need to have a physical selling point. We need to open a store or get a stall at the local weekly Farmer’s Market. The Farmer’s Market turned us down when we first approached them, and we were just about to approach them to reconsider when we got a call inviting us to be part of a Food Market that has started in Mossel Bay.  The PrinceVintcent Archway Food Market is unique in that sells only food and that is perfect for us. Its open from 4-8pm on Friday evenings in Mossel Bay which is a good 45minutes drive from us. In the next week or two the holiday makers will be arriving from up-country and we think it will be a good place to sell our baby food. We are still very keen to retry the local Farmer’s Market and ask them to reconsider our application to have a stall there and will do that soon!

Some other interesting things have happened in the interim. A couple of months back we started making playdough, something we don’t see available in South African stores. The response has been incredible and we’re currently negotiating to sell the playdough nationwide through an art franchise and to pre-schools in other provinces. We’ve stocked the local toy shops and the response has been great! We’ve add the playdough and pavement chalk that we’ve started making to an online craft store that sells handmade goods. 

A fresh batch of playdough in a lovely variety of colours

The pavement chalk we’ve started with is a chunky stick the size and shape of a toilet-roll, perfect for little hands. We made Aimee a set for her birthday and one thing led to another – before we knew it, we were selling it, and again the response has been great! We’ve just sent a box of playdough and chalk to Gauteng where it will be sold at a Christmas market next weekend …. I’m looking forward to the feedback we’ll get. We’ve been wanting to package some chalk sticks in a bucket (like we could buy in Europe), again there is nothing like that on the South African market. It took us ages to find a bucket that would work for us, but when we did we decided to wait until finances were in place to buy the buckets.

 

One of the things we’ve made to use in our baby food recipes is Coconut Milk. We decided to try making a lactose-free ice-cream using the coconut milk after lots of research and recipe-collecting! It took us months to find an ice-cream machine that has a built in compressor that was suitable for home use. (Most machines available for home use are just stirrers, they don’t actually freeze the ice-cream, the bowl must be pre-frozen) We did eventually find one and purchased it about a month ago. We’ve tried a good half a dozen different combinations, trying to make the ice-cream lactose-, sugar-, gluten-free but have been met with failure almost every time! I gained a lot of respect for Thomas Edison doing so! We’ve only done half or dozen or so tries and I’ve got to work really hard not to get discouraged!

When the opportunity to sell our baby food at the Food Market in Mossel Bay arose we decided to make some frozen yoghurt to sell there and try and make buying the ice-cream machine worth our investment. So far, so good! The flavours we’ve made so far include vanilla, strawberry, blueberry, peach, chocolate, almond & honey and we sell it in 125ml tubs. And, once again, the response has been great! 

This week another home-schooling friend ordered 50 tubs of frozen yoghurt for her daughter’s birthday party and they were a great hit! Another mom decided there and then that she wants some for the 2 birthday parties she has coming shortly and others are wanting to order for Christmas. Last night one of the other stall holders at the market mentioned to Dieter that he is considering stocking our frozen yoghurt in his store over the holiday period and will contact Dieter to discuss the issue. I have no doubt we’ll be able to make the ice-cream machine worth our investment this summer!

Yesterday Dieter visited numerous nursery schools in town to advertise our playdough and chalk and in the process we were invited to various displays and events that are happening soon. The biggest surprise  was when one school told Dieter that they’ve decided to stop making meals themselves and asked if we are interested in making individual little meals for the children to eat for their lunchtime meal. What an interesting proposition. So, once again, we’re contemplating something new which does compliment what we’re already doing with the baby food.

There never is a dull moment, and we have a very clear sense that God is leading us every step of the way …. As I’ve said before …. Watch this space!