Summer Break in December & Leaving post early

  For the past couple of weeks I have been trying to get into the Christmas spirit. I have two kids who love Christmas and I always try to adhere to family traditions and make it special for them. Admittedly, I always look to my mother in law to really keep the traditions going but since she's not here it is up to me. So I will keep all but one of the family's Holiday traditions. No cake!
  One good thing about being so far away from the Scottish side of the family is that I don't have to serve Christmas Cake. I'm not exactly sure what it is made out of, we've never actually eaten it but it resembles fruit cake. After dinner we drench it in brandy and light it on fire then oh and ah over it and pretend to be excited about eating it. So, even though we will have Adrian's brother and partner over for the Holidays, I am putting my foot down and not serving cake.
  It is funny though to decorate the Christmas tree while singing carols that include snow, roasting chestnuts, sledding, etc. We were all sweating by the time our tree was done.
  It is also summer break for the boys. They don't go back to school until February! We have plenty of adventures planned for after the holidays but none of them involve sledding, skiing or building snow men. So, while most of our family will be keeping warm by their fires back in the USA, we will be on a gorgeous beach enjoying our last summer break in New Zealand.
  We are beginning to realize that our time here is coming to an end and while we are looking forward to going back to the USA for a bit, the boys seem almost sad to leave here. We've had a few (5) earthquakes this past week, one sent me running from the Embassy while another sent all of us running from the house resulting in  Adrian and I having a serious conversation about the boys and I possibly leaving early. When I asked the boys how they felt about that they looked at me in horror. They didn't want to leave early, they really like it here and don't share our fears of earthquakes (another reason to be grateful that they weren't in Christchurch with us during last Spring's deadly quake). So, basically it is up to me to try to decide if we ( I ) can be brave enough to finish the whole tour. No pressure.