Editor’s letter

NZ LIFE & LEISURE readers need little encouragement to celebrate. Setting a dinner table, popping corks and gathering friends and family comes naturally to us. And if any year provides cause for jolly partying, this is it.

For all that I am eager to bid farewell to pandemic pauses and potty politicians, I am giving thanks for the lessons learned. Being free to move and meet each other at will is not nothing. Being confident that whomever won our election will govern honourably is not nothing. Knowing my neighbours and my community trust science and dismiss conspiracy is not nothing.

Our farmers, fishers and horticulturists are shipping fine food to the rest of the world and earning much-needed money for us all. This is something. Our nation beat back the virus once, then again, and we have a strong will to do so again when required. This is something. Your support of NZ Life & Leisure during the dark winter days when other magazines were closed — and we were unable to print and locked out of supermarkets — was something too. Thank you.

I’m joyously planning my family Christmas celebrations like none before. Ruth Pretty has come up with a cracker of a Christmas menu; the traditional turkey, oh yes. And a jelly-tip rolled pavlova that I can’t wait to make. Traditions matter now. (See page 102.)

I will have my mokopuna with me this year, and at two years old, she’ll love that jelly-tip pav and will probably be more interested in unwrapping presents than finding out what’s inside. By mutual agreement, there are to be few presents this year; it is all about presence instead — what a relief.

However, I do have a list of things, noted throughout the year, that the people in my life need. No big-ticket items — one household needs a good lemon squeezer. Every day, I think warmly of my son Charlie as I wield the Opinel knife he gave to me many years ago. I think the same of my sister Rosemarie when I whirl the enormous salad spinner she found for me, and my dear friend Frances when I wear the special shirt she gifted. Each of them showed that I was important to them, not for the value of the present, but that it fit my need exactly. Sometimes just being with each other serves the same function.

Wishing you and your families much joy from all of us at NZ Life & Leisure.

There are to be few presents this year; it’s about presence instead — what a relief

It’s not often that I see a hat resembling a hamburger, or one looking like a teacup and saucer. It was such fun to meet Christine Smith (page 82) and learn about her collection of wearables.