Mer’dith in her possum hat

Ha! I love this picture! Meredith bought this hat our first day in New Zealand. She was fresh from the heat of the Iraqi desert, and NZ in September is COLD. We were wandering in and out of the shops of Christchurch, and the poor girl was freezing her heinie off. We saw these hats in almost every shop, and after she finally popped one on her head, the look of abject misery disappeared from her face. You're sitting there thinking, "possum fur??? What the????" Well, the people of NZ HATE possums. Their possums aren't like our possums, which look like crazed, cartoon characters. Theirs are kind of cute. They are also kind of destroying native plants and birds though, so they make every effort to get rid of them. As their fur is super-soft and warm, they blend them with sheep's wool (also LOTS of sheep in NZ!) and make beautiful, warm softies with them. Someday, I will tell you about the "possum plucker" we learned about.

Meredith has been in this hat almost her entire time in northeastern Ohio. It's MUCH colder here now than it was in NZ when she first wore the hat. In her secret heart, she can't wait to get her butt back to Hawaii. We all know it.