Hello and Happy New Year!
It is New Year's Eve here already and I have a few moments to catch up on some blogging. We had our first Christmas in Australia this year and it was great. It is hard to be away from family during the holidays but we have some great friends who helped fill up our holiday with fun and comraderie. Thank goodness for friends, they are truly a blessing in our lives!
Like I have said before...Aussies take their holidays seriously! In the US, since Christmas fell on a Sunday, it means that many people did not really get a holiday and may have been back at work on Monday...well, not here. Christmas and Boxing Day (the day after) are both national holidays and since one fell on a weekend, Christmas was recognized as a holiday on Monday and Boxing Day on Tuesday so most people had a 4 day weekend.
Christmas Eve in the US always seemed to me like it was when most people started their Christmas celebrations. Here, stores are open normal hours on Christmas Eve, I've been told it is after the British tradition of waiting until Christmas Eve to buy presents. We were driving home at 6pm on Christmas Eve and plenty of places were still open. In the US, they would have closed at noon if they had opened at all. Since Boxing Day is a holiday here, the big sales did not start until Tuesday here.
We started our festivities with some friends for Christmas Eve lunch. Here is Kiri's lovely table. While the final preparations for lunch were being made, she had out appetizers for people to nibble on. We had crustini with Boccocini cheese, basil, and sun dried tomatoes, dips and crackers, and a little icing covered cookie that has some name like kufrfrernoodle or something. Kiri will have to post the actual name in the comments section because I have no idea what they were called. I am assuming they were German?
For dessert...which I did not get a picture of, we had traditional European fare...Christmas pudding (British), mince pie (British), and panatone (Italian). I should have gotten pictures! Sorry!
So, pictured below...left to right is...punch or cordial, the cookie thing, a rosemary and olive wreath (which was just for decoration and Kiri kept telling us this...I guess she was afraid we would pick up a piece of Rosemary and gnaw on it!), and the crustinis made by Abbey.
Here is the lovely table...notice each place has a round silver and white thing? These are very popular here, they are called crackers and you pull them apart and they pop and there is a joke (lame joke), a crown (all colors) and a prize in each one.
Here is one that has been pulled and he is wearing his crown and showing you he got a little pen as his prize. To demonstrate the lame joke...here is one of them..."What do you call a horse in his pyjamas (pajamas)? A zebra."
I admit it is not funny...I'm not even sure it makes sense! Oh well! Aussie humor, maybe?
Remember it is summer here...and most houses do not have a/c...so it was warm! This is demonstrated here by my dewey countenance...okay, let's just call it sweaty!
This is Christmas morning...it is good to know that the Tonka truck is alive and well here in Australia...Santa delivered one!
And one of my gifts was a new fascinator...here is a picture of it...it is gorgeous but I haven't quite figured out the best way to wear it yet. After opening presents, we headed up to church because I was playing the piano prelude and also singing in the choir.
For Christmas linner...that is the meal that comes mid afternoon between lunch and dinner...we had over a group of 6 missionaries from our church. These 6 young men are all actually in our ward...we have 6 full time missionaries in our ward...and they are always busy!
Starting bottom left...Elder Chen (from China), Elder Gao (China), Elder Stafford (Brisbane, Australia), Elder Henare (New Zealand), Elder Mok (Alabama, USA), and Elder Lambertson (California, USA).
We had a fajita feast and it was really great! The non-Americans were a little leery of them at first but once we explained everything, they dug in! (Except for Elder Gao, he has had fajitas with us before so he is a Chinese fajita eating pro!) For dessert we had Texas Sheet Cake and Sticky Date pudding. Sticky Date Pudding is a favorite among Aussies and it is really more of a cake than a pudding, at least in American terms. It was a 9 inch round cake with a sauce you put on it. Aussies love their puddings!
I spent a lot of time on the computer skyping with my family. We actually have still not had Christmas with them, we are having it tomorrow because of a bought with the stomach flu of my sister's family...so Christmas will officially end with us tomorrow morning as I skype with them as they open presents and celebrate!
Christmas away from family can be hard but we had many friends who made us feel special and spent time with us so it was a fulfilling and happy holiday. I am so grateful for the friends we have made here, I cannot imagine how much harder this adventure would be without them!
Happy New Year!
Heather
