Sunday, December 29th, 2013
Well, this is my 50th blog post! I know I haven't been doing posts as frequently lately. Things have just been busy! Maybe in the new year I can post more often. |
| Santa at the Embassy Christmas party. In case you couldn't tell, Chaney wasn't into Santa AT ALL. You will see Santa is holding Charlie's list. He couldn't go because he was sick. This is in the Ambassador's residence on the grounds of the U.S. Embassy. |
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| Our Elf Louie continues to hide each day. He usually sticks around until mid January. Here he decorated a picture grouping on the wall. As a side note, we can't put holes in the walls so everything (except the iron scroll) is hanging with the 3M Command strips. I've used them everywhere. The iron scroll is attached to a hook that we did not install. It had been done by the previous renters. |
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| Last Day of Kindergarten! (*tear*) After school we had a "School's Out" party. We had fun snacks, lemonade (Sprite), and turned the sprinkler on under the trampoline. Lots of fun! I now have first graders living in our house. Or as the Aussies would say, I now have kids in year one living in our house. |
Santa at the Mall
We took the kids to the mall to meet Santa. Charlie walked right up to Santa and went over his list. Chaney hung in the back. After a while Chaney made her way over to be in a picture. But she didn't want to talk to him and she never got too close. But we got a picture!I was really caught off guard when Santa had an Australian accent. I shouldn't have been surprised. I mean DUH! But I was.
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| Charlie shares his extensive list with Santa. He is pointing out how stickers mark his top favorite toys. |
Australian Love
We've been lucky enough to meet some great people since we've been here. Three different Australian families invited us into their homes this holiday. Christmas Eve we went to a neighbors. Christmas Day we went to another neighbors. And on Boxing Day we went to a house of a girl from the kids' kindergarten class.Christmas Eve
We enjoyed our Christmas Eve evening at our friend's house. They live around the corner and down the street. Our other good friends and neighbors, the Flemings, were also there. And in true Aussie style, we had sausages and chicken skewers from the barbie for dinner. |
| Striking a pose while grazing at the food table. |
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| Chaney and her friend, H. (I'm not going to use her whole name.) |
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| We left cookies for Santa. We of course left Aussie hundreds and thousands cookies (cookies with sprinkles), Timtams, and oreo truffle balls. |
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| Our tree on Christmas Eve night. |
On Christmas Eve I also got my Christmas gift. I got a new lens for my camera. For those of you that know about cameras, I got the Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM lens. Bottom line is that this is the lens that will stay on my camera most of the time. It allows me to take pictures without flash in lower light. I love it!
Christmas Day
Let the madness begin! |
| Gifts from Santa. Chaney received a FurReal Friend. Its a cat named Daisy that meows and snuggles, etc. Ever since we lived in the hotel apartment when we first arrived, Charlie has wanted a safe like the one the hotel room had. It was important that the safe have a punch keypad. But Santa was also smart and made sure it could also could be opened with the "mommy back-up key." That Santa sure is a smart one. |
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| We continued our tradition of having pancakes after we open our gifts. |
Later on Christmas Day, we went over to our neighbor's house and joined their extended family for a traditional cold meat Christmas meal. It's too hot to cook inside. So in Australia they have cold cuts or something from the barbie on Christmas day.
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| Chaney and H enjoying dessert. Jelly (Jell-O) and ice cream. Yes, Jell-O and ice cream. The Aussies couldn't believe that we hadn't heard or tried this before. Go scoop you up some ice cream and put some Jell-O on the side. Let me know how you like it. (And H isn't unhappy, she is chewing her Jell-O and ice cream.) |
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| Our neighbor's visiting relative gave tips to Charlie on the game of cricket and how to hold the bat. This is a good thing since we are clueless about the game and can't help him one little bit. |
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| Our neighbors skyping with their sister-in-law who is visiting in the U.S. (You might notice the destroyed gingerbread house on the table. Renee let the kids destroy and nibble on the gingerbread house they put together.) |
Boxing Day
For those of you that don't know, Boxing Day is the day after Christmas. In Australia, Boxing Day is a day of big sales. Similar, but in no way comparable, is Black Friday in the U.S. I think the U.S. needs another holiday!! |
| Doesn't this look delicious! It was! This is Pavlova, a traditional Aussie dessert. Our friends who we spent Boxing Day with made this. We also had traditional lamb and sausages from the barbie. (My autocorrect keeps wanting to capitalize the word barbie.) |
Holiday
In Australia, they use the word holiday like we use the word vacation or break. For example, someone in the U.S. might ask you, "What are your plans over the holiday break?" In Australia they would ask, "What are your plans over holiday?" Now, in this great land I live in, the whole entire country takes holiday at the same time. The same time. The holiday over the Christmas and New Year's season is the same for everyone. Schools all over the continent break at the same time (give or take a week or two) for the summer. I'm still figuring this out, but from what I figure, most service providers take holiday and completely shut down for two to three weeks. So, for example, the kids speech therapy clinic closed down the week before Christmas and won't open again until the second week of January. Same goes for my hair dresser, the car repair place, and any tradie (the Aussie word for tradesman). Hope you don't need to get a leaky toilet fixed over the next three weeks! Everyone is on vacation at the same time. (Grocery stores and malls are still open.) This is totally natural and expected. I find it a bit unsettling that if I had a hair emergency, I couldn't ring and get a booking to get it taken care of. (Like how I used the Aussie words "ring" and "booking"? I'm starting to get the hang of this!)In Canberra, the only big city not located near the coast, Canberrans are known for heading to "The Coast." This specifically refers to the coast in New South Wales, the state that the ACT (Australian Capital Territory) is located in. If you want to go to "The Coast" you need to make a booking 6-8 months ahead of time. Everything fills up at crazy prices with week long minimum stays.
And by the way, they say "Happy Christmas" here. It sounds off to me. Go ahead and try to say it. It's kinda like saying "Merry New Year." Also, they frequently call Santa "Father Christmas." Okey dokey.
A final note...
Wow. This has been one long blog post! We hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas holiday. I miss everyone, friends and family, very much. I am not going to proof read or reread my blog post tonight. I always do that! But it is 1:30 in the morning and this has taken me much longer than I thought it would. So forgive any typos, etc.So, Merry (belated) Christmas to all, and to all a good night!
