A Couple of Tra La Las

Christmas in Oz

Sorrrrrry for not updating in so long! The Christmas season is a busy time and even though I am away from family and normal life, I still have been run off my feet this Christmas.

From the beginning,

I worked the 23rd and 24th at the bar, which was fine because some of the people at the bar have sort of become part of my family anyway. I did think about the family dinner my real family was going to sit down for on Christmas Eve and it made me a bit sad but I know they are all thinking of me and that I´d be there in spirit.

Christmas Eve: I spent the entire morning baking cookies for everyone for Christmas. I was invited to a party on Christmas Day so I was also making cookies for them. I ended up going a bit overboard with 5 dozen cookies… its the 30th and we still haven´t finished them! I made sugar cookies in the shape of stars, peanut butter blossoms (with the hershey kiss) and no bake oatmeal cookies, which are essentially my childhood wrapped up in a cookie. Trying to find cookie cutters here is like trying to find two matching socks in Brie´s sock drawer… IMPOSSIBLE! I was excited to bake santas and reindeer and candy cane shaped cookies but I was sorely disappointed when I could only find stars. As if stars are the only thing that they could think of to represent Christmas. I think that I´ve realized I like Christmas a lot more than I thought I did. I guess I just didn´t appreciate access to all things Christmas until it was no longer available.

After baking all day, I went to get a drink before work with Julie and our friend Oceane. We stopped by St Marys Cathedral where they were having a little Christmas festival of sorts and its also where the above pictures were taken. I was already at work when they put on this light show but they are actually projecting all of these pictures straight onto the front of the Church. I think its pretty common here to do that because I´ve seen it done on the Opera House and also the Town Hall.

Christmas Day: I went to our friend Jane´s house for a Christmas lunch and a gift exchange. I “picked” a name out of a hat and got this guy who I had never met. Jane´s mom is an awesome lady and part of what they do and how they live is that they house foreign exchange students. At the moment they have 2, one guy from Russia and the other from Korea. I had Daniel for our secret santa (which they just call “Kris Kringle” here) and I got him a beach towel of the Australian flag and some other random funny things. He looked like he really loved it, which was exciting :) He got me this beauuuutiful fan. Its a funny thing, buying presents for someone you don´t know. In many ways it was easier than buying a present for someone you do know! We ate and drank way too much but laughed a lot and for a second, it did sort of feel like I was with family.