ah, christmas in the southern hemisphere... doesn't really feel like christmas! (a note here to my aussie friends glenn and nikki - welcoming us into your home and surrounding us with your family made christmas christmas. thank you.) don't get me wrong, they know how to celebrate down here. i mean, the christmas pageant, if you recall from a past blog, was in november - mid-november. so they start early and go all out. the city and surrounding townships decorate, replete with flags reading, "happy holidays from (insert name of town)", the light posts are all hung with the usual christmas culprits - deer, stars, bells, and, of course, snowflakes (because there is so much snow here). santa still wears his incredibly warm red suit - boots, beard, hat and all - despite it being (and herein lies the catch) FORTY DEGREES CELSIUS!! families hang lights - the icicle kind - and wreaths and decorate their windows with fake frost. it's there, the effort, the energy, the festivity is all there. but as my friend jessica pointed out, nothing needs decorating. in the bleak grey and white landscape of the northern hemisphere, crowded by long dark nights and short cold days, brightly colored lights and flashes of green, silver and red dress up an otherwise drab picture. here, the foliage is out - trees are green and flowering, grass is growing, people are walking around in floral print shirts and colorful dresses with beers or bits of seafood in their hands... it's bright and beautiful already. barbecues run rampant - but oddly, the company christmas party is not a big hit. rather, that involves the employees knocking off work around lunchtime and drinking and bar-hopping until the wee hours of the morning. this is a land where it is safe to pass out on the sidewalk during the holidays - you will not get frostbite.
but, as usual, i digress! our festivities started off with nova's school party:
who doesn't love getting dressed up for the holidays? (this dress was actually worn by both lauren and me as young'uns) check out those sleeves!
it's hard to believe, but the teachers actually (loosely) organized these kids into a choir (nova preferred to watch rather than perform) and they sang christmas carols!! well, the older kids did. the youngers either cried and ran or just stood there in silent shock. note the protective christmas thongs (they are called thongs here, not flip flops. no word on what we should call the underwear...) mom, i think my bow-tying skills are lacking...
the finished product with a local rose (can't find the accent key) wine to round it out. it was very good.
chowing down on the food and treats the kids made in the week running up to the part (parents supplemented). parents can be so strange in this setting. it's like they think you might be infectious if you start talking to them. trying to engage with parents at a school function is like shouting at the camels at the zoo (because camels can give you a really weird look). they may turn and look at you like your crazy then mumble something and move away or they'll just continue eating... or both. crazy camels!
actually, the school party was very cute and it is fun to watch all the kids interact (which you can do a lot of since you're not interacting with the parents). i am so impressed with the teachers!
on christmas eve, we went across the street to our neighbor's - jo and art - house for a bbq. afterwards, we opened a few christmas eve presents before putting nova down - "before santa comes". mom - i hope you've noticed all the christmas dresses i tried to work in! she got a dolly from grandma gardner that was an instant favorite. for grandparents and aunts and uncles, i will send videos of christmas eve and christmas morning - but the rest of you do not have to gag through that. unfortunately, though, all the decorations were only recorded via video, so you just have to take my word that i did decorate. however, one major decoration worth mention was constructed TWICE - with much love - from gran-elf whitehurst. it is a large felt christmas tree advent calendar (with 26 boxes - one for boxing day, right mom?). for those of you who don't know what an advent calendar is, never mind (or you can wiki it), but it is an heirloom piece - very special. thank you, mom.
oh, on to christmas morning. payton and i had said that everything was wonderful, but it just didn't feel like christmas. but when nova walked into the living room in her pajamas with her bed head hair all frizzed and her sleepy (slightly bewildered) grin turned into excitement as she flitted amongst santa's loot... well, that felt like christmas. only this time - we weren't the kids!!! we're on the other side of door now...
we were invited back to jo and art's for a christmas morning coffee - i will say, jo and art, glenn and nikki were so sweet and conscientious about us being far from home and without family over the christmas holidays, and they repeatedly welcomed us into their homes and events. it made this a very special holiday. anyway, after coffee and much skyping with family, we got down to business:
driving the christmas dump truck.
and making pie crust for our christmas sour cream peach pie. nova is SO helpful in the kitchen!
so, just to show how spoiled payton and i are: we thought that since this was a small family celebration, no one to impress, dinner to cook only for three, that surely we would get time to exercise and relax. turns out when you don't have six lund (payton's extended family) women - aunts/mothers/grandma - that push the kids out the door to go skiing or a hall woman (my extended family) - mom and aunts - who manage to do a lot of pre-cooking and delegating - to do all the work... well, you end up cooking all day - even if it's only for 2 1/2 people. so no exercise, but we had a feast. we'd gone on a big grocery shopping trip to get supplies for the weekend and our big meal (things kind of shut down around here over the holidays) and payton had an epiphany at the fish stall. our christmas dinner consisted of a prawn appetizer, lobster done on the barby, bbq'd yams (a nod to our traditional christmas feasts), and a fresh walnut/craisin/feta/leafy green salad. and sour cream peach pie for dessert. so good! sorry krista and mike - we considered pavlova for the authenticity, but we like pie better!
payton dishing up dinner on our patio table. notice how much we all dressed up. actually payton is wearing his crows jersey (or singlet - all dudes wear singlets around here) and akubra hat. he only would have looked more authentically australian if he had on short shorts.
the finished product with a local rose (can't find the accent key) wine to round it out. it was very good.
the 26th of december is boxing day (though no one seems to know what that means or what it celebrates/represents/symbolizes). nikki and glenn harrington invited us to their home to celebrate with their families. the served up this incredible sit-down dinner for 14 on their back patio. ever the most gracious hosts with great families, it was nice to be with glenn and nikki, surrounded by the ruckus of 14 family members, including the kids - nova, zara and leila.
the decked-out table. nikki's sister sally is in the background.
payton wishes he caught this fish. so does glenn. in fact, it is a fresh - and huge - barramundi from up north. this was, hands down, the best fish i've ever had (ok, fresh salmon is just in a different class). but the whole dinner was great. "pudding" (not like jell-o pudding that we're all used to, but more like a cake in a sauce... like rum cake. didn't margaret make a mean rum cake?) is a traditional aussie christmas dessert. very tasty.
glenn dancing with nova and zara. very cute! the proof that nova doesn't just wander around in colorful diapers is in the above pictures.
all in all, this was a great christmas - and one to be remembered! we wish we could have shared the experience with all of our family and friends - but i guess someone has to have the real white christmas... we hope everyone had a very merry christmas season.
love
lindsey, payton and nova
Thinking of you!
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