First of all, it is HOT! We are smack dab in the middle of summer. I found it hard to get in holiday mode when the temps were soaring. It took quite a while, but about mid-way through the month (after Anna's birthday) I finally found a bit of that good old fashioned Christmas spirit. Honestly, I think it's because we had a few days of overcast and rain that brought the temps down a tad and the Christmas music suddenly felt right to be played.
We only travelled with one box of ornaments and our stockings, so decorating was at a minimum this year. Although I love to decorate for Christmas, a smaller tree being all we had, meant it was quick to put up and quick to take down.
Leading up to Christmas we headed downtown for the Myers Christmas Parade and Pantomime. On our way we stopped by the Myer department store windows where they told the Rob Sutton story of "Russell's Magic Christmas."
We continued on to the Christmas Parade that showcased, not only Santa being pulled by live reindeer,
but Mary, Joseph, and the three wise men....
....camels and all.
Another popular Australian tradition is to attend a "carols by candlelight" evening. Churches hold them all over Brisbane, typically in a park, where carols are sung by (you guessed it) candle light and accompanied by a band. We decided that it sounded like fun, so we joined some friends for an evening of traditional carols we knew, as well as new songs like "Aussie Jingle Bells", which were new to us.
Although some homes are decorated with lights, Brisbane does not seem to showcase inflatable characters or many lawn ornaments. However, there are some homes that go above and beyond when it comes to lights. This house is not far from ours and has thousands of lights synchronized to music, so we went to check it out. The video below is from last year, but I don't think much has changed except for the addition of more lights. The song is "Aussie Jingle Bells."
The video was obviously shot during a test run, because as you can see from my photos that in December it causes a major traffic jam and hundreds of people are standing around to watch.
On Christmas eve we had a lovely lunch at a friend's home on the river where we saw Santa speed by on a jet ski.
I made a traditional Aussie Trifle with jam roll, strawberry jelly (to my US friends, that's Jello), strawberries, and vanilla custard. I was really quite a yummy treat. That was about all the "baking" I did this holiday season. It was a bit sad, but it is also not fair to have all the holiday treats around AND be in the middle of bathing suit season.
Then it was off to church for a beautiful Christmas Eve service, home for Dad to read Twas the Night Before Christmas,
followed by cookies placed near the tree for Santa,
and off to bed.
We had a very enjoyable and relaxed Christmas morning. I'll hit on some of the gift opening highlights.
Anna's favorite subject is science and she received a much requested microscope.
A new and unexpected American Girl Doll was very exciting!
Then it was everything horses....all horse related Lego sets,
horses for the American Girl dolls, and even a family horseback riding trip for the following weekend.
We spent the rest of the day in the pool and grilled out for dinner. We did not have our traditional roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, so that will have to wait for "Christmas in July!"
Our first Christmas "down under" was a good one, and we look forward to an exciting and adventure filled 2013!
