Christmas in Australia

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Christmas Eve-Eve (Wednesday)

I went to my friends house for a BBQ on wednesday. We were having a pre-christmas celebration as a final get together before everyone went their seperate ways to celebrate the big day. The weather was a crazy 42 degrees so we set up camp in the garden - with a large table and plenty of chairs surrounding it. Everyone bought something to eat and drink - we ended up being 15 people or so sitting in the back garden. It mostly consisted of friends I had made whilst waitressing at the wedding a couple of weeks ago and they all brought along more friends or partners etc. Everyone was really friendly - both the conversation and alcohol flowed! The guys all crowded round the BBQ in the great aussie tradition - drinking chilled beers and talking about the boxing day test cricket. They're all very keen to watch the Australia Vs Pakistan match. We all sat around the table in the garden and dug into the beautiful feast that everyone had helped with in one way or another. The fish was a grilled Red Snapper and as you can see it's huge! One of my friends made the most amazing salads to go with the fish/burgers/seafood that we'd all brought along. We had zuchinni (courgette!) and artichoke, pumpkin, rocket & pine nuts and some salami type thing too. Pretty tasty. The prawns were lush and I also had some marinated steak that we'd taken too. I was very glad to have a range of delicious dishes to soak up some of the home-made sangria. It was delicious but pretty strong! There was also some homemade fruit punch type stuff - it mostly seemed to be vodka and fruit juice, but it still went down pretty well. Some of the people who went had arranged a 'secret santa' type thing between themselves. It was lovely to see the six of them exhanging gifts - they are all such good friends and know each other inside out. It did give me some feelings of longing to be back in the UK with people who I know inside out. I did have a pretty good evening. We stayed up chatting for a pretty long time; considering how much we'd all had to drink! I ended up staying over with my friend. We fell pretty much asleep straight away and then had to get up pretty early for her to drive back home in time for Christmas Eve.

Christmas Eve (Thursday)

Was feeling pretty average when I woke up on thursday morning. My friend dropped me back to my digs so I could shower and get changed before heading back into town to run some errands before Christmas Day. After a few hours of running around, doing various bits and pieces, I headed back and went back to bed for a couple of hours. I finally awoke and got on with wrapping the last few presents, generally tidying up and getting ready for the big day! I spent Christmas Eve at home; not wanting to go out on the town as is the tradition here. Still far too hungover to see another alcoholic drink! I watched the Christmas Carols on tv - it's held over in Sydney. Pretty cool to finally have something that reminded me of a proper Christmas at home. Some of the carols were 'jazzed up' and were decidedly unchristmassy. They also sang 'Amazing Grace' which I'm pretty sure is an old cotton plantation song or popular at funerals! They also performed the John Lennon christmas song - I wasn't particularly keen on that version! I didn't catch the whole of the show - I must have missed them do the 'Silent Night', 'Away in a Manger' and 'Oh come all ye faithful'. Would have been nice to hear them though! I decided to stay up until after midnight and see in Christmas Day. Everyone else went to be, so I ended up wishing people a 'merry christmas' on facebook. I also spent some time catching up with friends and looking through the snowy pictures that everyone had posted. I can't believe we've had a white christmas and I'm not there to witness it. I can't remember the last time we had actual snow ON Christmas Day! I ended up trying to fall asleep around 1:30am - otherwise santa would not be coming to visit!

Christmas Day (Friday)

Today was the big day. Christmas had finally arrived! I woke up this morning to a discussion taking place about whether or not it was time to light the 'webber'. This happens to be a round BBQ type thing with a lid. Imagine if you will, my amusement at finding that the turkey for christmas dinner was going to be barbequed! How bizarre. Only in Australia, eh?! Once the turkey and pork were on the BBQ, we went inside and had some breakfast. I went back to bed after this for an hour or so as I was pretty sleepy from having stayed up the night before. I woke up, showered and dressed just in time as my friend arrived. We peeled and chopped the veggies for christmas dinner and put them in various pots/pans or the oven. Then it was time to take photos and open presents! We all exchanged gifts and I got some pretty cool things! It was almost like being back at home. They put together a stocking for me; chocked full of little treats! I got some nail varnish, some smellies, some underwear, pj's, chocolates, a book voucher, a plug adaptor (I forgot to bring one with me, duh!) and long white maxi-dress. As I have said before, Aussies are very generous, lovely and welcoming. After exchanging presents, it was time to top up the champagne and go outside to eat our christmas dinner starter (prawn cocktails). Pretty surreal to be able to eat outside on Christmas day! We sat down to lunch around 1:30pm and it was delicious! We had BBQ's turkey, pork, roast potatoes/parsnips/pumpkin and a variety of other vegetables. It was a pretty fair effort considering that the weather was so hot and a hot meal is pretty strange. Some things that were missing from my usual dinner at home were the 'pigs in blankets' and bread sauce. I've tried to explain the concept of Bread Sauce to pretty much every Aussie I've come across but to no avail. They curl their noses and make a gagging sound. This coming from the country that puts beatroot with steak, eggs, cheese & bacon and calls it a burger or has pie floaters (a pie floating in cold pea soup with ketchup). How uncivilized! It was a beautiful meal though, regardless of the lack of bread sauce! We followed it off by having plum pudding with brandy custard and icecream (strange, but tasty)! After loading all the dishes into the dishwasher; it was time to refill the wine glasses and mosey on outside into the sunshine for more drinking and chatting. Pretty lazy way to spend the afternoon but it was perfect. I sat back and imagined what Christmas would be like back home. I could imagine what it would be like in my mum's house when everyone woke up early (probably due to my niece and nephew) and hauled downstairs to rummage for presents under the tree. The over-excited toddler who wants to open everything. The cat eagerly trying to climb into the oven after the turkey. The mountains of presents and toys for the kids and hopefully grownups! Being in Australia for Christmas was completely different to how I usually spend Christmas - but not in a bad way. I have had a lovely time over here - my friends family has been awesome to me and I can't thank them enough for how welcome they've made me feel. I am feeling sad that I've missed my nephew's first Christmas, but I know that there will be many more I'll share with him. I have also missed my niece playing in the snow too. I can just imagine how excited she'd have been. I just want to wish everyone a very merry christmas and I hope you all got everything you wanted!

Katie

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