christmas day: aussie style

'twas the night before christmas
and all around the place
not a creature was stirring
not even a snake

the flip flops were laid by the chimney with care
in hope that saint nicholas soon would be there...

christmas was pretty low key this year. christmas eve was spent in the company of the macphees and elliot and amy. a chilled out dinner on the picnic table and a glass of wine. as we sent the macphees off for bed, the four of us decided to watch a christmas movie. the only one we could find at the movie store was elf. and so it was. (i point out that john and i have elf, but it's canadian zone, so we can't watch it on our computer...)

we woke on christmas morning to beautiful clear skies, and hot hot heat. john and i headed out for a walk to take it all in, while elliot and amy opened their gifts sent from home. after the walk, john and i also opened a few gifts. we then packed up some fruit salad and some other munchies, grabbed our bathers, towels, sunblock and santa hats and headed to the beach to celebrate christmas in true aussie style.

the beach was busy, but not so much that it wasn't enjoyable. we spent the better part of the afternoon lazing around on the beach, splashing about in the water and playing frisbee. we toasted with champers from the eskie and the boys had a few beers as well. some friends of mine, also north american christmas orphans, joined us later in the afternoon to continue with the good times.

john's parents also came to meet us later in the day, though they didn't stay in the sun as long as us. luckily, they were able to drive us all home for dinner. we had a feast of salads and salmon, prawns and crayfish and other such goodies. and of course, the wine was poured out copiously.

to cap off the night, we had a small pingpong tourney in our basement. it was really the only tolerable area to hang out as the house was steamin' hot. i'll point out that the weather on christmas day was 42 degrees celcius... just saying, is all.

overall, our first australian christmas was a fabulous day: good friends, good food, great weather and good times.

xo