As I reported recently, Christmas in Australia is pretty similar to at home (Christmas trees, lights on homes, etc), except that it occurs in the opposing season. There does seem to be fewer homes here that are decorated with Christmas lights, but John's family home celebrates in style with several strands of colorful and flashing solar-powered Christmas lights. In Colorado we may be able to get away with this, because we get a lot of sunshine, but in other parts of the USA winter cloudiness may prevent them from working so well. Here along the Sunshine Coast, it seems to work out great. However, this year on December 23-24 it was cloudy and rainy all day! The forecast called for the rain to continue onto Christmas day, so I was starting to worry our lights wouldn't work for the holiday! Thus, when I awoke on Christmas morning and saw the sun shining into my bedroom, I was even more thrilled!
Louise and Sarah were up first, anxiously waiting on Evan to get up so they could play cute musical Christmas toys for him and show off their holiday attire. When Evan got his stocking he immediately grabbed the first gift out of it (his gripping and grabbing skills are getting better every day!). It was a pack of wrist rattles, so on they went. Then he grabbed the next one, and even helped with the unwrapping. All he needed was to get ahold of the paper and he could pull and help tear it open! We got some nice family photos by the tree, had a yummy cooked breakfast while Evan took his morning nap, and then we started opening the gifts from under the tree and had a skype video call with Peter, Monica, and Simon (Louise's dad, mum, and brother). Soon thereafter Liam, Janine, Mady, and Eva came over too and before we knew it the living room floor was covered in piles of wrapping paper and new gifts. Evan made out great, having received several new toys, some Bonds outfits, and books. Nana also got him a mint Bush Babies 2011 Australian $1 coin to commemorate this year of his birth. And he helped unwrap almost every one of them, the same way he helped unwrap his stocking pressies!
On to the next pressie inside his stocking!
Our family :)
Nana and Aunty Sarah with little Evan on Christmas morning
After cleaning up our gift opening mess, lunch was ready to eat. The table was set with a holiday tablecloth and each place setting had a Christmas "cracker" (or bon bon) waiting to be pulled. This is a tradition I had never seen before. The cracker requires two people to pull (one on each end), it makes a loud pop when pulled (thus the name "cracker", like a small firecracker), and whoever gets the bigger half "wins" the contents. The contents include a small toy or gift item, a joke, and a Christmas hat (which to me looks like a tissue paper cut out crown). I think I jumped when each one popped, and was a bit timid myself to pull them. I did win both that I pulled (John was my "opponent"), and got a lovely teal-colored Christmas hat to wear as I ate the rest of my lunch.
You wouldn't believe I was hesitant (ok, maybe even a little scared!) to pull the cracker, would you?
I won!
Lunch itself consisted of homemade fried rice, garlic prawns, breaded and fried fish, cold slices of ham and turkey breast, scalloped potatoes, and salad. It was all very delicious! After a good fill, we all escaped outside to enjoy the sunny, warm day. John and his brother cracked open cold beers and we headed to the pool. I was able to enjoy my first summery Christmas day with a swim myself, and Evan got to take his first dip in a pool ever. Sarah had given him a "Wiggles" red car floaty, so we got him in his boardies (swim trunks) and gave his little car a test drive. He took it all in, not crying once. He's such an explorer!
Evan getting his feet wet in the pool, checking out his new ride!
"This floating business is pretty cool!"
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