Chrissie in Australia

December 25th is Christmas Day and Christmas is celebrated in Australia. For us, it was a very long, very beautiful, and very food-filled day. Here's how it all began:

The alarm clock went off for us at 6 a.m. because Andi and I wanted to Skype with our families, who were sitting together after dinner on Christmas Eve. It was really nice and brought a little German Christmas atmosphere to Australia. Andi started Skype a little earlier than me, so he finished earlier. He then went to the traditional Christmas Dip at the beach with Steve and Patrick (who stayed overnight) while I continued to Skype. When they returned, everyone wanted to go to Christmas Brekkie and unfortunately, I had to stop Skype too. At half past 8, we went to Jess and Will's place, where breakfast was supposed to take place. They have a house in a different suburb of Sydney with Amelia, and it took us quite a while to get there because the roads were quite crowded. Looks like everyone is on their way to their families on Christmas Day!

The weather was glorious, so we could prepare breakfast in the garden next to the homemade bar. But before eating, there were presents to open, because little Amelia couldn't wait that long, of course. It was really funny how she unwrapped her gifts: tear off a tiny piece of paper, dutifully carry it to the trash bag or to her mom, and then start all over again. Without help, it would have taken her forever to unwrap everything :D But she was very tidy. After she had opened all the presents, she was allowed to help Patrick unwrap his gifts, and Sue also received something. Even Andi and I suddenly had a big box in our hands, which was our Christmas gift from Jessica and Will. Totally nice, we didn't expect that at all! In the box, we found loads of Australian sweets that an Aussie likes to eat, and apart from the Tim Tams, we hadn't tried any of them yet. Really good idea, and we're looking forward to eating them!

After opening the presents, it was time for breakfast. We had grilled eggs and bacon, bread, toast, and spreads. For drinks, there was juice, beer, and champagne. It was really delicious! Of course, there were Christmas bonbons again today, but this time I wasn't quite as successful. In the end, though, everyone had a paper crown on, and even the neighbors sitting on the terrace were all wearing paper crowns. Quite funny!

After breakfast, we cleaned everything up and then drove back to Sue and Steve's apartment. There we had to wait a bit until Jess, Will, and Amelia arrived, and then there was another round of gift-giving. By the way, Patrick got a lot of household items in a funny way because he just moved into his new apartment, and he also found our idea of a toilet paper holder funny. The others were also happy about our gifts, and Andi and I even received more gifts. Some sweets again, an Australian stubby holder to keep the beer cold, and a beach towel for each of us. Really sweet! I gave Andi a nice shower gel and caramel Tim Tams, and he wrote me a voucher for a body lotion and a new phone case. That was very sweet, and we both liked the gifts :)

After opening the presents, we all went to the beach together because the weather was so great. We went swimming a bit, chilled out, and Andi played very sweetly with Amelia in the sand. It was really nice and relaxing on that little beach. Around 4 o'clock, we went back to the house, took a quick shower, and then sat down at the table because it was time for food. The delicious prawns. Mhh. After that, Jessica's bread with a spinach-mozzarella-cream cheese filling, which was mega delicious. After that, we were already quite full, and that wasn't even the actual Christmas dinner! That was eaten together with Steve's grandparents, who live nearby and joined us at a quarter past 6. We had roast turkey, potato gratin, carrots, and peas to eat, and with that, we had red wine to drink. Of course, there was already quite a lot of drinking going on before that. The Aussies really don't skimp on alcohol at Christmas! For dessert, there was a pavlova, a cake made of meringue, cream, and fresh fruit. It was way too sweet for me, but Andi even had seconds :D After all the food, we were so stuffed, but somehow that's always the case at Christmas ;)

We had nice conversations all evening, tried out Amelia's new toys, and received praise for the delicious cookies. Overall, the day was really successful and a beautiful Christmas Day. It was great that we could be a part of it!