December and Christmas in Melbourne

Meanwhile, summer has arrived in Melbourne and brings us up to 37 degrees on some days. This somehow makes the concept of Christmas strange... Christmas trees, snowmen, Santa Clauses.

Just before Christmas, Lea saw Santa Claus for the first time in her life. The air conditioning in his cottage spoiled the magic a bit, but we don't want him to faint. We tried to capture some Christmas decorations in photos for you.

Thanks to the lovely packages from home, a little bit of Christmas has found its way into our house. After some back and forth, Lea decided to bake cookies, albeit only 4 varieties - but still. Delicious - but somehow out of place in summer.

On the 23rd, we had a short visit from Nathalie, a college friend of Lea's, and Johanna, who were passing through on their trip to Australia. Although brief, it was nice to meet someone from home.

On the 24th, we were invited to Orlando's family for Christmas dinner. Unfortunately, Mathias had to work. Together with all our roommates, Lea spent the whole afternoon cooking a great Christmas dinner. In the evening, many family members and friends of Orlando's family came, as they do every year - with various religions and cultural backgrounds. Apart from Christmas poppers and gravy, there was little traditional Christmas. So we had a very fine evening with good food and great conversations.

On the 25th - the actual Christmas Day in Australia - we took the train to Ballarat in the morning to spend the day with Emma's family there. After traditional prawns for Mathias, the gift giving started. What happened in the next half hour is hard to describe - it felt like hundreds of gifts changed hands, with the two young children (Josh being the older one at 2 years old) receiving the most. We have never experienced anything like this before and agree that as much as it is meant kindly, we wouldn't want it that way. After this somewhat overwhelming gift giving, there was soon food - traditional roast, ham, and turkey. Dale specially experimented and stuffed a delicious pumpkin for Lea. We spent the rest of the day in pleasant company on the terrace with a beer or two. On the way back to Emma and Brian's, we took a tour to see the most lavishly decorated houses. It's crazy how much time and money some people spend on it. (@Emma and Brian: let's see what Google Translator makes of this: thank you very much for allowing us to celebrate Christmas with you and thus with our surrogate family in Australia)

We spent Boxing Day (26/12) with Emma and Brian in Daylesford, a small cute town near springs. So an area full of spas and thermal baths. We settled for trying a sulfur spring, especially since the next test station would have been a bit of a hike away and it was just incredibly hot.

Otherwise, there's nothing new, except that Lea has had a job since yesterday and can start on Tuesday supporting people with disabilities at home in their everyday lives. Pretty cool that it finally worked out and she can even get some insight into the social sector. Well, other than that, we're just living life in Melbourne :) and still enjoying mail, visits, and all other methods of communication from home.