Christmas 2021

After two white Christmases spent in Canada we are back to spending this holiday in the southern hemisphere, with sunny skies, warm weather, and not a snowflake in sight. Christmas is the one day a year I miss Canadian winters, and no matter how long we live in Australia, I am not sure I'll ever feel like it's normal to have Christmas in summer!

This was only our second Christmas spent without my family since we've had kids (the last time was in 2018) and I tried to really focus on making the day fun for Ella and Ollie instead of dwelling on their absence. When we moved here - almost one year ago to the day - we thought it would be possible for my parents and my brother's family to join us in Australia for Christmas. But alas, the pandemic is still raging around the world and Australia's borders remain closed to most. 

We were blessed with beautiful weather over Christmas here. Not too hot, just comfortable temperatures in the mid-20s and lots of sun. On Christmas Eve we took Ella and Ollie into the city for the morning to check out some Christmas decorations. We travelled in by train, which in itself was exciting for the kids. 

We arrived early which meant that the giant bell swings in Federation Square were free for the kids to swing on. I knew Ella would love these and both kids had a fun time swinging on them, while also gazing up at the giant Christmas tree. 

We visited Santa in his workshop next - a very Covid safe photo with Santa! I love that we could use our phone to take a picture so it was free… normally those photos you take with Santa in a mall cost a fortune!

Santa asked the kids what they wanted for Christmas, to which Ella answered "a slinky". What the heck?! This was the first I'd heard mentioned about a slinky, and needless to say I had not bought one of them. Geez that would have been such an easy present!

Walking along the Yarra river we saw that Santa is pulled by dolphins in Australia...

Next headed further along the Yarra towards the Crown casino. They have a beautiful Christmas display every year - giant Faberge eggs with Christmas scenes inside. Usually there is a performance with music but it is not on this year,  as they didn’t want to create crowding. 

When we got home everyone was pretty tired so we settled in for a family movie - Return to the Outback on Netflix. It was cute but a very American take on all the cliches of Australia! Below is my attempt to make everyone eat some healthy snacks during the festive period. We found out that Ollie likes Brie cheese - he is definitely my son! (Also, ok, Brie is not really healthy, I know I know!)

After the movie we made a gingerbread house… well we glued it together and decorated it anyway. It was pre made courtesy of IKEA. Thankfully it was much easier to put together than any of their furniture I’ve ever owned.

Ella had a very hard time going to sleep on Christmas Eve, which meant that Andy and I had to wait until nearly 10pm to wrap a few last gifts and put everything out under the tree. But we got there in the end and even managed to fit in the season finale of Succession. 

The kids slept in until about 6:30am which is as good as you can hope for on Christmas Day! We opened stockings first and then managed to get them to have some porridge to eat before moving on to the main presents. 

Both kids were super excited and happy with their presents, and we had a good time opening them and playing with some new things. Ella did not mention the missing slinky that afternoon, whew! 

Andy and I were pretty restrained with our own presents… we are getting family pictures done in a few weeks and also wanted to book a short holiday this summer so we figured those were our presents! Though I did get him (us) this massage gun after testing one out about a month ago. He was pretty pleased with it, and so am I! 

My parents bought us a BBQ for Christmas which we used to have a bacon and egg brunch that morning (with the requisite champagne and OJ for the parents!) 

Later that afternoon we went to our friends Heath and Priscilla’s for dinner and a sleepover. They have a 5 and 2 year old and the kids got along really well all night. I was really happy they invited us over for Christmas. Although I quite enjoy a simple Christmas morning, I was a bit worried I’d feel sad at not having family around Christmas Day if it was just the four of us all day. But actually our day was pretty perfect and it’s been really nice to reconnect with these guys since moving back to Melbourne. 

We spent a good part of Boxing Day lounging around Heath and Priscilla’s, watching cricket while the kids played together on their trampoline. (Ok by “watching cricket” I mean I was sitting on the sofa looking up holiday houses while drinking tea. And success! We are headed to Philip Island in mid January for a little getaway.) Eventually we dragged the kids away from each other to head home and face the mess of presents we left the day before. 

All in all it was great (thankfully Covid-free) Christmas, and while I’m disappointed my family couldn’t visit this year, we had a lovely time celebrating together, just the four of us.