Some of you might recognise the title of this post as a line from a song from the movie Spirited, a Netflix reimagining of "A Christmas Carol", starring Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds. It came out last year, but we only got around to watching it a few weeks ago. It's so good! Ever since I have quite a few of the songs from it stuck in my head, which is not a bad thing. Watching Christmas movies is one way we've got into that Christmas morning feeling this year, with Spirited being the first one. Ella has watched just about every "made for TV" Christmas movie on Netflix, she's really into them this year. As cheesy as they are, it's nice to be able to watch movies with your kids that are not cartoons. Ollie is less excited about Christmas movies, though we did convince him to watch Home Alone and Home Alone 2. He thinks it is absolutely hilarious when Kevin puts on the shaving cream and screams into the mirror. (He also keeps saying "Merry Christmas you filthy animal" which admittedly very funny coming from a 5-year-old, but we've had to tell him to only say that to people in our family.)
Other than Christmas movies we've been getting ready for Christmas since the start of December, when my parents were still here. We started with getting the tree and decorations out, including the dreaded Elf on the Shelf. What a pain on the butt this thing is! We actually have two, of course, but one isn't "official". Thankfully the kids don't seem to mind. I've lost track of the amount of times our elves haven't moved overnight... who can remember to do that night after night for a whole month?! I suppose I should look on the bright side, all of this magical thinking is good for developing creativity in children.
The first weekend in December we had an early Christmas morning with my parents. We opened a few presents and had our usual Christmas morning brunch: fruit salad, bacon and eggs (done on the BBQ in Australia) and of course mimosas! I also made a cinnamon bun cake to try and replace my mom’s famous Land of Nod Christmas morning treat. She can’t get the frozen dough balls needed to make this in Australia unfortunately. The cinnamon bun cake I made was very yummy but VERY sweet!
My children started the day in their Christmas PJs but somehow they always just end up running around in their underwear. Does this happen with all kids or are mine just "special"?
That afternoon my mom made gingerbread houses with the kids.
They had a great time decorating their houses, but we had a disaster a few days later when we woke up to find that Ella’s house had collapsed. Panicking, Andy and I had no idea what we were going to tell Ella when she woke up. But then, a stroke of genius… we realised we could blame it on the elf! Brilliant! Finally those elves have come in handy. Both children were extremely annoyed at how naughty the elf had been, but it did save us a lot of tears from Ella about her gingerbread house!
The next weekend was the last weekend my parents were in Melbourne leaving to go see my brother in California for Christmas. We decided to take a trip into the city to see Santa Claus. Usually Santa Claus can be found at Federation Square, however, this year he was moved to a spot just off of Collins Street. It was a bit of a strange location. I’m not sure very many people knew where this was, and when we got there there was a very short line to see him... but I guess that’s not a bad thing. The kids told Santa what they wanted for Christmas. Ollie: a toy car, and Ella: some roller skates. Roller skates! Where does she think she’s going to roller skate? I feel really bad, but unfortunately this year Ella isn’t going to be getting exactly what she asked for from Santa Claus. My parents did get her netball ring so hopefully that distracts her from the (lack of) roller skates on Christmas morning!
After seeing Santa, we took a tram and walked through the wind rain to Crown casino to see what was happening there. They used to have a really cool Fabergé egg display and show, but for whatever reason this year, it wasn’t running. We did see that giant Christmas tree, and for entertainment there was a singing and dancing Christmas tree and ornament duet. But to be honest it wasn't a hugely successful outing. It didn’t help that the weather was dreadful, non stop rain all day long. We ended up stopping for a coffee and tea at the tables outside of the Conservatory. I remember doing this the first time my parents came to Australia with my brother, Mike and his wife, Ashley. I’ll tell you it was a much more civilised affair that time! This time we tried to enjoy a relaxing hot drink break with Ella dancing around the lobby and Ollie trying to have a nap on one of the chairs.
This month the kids have also been busy making homemade Christmas cards which Andy works on with them. They also wrote some letters to Santa and excitedly posted them off.
Yesterday was Christmas Eve Eve, and we went to the rehearsal of the Carols by Candlelight at the Sydney Meyer musical bowl. These carols are a Christmas Eve tradition in Australia, this year is the 86th year they will have been broadcast live on television across the country. The final rehearsal night is a ticketed event where you can watch in a more relaxed environment. This is something our friends Steve, and Michelle do every year with a group of their friends, and this year we decided to tag along. It was very very busy when we got there at 5 PM. People had laid out their picnic back blankets all over the lawn, and there was barely any space to walk through them. The kids didn’t want to sit on the picnic blankets, anyway, and ended up playing around the side of the amphitheatre while the grown ups took turns watching the kids and watching the carols. At around 7pm families with very young children started to leave and there was a bit more space to watch the carols and dance. It goes until about midnight, but of course that is way too late for us! We stuck it out until about 9:30pm when there was a very cool drone light show, before heading home. As it got dark the atmosphere was excellent, and I could see going regularly to this as the kids get older.
On our way home we took advantage of the kids being out so late to drive around our neighbourhood looking at some of the Christmas lights. This is definitely one of the things I dislike the most about living in Australia, that it doesn’t get dark at Christmastime until about 9 PM, so we never really take the kids out to look at Christmas lights as that is past their bedtime. They still have such a sense of wonder when looking at Christmas lights, it really is magical, and makes you appreciating seeing them through the kids eyes. I do hope that we can do one more Christmas in Canada within the next few years while they are still young and excited about this kind of thing.
Today is Christmas Eve and we’ve had a bit of a low key day. We all slept in a little bit after our late night at the carols, and I got to go to my wonderful Sunday morning yoga class as usual. A great start to the day! I took the kids swimming in the afternoon while Andy stayed home to wrap presents and tidy up the house. It’s a nice sunny day today, but unfortunately, tomorrow they’re calling for rain and thunderstorms. It seems like it’s going to be a rainy Christmas all over Australia this year. My parents definitely picked a good year to not be here! We are going over to Verge and Taryn’s house tomorrow for Christmas Day lunch. Obviously we were hoping it would be a day that the kids could swim in their pool, but I’m sure they’ll have fun together, even if it is a rainy afternoon. Without family in Melbourne, it is nice to be able to have Christmas day wth our close friends.
The kids are just about to settle in for a viewing of A Muppets Christmas Carol, my favourite Christmas movie of all time - reminding me of Christmas Eve's spent with our close family friends for many years. A bittersweet memory, as most of you reading this will know, due to the passing of my mom's dear friend Carol a few years ago. A good memory nevertheless.
Ella has written a note for Santa on our front door window. Hopefully he find the house OK tonight!
Comments