Pre-Christmas

I would like to take some time to talk about Christmas. The first thing I'd like to do is comment on how different the culture here handles my favorite holiday. There's a big tree in town and some stores play Christmas music and force their employees to wear Santa hats, there are commericials and flyers in the paper about buying that perfect Christmas gift. But not many houses put up lights, there aren't big elaborate displays in the stores. Today was the first day that I noticed people doing holiday preparation type things. The post shop (not an office, a shop) was full of people buying gifts and sending things. But that was about it. No one seems stressed out about getting their Christmas shopping done, or rushing home to start the baking, or making big plans for the big day. It seems almost like a burden. Maybe it's just the situation I'm in. I live with a stripper who I'm pretty sure hasn't started buying for her son yet and doesn't know what she's doing on Christmas day yet. I'm in a town where people come to holiday and have things done for them while they're here. Maybe the rest of Australia isn't like Byron Bay. So needless to say, while you folks back in Ontario will be having a white Christmas, I'll be having a weird one! Anyways, the anti-climax-ness of the holiday season is making it easier to cope with, and the weather still has me convinced it's June 22nd, not Decemeber 22nd! I've still done a ton of Christmas baking though. Shortbread, sugar cookies, peanut butter balls, and I still need to do haystacks, my Mom's coffee cake (for Christmas morning), and the frozen Christmas pudding! We decorated the sugar cookies on Saturday. Thanks to Kate and Diva for documenting the event. Must say that it was my first time decorating Christmas cookies with a sweet tan and in a bikini.

Look how red our red was, amazing! The benefits of Australian food coloring...

Diva's punk snowman

I've watched Home Alone twice now and might watch it once more. We also rented The Family Stone, Polar Express, Elf, Love Actually, and Edward Scissorhands to help with the Christmas spirit. Unfortunately, I forgot to put ALL my Christmas music on this computer before I left as well as the original Grinch that I had saved on a CD.

In other news... Diva got back from WA early last week and yesterday Kate went to Canberra for Christmas at her Uncle's. On Saturday we had dessert for dinner in the form of Ice Cream Sundae's. I almost puked. We also got the internet back today and I found out why it had been disconnected in the first place... outstanding bills! I think the girl we are renting from might be very bad with money or conning a bunch of people. She gets free bread (day olds) delivered from a local bakery on Thursdays and a few local charities have come by to drop off Christmas care packages for her, like non-perishable food items, and she's not even here to receive them. Today's was a big laundry basket full of stuff from Christians Against Poverty. I don't get it.