Christmas in Australia

I thought I'd post a recap of our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, mainly so that I can remember it in years to come, and also so that my dear family all over the world gets a blow by blow of our Christmas! And some pictures too! I missed you guys so much, but it ended up being a really good Christmas, despite not being together and despite the reality of it being another Christmas without my dear dad here.

"Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle all the way
Christmas in Australia, on a scorching summer's day, hey!"

Despite the incredibly humid heat, we had a wonderful Christmas! Bob and Steph arrived Christmas Eve and we went out to our favourite Indian restaurant for dinner, and then met up with our good friends - Lani, Nathan, Eli, and Laile- for gelato afterwards. It was really special to spend Christmas Eve with Andrew (who didn't have to work!), and with Bob and Steph. Simon loves his grandparents so much! Simon loved reading his new book from Grandma- Aussie Jingle Bells- multiple times. He also loved helping us all open up one present (a Lewis family tradition to open a present on Christmas Eve), and reading the Christmas story of Jesus' birth. Simon opened up a tool puzzle, that I had wrapped up for him from his "Choo Choo Train Baba" (which is what we call my dad). He just loved the puzzle and immediately picked up the saw piece of the puzzle and said, "you fix piano" and started to pretend to fix the piano.







Christmas morning was so much fun! Simon had such a great time opening up the "treats" in his stocking- scissors, a kinder egg, and a matchbox car and then helping us all open our stocking presents and our presents. Simon has been very excited about scissors of late and had the best time helping me wrap all the Christmas presents, insisting that he help cut all the wrapping paper. So he just loved getting his own pair of scissors and throughout the morning would pull them out to help open presents and wrapping. Another reminder of my dad, who would always bring out his pocket knife to help open up presents! I was so impressed with and proud of Simon. He handled the present side of Christmas so well- he handed out all the presents to people with such enthusiasm, "hamming it up" just like my dad used to do. It is uncanny how similar they are. It brings me so much joy and it was like having a piece of my dad there with me. I really felt his presence through Simon and Simon's facial expressions and enthusiasm. They have some of the exact silly and serious expressions! Simon also unwrapped his presents like my dad did, very meticulously and carefully.

We were able to Skype my mom first thing in the morning which was wonderful and mom could see Simon open up his present from mom and "Papa" - a toolbox! It was so nice to see my mom and I was thrilled that she had received our Christmas package that very day- on Christmas Eve! Anyway, Simon was ELATED with the toolbox and was so adorable with his goggles on, pretending to drill holes in everything. "You like drilling!" was the common phrase of the day! We staggered our present opening - enjoying a really nice cold breakfast of croissants, salmon, nice cheeses, yogurt, jams, blueberries, raspberries, and a pumpkin loaf- and then opening more presents. It was just so much fun to see Simon so happy and enjoying Christmas and the presents so much, but enjoying handing presents out and seeing everyone open things. The rest of the morning was spent playing with his new toys and mainly drilling! Oh and assembling a new Lego tow truck that I had given Andrew! Bob and Steph gave him a skateboard and today Simon and Andrew had fun filing the edges down to make it more smooth with the tools from their tool boxes!







Christmas afternoon, after Simon's nap, we drove down to Tim and Jen's for Christmas lunch while Andrew worked. Unfortunately Simon seemed really overwhelmed by all the new people there and we ended up leaving early. So that was a bit disappointing, but really nice to see them and Ang and Miko and baby Noah, too.

We had a lovely picnic at the river for dinner and Christmas "pud" with cream and berries for desert. All in all, a really amazing day!

And because of all of Simon's little antics, I felt really close to my dad, too. So that was probably the best Christmas gift of all!