La Vie Bohème: Christmas Down Unda

G’day friends & fam!

Christmas this year was definitely been a change from my normal routine. Typically this time of year, I am drinking my body weight in hot chocolate, snuggling with my precious Sadie in front of the fire, watching Wheel of Fortune with Mom, trying out new recipes, and catching up with the remaining high school friends who come home to Douglasville and Atlanta for the holidays.

I knew that being abroad during Christmas would be different, and it would be hard but I am grateful for technology that allows me to talk to my mom on the phone and video chat with her on the computer. I am also extremely grateful for my boyfriend, Al, & his wonderful family who graciously welcomed me into their home and helped me to celebrate my first Christmas away from my immediate family. I am equally thankful for a host family that makes me feel at home in Canberra every day.

The week before I left Canberra, I was able to celebrate Christmas with my host family since we would be parting ways for two weeks while my host parents were off work, and I would be in Adelaide with the Parsons. I cooked pepper steak and ratatouille for dinner (the kids were not impressed haha) then we exchanged gifts. From Matt and Caroline, I got a voucher for a surf lesson, which Caroline and I used at the coast this month. Also, the kids picked out some cute gifts for me such as some chocolates from Emily, an elephant neck pillow from Annabel, and a kangaroo & koala zipper pouch from Andrew, “to help me remember Australia.” For Matt and Caroline, I gifted them a dinner and movie date night with free babysitting, and for the kids, I was excited to have found some cute handmade gifts at the Old Bus Depot Markets in Canberra – tie-on dinosaur tails…plus a coloring book each & some dinosaur & Hello Kitty-shaped pasta. For dessert, I made some Oreo ball reindeer, another Pinterest success! It was lovely to celebrate with my awesome host family, and I wish I could have seen the kids’ precious faces on Christmas morning. It is great to be reunited now!

Following our celebration, I enjoyed the first two days of school holidays with the kids, including lots of fun activities such as Christmas crafting, going to Questacon (the amazing interactive kids’ science museum in Canberra), swimming at a nearby pool, and playing on the Tidbinbilla playground! We had playdates with several of my au pairs friends and their kids, and it was great to have an older boy for Andrew to play with on both days.

My Christmas break officially began on Saturday, December 20, when I took a bus from Canberra to Sydney. Originally, my bus was supposed to take me to the Sydney airport but luckily, I double-checked my flight time because it turns out, I’d booked a flight on Sunday rather than Saturday, so I instead exited the bus at Central Station. Again, fortunately for me, Al came to save the day and arranged with his sister, Shara, to let me stay at their Sydney apartment, even though he wouldn’t be there. It was actually lovely to have 24 unexpected hours in Sydney before my flight, as I was able to do some last-minute Christmas errands, devour some pad Thai from my favorite Thai restaurant in Al’s suburb, and knit beanies for Al and his mum, as part of their Christmas presents.

Sunday evening, I flew into Adelaide and was excited to be reunited with Al again, after having been apart for over a month while he traveled in New Zealand. We relaxed in the days before Christmas, hanging out at his mum’s (Irene’s) place, which is conveniently right across from the beach; we can see it from the front windows of the house. We ran some errands, played on the guitar, cooked yummy food, and watched lots of BBC with the Parsons family.

Arriving at Adelaide airport

Beautiful grapevine at Al's house

View of the beach from the living room couch

Sunset over the beach while we enjoyed dinner

Lovely location for breakfast, lunch, & dinner

Barbecued a feast

Beach afternoon

Christmas Eve in Adelaide

Christmas Eve sunset

On Christmas Day, Al and I awoke with gifts of candy & Christmas hats on our door from “Santa.” Shortly after everyone had awoken (& Irene emerged from her room in an awesome elf costume), we began our gift exchange, and the presents under the tree quickly diminished. My gifts to the Parsons were small and airplane-friendly but I tried to pick things each person would like; in return, I was absolutely spoiled! Irene and Al’s sisters, Georgette and Shara, made sure that I had plenty to open and picked out some very thoughtful gifts. My “big gift” from the three girls is a voucher for the Harbour Bridge Climb – an activity that I have wanted to do but wasn’t yet ready to splurge on for myself. Now, however, Al and I can pick a time and do a day or night climb of the famous Harbour Bridge! It was such a cool surprise to receive.

Christmas morning

In front of the tree (taken with Shara's awesome instant camera!)

l-r: Shara, Irene, Al, me, Georgette

From Al, I got tickets to see Ben Howard at the Opera House in March (yay!!!) and a LifeStraw, which is a personal water filter where one simply sucks any water, however murky, through a straw, and it is filtered on the way to your mouth. I love this gift because it was selected after I’d told Al about becoming extremely dehydrated on a hike in the Blue Mountains, where I didn’t take enough water and knew the available drinking water was not clean. This filter removes 99.9999% of bacteria, including diseases such as ebola; it is perfectly safe to drink toilet water through it, as I fully intend to try for the hell of it - I won’t be dehydrated again. My gifts to Al were two beanies I knitted per his request, tickets to St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival in Sydney (indie pop music festival), and a collage I’d made, modeled after a picture of us that we both like.

My collage for Al

For Christmas lunch, we enjoyed lovely weather and a smorgasbord of delicious dishes: cheeses and crackers, couscous salad with avocado and tomato, crackled pork, barbecued prawns, roasted onions/sweet potatoes/red potatoes/garlic, homemade applesauce, garlic toast, and homemade tiramisu. We were absolutely stuffed after and relaxed with several games of Scrabble (to my absolute delight) and watching Frozen and more BBC, of course.

Shara barbecuing some prawns

Santa's elves (Irene & Al)

Christmas feast - cheese & crackers, crackled pork, couscous salad with avocado & tomato, roasted vegetables, barbecued prawns, homemade applesauce, & homemade tiramisu

Playing Scrabble helped me feel right at home for Christmas!

Beautiful table setting by Irene

Following Christmas, I got to spend a day exploring Adelaide CBD with Georgette, which was one of my favorite days spent there! She was a wonderful tour guide, & I got to see all of the highlights on my list, including the unexpected highlight of wine tasting at the National Wine Centre. ;)

I also got to take a day trip with the Parsons to the German-themed town of Hahndorf, located in the Adelaide Hills. It was a lovely trip from Semaphore and reminded me a lot of Helen, Ga. We spent the day eating schnitzel, drinking beer, and browsing the tourist shops.

On another day, Al, Georgette, and I took a dolphin cruise on the Port River. In total, we saw maybe three or four dolphins but for two hours of entertainment for eight hours on a lovely day, it was wonderful!

Before New Year's Eve, a group of Al's closest friends came into town & stayed in the flat behind the main house. We spent our days playing beer pong & beer baseball as well as crabbing at the two nearby jetties.

On New Year's Eve, a friend of mine from Canberra, Marleen, came to celebrate with us as her host family was on holiday near to Adelaide. We played more drinking games (of course), watched a bit of cricket (naturally), and watched the fireworks on Semaphore Beach, right in front go the house.