Being Summer it hardly feels like Christmas, though Seth and I are coping with it better than we did last year since we now know what to expect. Basically, it feels like celebrating the 4th of July, but with gifts. Though some Australians have roasts and English-inspired puddings for dessert, many have seafood and light summery Christmas lunches topped off with Champagne. For the past several weeks the idea that the Northern Hemisphere is currently a cold, snowy wonderland (with the exception of NC) made me feel ill, but starting on Christmas Eve we began listening to carols, burned our single Christmas-smelling candle, and drank holiday tea. It almost nearly felt like Christmas.
On Christmas Eve we went running around Mt Taylor (a substitute for Black Mtn since we are in Woden), did a bit of field work, visited the fruit and veggie market, then in the afternoon I zipped over to the Woden Shopping Centre (a very large mall just 8min walk from the house) and bought groceries (and Seth's gift) just as everything began closing. For once, I was the last-minute shopper everyone makes fun of!
For Christmas Eve dinner Seth and I decided to do something season-appropriate and we made garlic prawn pasta with a side of Tasmanian salmon. When it was time for the traditional Latin midnight mass at the Catholic Church in Garran, we were way too tired to go... It was a pity because we were both really interested in checking it out.
Yesterday for Christmas brunch we made honey crepes with grilled fruit, then opened gifts. We followed that with some fruit picking in Stephen's yard (the fruit from their apricot tree and peach tree is just about perfect!) then I spent the rest of the day cooking. It wouldn't have taken very long at all had the potatoes and butternut squash (aka 'pumpkin') not taken so long. Either way, we had surprisingly nice homemade Swedish meatballs for dinner with Russian Teacakes, bread pudding, rice pudding, fruit, and brandy custard (which is like egg nog) for dessert. I ate way too much!
We were supposed to have Christmas dinner with Oanh Collins and her family (the people we lived with when first arriving in Australia). I don't know what happened but she never got back to us. It was a little disappointing to not see them, but it was fun trying to cook a fancy holiday dinner on our own for the first time. Thankfully we are in a nice, well-equipped house because it would have been really depressing to be alone at Johns for Christmas!
I finally got a chance to sort through some pictures this morning:
Julian took this picture of me at Lake Ginninderra (as you can see, it is extremely 'rugged'!)
These are also taken by Julian during the same trip (masked lapwing and red-rumped parrot)
What punks (willie wagtails)
Monica's peewee is getting very big and mischievous. As you can see, he still doesn't go very far from his beer-box 'nest'
Ricky is helping me cook up a storm
There is a KrispyKreme at the mall just down the road!! Don't be fooled: as with the rest of Australia, the prices are very high (for example, a small coffee and original glazed doughnut are $4; a dozen glazed is $14!).
Stephen and Kim's Labrador, Ricky. I am usually not a dog person, but he is so well behaved and easy to take care of it is hard not to like him!
Ricky's Christmas present: a dinosaur bone
Seafood Christmas Eve dinner
Christmas brunch
1 comment:
That bird in the beer box next is pretty cool.
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