Happy Christmas!

While we are winding down our first Christmas Day in Australia, we wanted to take the opportunity to wish you and yours (especially those of you who are just now starting your Christmas Day) a Happy Christmas, as Australians like to say. We are having a wonderful Christmas season, full of new discoveries and traditions.

We have spent Christmas Day for the last decade with both sets of parents and other extended family, and knew we would miss them dearly. Fortunately, we have found the celebration of Christmas to be different enough here (in terms of climate and traditions) that we did much better than we could have hoped. We enjoyed a Christmas Eve BBQ at the church, a festive and informally celebratory Christmas Eve service, 2 Christmas morning services for Rick, a Christmas dinner gathering (which included yummy salads, fruits and hot and cold meats) with close friends, Christmas crackers (a cardboard tube wrapped with Christmas paper that pops when opened and contains little gifts), the wearing of Christmas crowns during dinner, Christmas pudding and a game of street cricket afterwards.

May God's richest blessings shine on you and yours,

Anne, Rick, Erin, Claire and Lachlan

Our gingerbread houses (Australian house with veranda on the left)

Joseph, Mary and Baby Jesus on Christmas Eve

All but one of us wearing our Christmas crowns

Our first game of street cricket!

Aussie Jingle Bells

The Christmas season is well underway here in Australia. The retailers, as faithful as those in the US, were setting up their Christmas displays at the beginning of October. Christmas carols are playing in the shopping centres. The kids are doing Christmas crafts at school. And the temperatures are starting to rise. Go figure.

I am having a very difficult time trying to make my brain compute that it's time to start opening the windows on the Advent calendar, get all the gifts in order, buy and decorate a tree and start making my cookie plates. My body refuses to send those messages to my brain. It would rather jump in the pool or enjoy a day at the beach.

I am madly trying to figure out how one balances end of the year gatherings, end of the school year assemblies and performances, a clergy husband's busiest time of the year and Christmas preparations all in the span of a couple of weeks. I'll let you know how it all turns out- but not until February, which is the first time I imagine I will find time to breathe and be able to write our annual "Christmas" letter.

Until then, I wanted to share a song that we have all been enjoying for the past few weeks. I bought a book for the kids that I had seen in the Christmas display at the bookstore. It's called Aussie Jingle Bells, and it illustrates a delightful song by Colin Buchanan, an Australian children's songwriter. Tonight, the girls did a dance/concert for me of this song, and I realized I should share it on the blog, as it paints a unique picture of an Australian Christmas.

Dashing through the bush, in a rusty Holden Ute, Kicking up the dust, esky in the boot,
Kelpie by my side, singing Christmas songs, It's Summer time and I am in my singlet, shorts and thongs

Oh! Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way, Christmas in Australia on a scorching summers day, Hey! Jingle bells, jingle bells, Christmas time is beaut !, Oh what fun it is to ride in a rusty Holden Ute.

Engine's getting hot; we dodge the kangaroos, The swaggie climbs aboard, he is welcome too. All the family's there, sitting by the pool, Christmas Day the Aussie way, by the barbecue.

Oh! Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way, Christmas in Australia on a scorching summers day, Hey! Jingle bells, jingle bells, Christmas time is beaut!, Oh what fun it is to ride in a rusty Holden Ute.

Come the afternoon, Grandpa has a doze, The kids and Uncle Bruce, are swimming in their clothes. The time comes 'round to go, we take the family snap, Pack the car and all shoot through, before the washing up.

Oh! Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way, Christmas in Australia on a scorching summers day, Hey! Jingle bells, jingle bells, Christmas time is beaut!, Oh what fun it is to ride in a rusty Holden ute

This website provides some explanation of the terms in the song: http://alldownunder.com/oz-u/songs/jingle-bells-12.htm. And this youtube video shares it in song and picture (the kids will enjoy this): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiRgEVliuYU.

Happy Christmas!

Anne