Monday, December 24, 2012

Merry Christmas to all!

It's the most wonderful time of the year! At least that's what the song says!

Ever since I was a little I've loved Christmas time. As Christmas falls during summer in New Zealand, we would also be on our summer break so we would have November and January off to enjoy the season.

At the start of December I would put on the Disney Christmas Carols soundtrack that I have had since forever and my sister and I would decorate the tree. Dad would hang tinsel around the walls, the wreath would go on the door and the Christmas bears would sit under the tree. Slowly the base of the tree would fill with gifts and mum would start baking her delicious Christmas cake.



On Christmas eve my sister would sleep in my room and by 6am we were awake and excited about the day ahead. 'Santa' would have put a sign on the door to the lounge stating that we must not enter before 7am, so we would spend an hour absolutely bursting with excitement to open our presents.

The day would be a whirlwind. We'd open the gifts from Santa, our breakfast would consist of chocolate and by midday our extended family would have arrived. We'd have a big barbeque lunch, we'd play cricket or other similar sports in the sunshine and then we'd all open our presents from our extended families.

At night we'd sit outside, eating Christmas cake and watching the stars. We'd often watch the Christmas themed film on the TV or play with the goodies we'd received that day.

Last Christmas was our first time away from our families. As we're both very family oriented people, it was difficult, however we joined forces with 15 other Kiwi's in Manhattan and had a great time. I even made a Pavlova, a traditional New Zealand desert, which impressed all the other Kiwi's there - good score!



This Christmas it will just be the two of us. We will (hopefully) get our first ever white Christmas in Vancouver. We'll see the Christmas lights throughout the city, we'll bundle up in warm clothes like everyone in the Christmas movies always have to do and we'll find somewhere to have Christmas dinner. It will be hard and a little lonely without our families, but again, that's part of the big adventure. Plus, this year my family have surprised me with holding off their own Christmas until February when we're all together again and can celebrate the way we did once upon a time! Can't wait!

I hope you, wherever in the world you are, have an amazing Christmas or Hanukkah filled with family, friends and lots of laughter. Eat, drink and be merry!

2 comments:

  1. I enjoyed hearing about your New Zealand Christmas traditions. Hope you guys enjoy spending Christmas Day in Vancouver. They don't usually get much snow there, but I hope this year it will snow just for you! Merry Christmas!

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    1. I'd say you're right, it's grey and rainy with no sign of snow in Vancouver :-( I can always pretend! Merry Christmas, Erin!

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