Our first Christmas abroad looked set to be… a very cold one.
Forget that it’s December and technically summer in Australia, Christmas day saw alternating rain clouds and sunshine, a shower of hail and a maximum temperature of 16 degrees! Well, that’s what the weather forecast said. Someone must have been praying really, really hard for a white Christmas, because snow has fallen in Victoria and Tasmania (that’ll teach the bushfires). Amidst the drought and raging fires, perhaps it is only apt that Christmas day would bring rain and snow. After all, is Christmas not a season of hope and miracles?
As I trudged into an empty-save-for-one office today, I settled down to my three-day work week knowing I have had one of the best Christmases. Fantastic food, precious company, an abundance of chit-chat, laughter and – on a slightly different note – sleep, what more could I ask for? Dancing in the day, drinking at night (plus more dancing!), eating until we can eat no more, then sitting around and talking (and nibbling) for hours and hours because we didn’t want to – or need to – move.
And on Boxing day, it snowed.
Just the tiniest, barely-perceptible flakes, mind you, but snow nevertheless. In summer. To all who made our first Chrissy and Boxing Day abroad so special, for your culinary contributions, presence and pressies, thank you. To yous who weren’t there, you were missed. Merry Christmas all. Now for the New Year.
