I'm Dreaming Of A....

White Christmas. It's something that those of us from down under miss out on. We never get to hear sleigh-bells outside our windows, or feel the sludgey snow underneath our feet, or the warmth of the fireplace as we open our presents. Nope, instead, we get the hazy sun beating heat down on us, or perhaps the cool air of the air-con. We feel the heat of the concrete underneath our sandals, and I hear the drunken carolling of my aunts and uncles.

It's not the ideal Christmas, but I love it nonetheless. I love the anticipation of opening presents, the carols blasting out of every speaker at the malls, and the get-togethers. Cheesy, but true. Tradition plays and replays itself over and over each year, but upon reflection, I have realised how much I've changed over the past year.

Each year, my sister and I would run down to the Christmas tree and open our masses of presents with Christmas carols playing. It sounds like the typical perfect Christmas morning, non? Wrong, its mutual tradition that my sister and I fight over which presents are ours, which side of the Christmas tree we must sit on, where to put our mess, who should open the presents we share, et cetera.

Then we'd go to one of my maternal cousin's house, and have a barbeque there. Normally, I'd be loading my plate with chicken kebabs and hunks of steak. A lot has changed, huh?

And for dinner? We'd head over to the dwellings of someone from my dad's side of the family, and all hell would break loose. For example, last year, my cousin John received some sort of a Japanese sword as a present. I kid you not, a sword. A SWORD!!! You can probably imagine the consequences actually. My family is weird like that, but they're great fun, I swear.

I hear that this year, my cousin Rosa will be turning up with a black eye. No, she wasn't involved in a fight, or anything valiant like that. She simply ran into a pole. Now her right eye is purple and green, as if some unskilled costume-makeup artist tested their expertise on her. I'm looking forward to it immensely.

Anywhos, I must prance off to enjoy my day.

Merry Christmas darlings~!