I'm getting ready for my second Christmas down under. I have to tell you - it's tough doing the holidays on the other side of the world. What significance does the festival of lights have when the sky is light until 10pm? Luckily, Christmas comes just at the beginning of summer, and thanks to good old global warming, summer doesn't really get it's engine going until a couple of weeks after the solstice. It has been rainy and overcast here - which means that I can pretend that outside it is cold and inside.....? Well, inside is not warm and toasty - most houses down here are drafty and cool when it is not 80 degrees outside. So, I bundle up under a blanket, put on some xmas music and let my imagination take over.
I just got back from visiting the states a few days ago, so this year I did get a good dose of my christmas - picking the tree with my dad - warm fireplaces, snow, christmas light displays, etc.
I was able to send back about 3 boxes of holiday things to decorate my tree so I finally have some of my ornaments and momentos- all the better to help me pretend.
My stepkids are going to the beach with their mom this week - (so not in my idea of the holiday season) and we will have them for Christmas Eve - I am trying to give them a good diet of American holiday specials because Xmas over here is very commercial. Everything is made in China. The led lights alone are enough to blind you! I have a Charlie Brown Christmas on the agenda, as well as a night of family and Christmas Carols. I just want them to realize that xmas is not just what you get from a store - that , maybe, christmas is just a little bit more.......
I am going to celebrate hanukkah too - a bit of dreidel, a menorah, a telling of the story of the miracle of the oil - they need to know that we don't exist in a vacuum. I downloaded a latke recipe so that we can give that a go, (mmm - with applesauce and sour cream). Plus, I grew up with those traditions through my friends (I used to babysit for a whole neighborhood of orthodox families and at 12 I knew how to keep a kosher kitchen - a good episcopalian girl!), and my husband's family is part jewish, (his great grandmother was an Arenfeldt (sp?) - in Australia at the time that was not a good thing so the family kept it hidden and assimilated into the existing culture, the line was broken when my mother in law married my husband's father and had twin boys - no girls to keep the lineage going. I, of course, am as waspy as you can get with 5 ancestors fighting in the American Revolution and sketchy lineage to not one but two Mayflower passengers - that doesn't even count the Native American side of the family - what a mutt this kid is going to be!)
It's Saturday, so we'll get the dreidel tomorrow.
I'm dreaming of a White Christmas............
