Aussie Christmas

One thing that both me and Steve like is Christmas, especially Finnish Christmas as I don’t think you can beat that anywhere else…the proper white Christmas. So when shopping for Christmas decorations in +30’C almost wearing bikinis…you can imagine it didn’t quite feel the same for us. We were very lucky to have lovely friends in Perth who made us a pre-Christmas dinner (English way) so that set us up in the Christmas spirit… thank you Sarah and Maxine!

Luckily we also found a Swedish shop and ikea on our travels to stock up with mulled wine and ginger bread biscuits; they certainly helped us feel Christmassy. To be honest, for the girls we carried on as much as we could with our own Christmas traditions and I don’t think they were bothered that it was +30’C instead of -5’C! One thing I really enjoyed was the stress free December!!! No hundreds of cards to write, no lists of presents to buy, no food shopping, no baking or cooking to do…these are the things that I usually like about Christmas but it was so nice to have a year off and I was relaxed! There were days we didn’t even know what day or date it was and that just tells you that we managed to wind down!

We stayed near Coffs Harbour in a little place called Mission Beach, just perfect!

No pool in sight, no other kid’s activities other than a small park by the river bank. It was great! We enjoyed Christmas Eve on the river kayaking, paddle boarding and playing tennis. Campsite owner invited everyone for free hotdogs at lunch time and the children had a special visit from Santa! Everyone had a photo taken with Santa and received a bag of sweets, so lovely touch from the owners. In the afternoon we drove to Coffs Harbour and on way back stopped at the few beaches before went to a place called Emerald Beach and found a little gem there. A great Mexican restaurant that just catered for all our needs. Including Emmi and her allergies. We had a fab meal that was finished with delicious desert, chocolate nachos!!! Yeah baby, cinnamon flavoured homemade nachos covered in chocolate sauce, cream and berries mmm.

But I have to say, aussies don’t do Christmas the way that we like… there isn’t that Christmas feel and when on Christmas day we stay at home in the Uk and in Finland, here people went to the beach for a bbq with their families.

And that is exactly what we did too, we had a bbq for xmas dinner and spent the day on the beach!