Christmas down under

In my entire 22 years of existence, I have never not been home for Christmas--until now. For weeks, I had been dreading how I would feel on Christmas morning when I woke up and didn't have my parents and brothers to open presents with followed by my all time favorite tradition, Pig Fest. I spent the entire month of December staying busy so my mind wouldn't be filled with how I'd feel on the 25th.

Kalee arrived in Bowral on the 24th and joined me at Ben's house for Christmas Eve dinner. Well, I suppose we were a bit late so we missed dinner but made it just in time to try pavlova for the first time. It's a traditional Christmas desert. The base is made with egg whites and sugar and just melts when it hits your tongue. It's topped with cream and berries. Oh man, it's the BEST!!! I really should learn how to make it although, that could be pretty dangerous. Needless to say, my no sugar diet has gone to hell in a handbag over this holiday season. I'll get back on track though.

On Christmas morning, Kalee and I woke up to James screaming, "Em! Santa! PRESENTS!" It was the sweetest thing to hear. I had the biggest smile on my face and I knew I would be just fine. We got dressed (yes, it was my first time actually getting dressed on Christmas morning. No pajamas.) and headed downstairs to find that Santa had indeed paid us a visit. James opened the first gift and was thrilled to see he got a new Buzz Lightyear doll. He absolutely loved his old one but unfortunately, Buzz's arms and legs have fallen off and he had become a floating head. The look on his face when he saw his new toy was priceless. Josh opened his gift--a bouncing, talking baby doll that he fell in love with weeks prior at Big W (equivalent to Kmart). After the initial excitement wore off, he bursted into tears. At this point, it was about 8:30am and we had the nerve to not have had a proper breakfast at 8am so he was not happy. Present time had to go on hold so we could feed our little eating machine.





Later that day, Jo and Dave's siblings, parents and other family and friends arrived for a big Christmas lunch. We sat down for a big, delicious meal and spent the rest of the day eating and drinking.

Dave set up the slip 'n slide the boys received for Christmas from their grandma (Michi). He felt it was not long enough so he pulled out tarp from the garage and set up a 30 ft super slip 'n slide in the backyard. It was by far the biggest one I've ever seen (that's what she said). The next thing I know, Dave and Grant were suited up in their speedos and sliding through the backyard together. It was a sight to see!



After a day of stuffing our faces, Kalee and I knew it was necessary to do some P90X. It probably only burned off the calories from a quarter of what we ate but I suppose it's better than nothing.

Kalee and I then spent the rest of the night at her boss' house who happens to live two blocks away from me. We were surrounded by 40 Italians who were eating tons of delicious food, drinking bottles of Moet like it was water and playing some crazy Italian card game that I swear, I'll never be able to learn.

It was an utterly unforgettable Christmas, to say the least.

My sweet, little boys

Just before Thanksgiving, Jo and I took the boys to Bondi Junction to have professional pictures taken. The photographers were so patient and best of all, quick. Joshy was a little ham and definitely could have sat there all day smiling for the camera. Jamesy was not as happy but once we gave him a lollipop, he perked up for a few shots. I know I'm biased but these boys are gorgeous!!!

James (2.5 years old)



Josh (1.5 years old)






Partners in crime

It's the most wonderful time of the year

To get the boys ready for Christmas, we took them to the mall to have their photo taken with Santa. Knowing James would be a bit skeptical about sitting on a strange man's lap, we told him that he gets to ask Santa for presents and then he would get ice cream afterwards. James happily obliged and told requested a new Buzz doll. Josh, on the other hand, could not be bribed. He was terrified. In his defense, this guy seemed like he absolutely hated Christmas. He didn't even say Merry Christmas or ho, ho, ho! What a crock.


Here's Jo with James, Josh and their new cousin, Zoe (3.5 months)



Me, Jo and the boys

Oprah mania

I can't believe I forgot to mention the Oprah mayhem that has taken place in Australia last week. Miss Winfrey decided to bring her entourage here for an Aussie adventure. The excitement was on par, if not higher, than if the pope were to pop his head in to the land down under. I mean, she's a big deal but for days I couldn't turn on the TV without seeing Oprah on every news station. Oh, and here's the fun fact that I had to hear over and over. Oprah decided to bring 302 Americans on her trip and apparently 200 of them had never been out of the country. I'm pretty sure it's things like this that explains why a drunk guy said to me, "It's nice to see that you guys are getting out" when I told him I was from the States. What is going on America? See the world! It really bums me out that so few Americans travel internationally. I know it's expensive but the rest of the world seems to find a way to do it. They save for it because they recognize how important it is to have experiences where you're immersed in another culture and completely out of your comfort zone. I'll probably spend the rest of my life traveling and still feeling like I haven't seen enough of the world. I'm not trying to sound high and mighty but I suppose I've just been bitten by the travel bug.

I'm glad Oprah had a fun time here though. It was cool to see the things she was doing (i.e. the Bridge Climb and holding koalas) because they were things that I wanted to do/did as soon as I got here.

It's my life...

It feels like all of my weekends here are just filled with fun and excitement so here's a bit of a recap...

After four months of anticipation, it was finally the day of the Bon Jovi concert. I had two hot dates, Jo and Jacqui, who accompanied me to the show on Friday night. We started the evening with a dinner at a local restaurant and then had to sprint over to the stadium because the concert had started and we were nowhere near our seats. We considered the running our way of working off the several plates of unhealthy, (albeit) amazing food we had consumed minutes prior.

I'm fascinated that guys that are so old can still jam out the way a bunch of 20 year olds would. I have no idea where they find the strength or stamina because I was exhausted just watching them. They played all of their classics (Living on a Prayer as the finale) and some stuff from their new album. It was rocking!


Here's me and Jac!


Jo's brother, Grant, works for the Park Hyatt where Bon Jovi stayed. He seemed a little underwhelmed with him though. I should have found out why but I think I was just in shock that not everyone is impressed by every celebrity like I am. I swear I have celebrity fever. Just today, I screamed when I opened a box from home with People and US Weekly magazines. You would have thought I opened a box full of gold.

Saturday was spent shopping for Christmas presents at Bondi Junction with Natalie. I hadn't seen my dear, sweet Nat since Thanksgiving so it was great to have her around to mock my American accent--one of her favorite pass times. I have to admit that she gets it dead on almost every time. Nat seems to think I'm too enthusiastic when I say "thank you" to people in the shops. She feels like a monotone, "thank you" is more than enough whereas I think "Thank you very much! Have a great day!" is much more fitting. Nat is sure to giggle and repeat what I said after each occurrence. The two of us headed over to Marisa's place to distract her from visa paperwork. I'm secretly hoping that if her visa doesn't get approved, she'll be forced to move back to the U.S. sooner. A girl can dream, right?

Later that night, the three of us headed over to The Spot at Randwick for some Thai food and red wine. As soon as Kalee was done with her Christmas party, she met up with us so we could go see Love and Other Drugs. Personally, I liked the movie but I think I was expecting more. I mean, Jake Gyllenhaal is a total hunk and I love seeing him shirtless more times than I can count but I thought the plot was weak. Whatever, this is just a blog, not a place for me to critique movies. We absolutely love our girl time and this was no exception. It was another good weekend for the books.

Happy Thanksgiving

It is an embarrassment that my last blog post is about a trip I took in August. It's almost December, people! So due to popular demand, specifically demand by Erin, I will do my best to keep up with my adventures.

This weekend, I celebrated Thanksgiving down in Bowral. Jo's side of the family has celebrated Turkey Day since they lived in America about 20 years ago. Josh, the bottomless pit, was in heaven.


Generally, it's 8-10 people at dinner but this year, it was a bash of about 30 people. Marisa, BJ, Natalie, Steve, Kalee and Katie were all in attendance. Just to back track, Kalee and Katie are UF girls as well. Kalee and I did a wedding planning internship together in Gainesville about two years ago. Her and Katie, better known as Fabe, moved to Australia about a month ago to spend a year working and traveling. They are just two hot babes from Florida living the dream and having a blast. I met Steve through BJ at the beginning of October when we were at the races. Steve and BJ went to school together and have been friends for years. Natalie and Steve recently started dating a few months ago and make the sweetest couple. Marisa and I instantly fell in love with Nat and have been friends ever since.



(from the left) Katie, Marisa, Kalee, Natalie and me!


Anyway, I was so thrilled to have three American friends celebrate Thanksgiving with me (Marisa, Kalee and Fabe) because I knew they would be the only ones that would appreciate the over sized portions and be able to teach our Aussie friends some good 'ol drinking games. Beer pong would have been our first choice but unfortunately, we didn't have ping pong balls so we opted for Flip Cup. Naturally, the Americans dominated. Let me also say that it's cocky remarks like the one I just made that make the rest of the world hate the U.S. so maybe I should tone it down a bit.

Thanksgiving also coincided with Steve's 35th birthday so we had a joint celebration. We decided to haze him about and make him a sign of 35 things to complete by the end of the night. Some of the tasks included, eating with his left hand, playing footsie at the dinner table with someone other than Natalie (BJ was chosen one), running nude around the outside of the house (BJ also took part in this one) and using the words, "y'all, bless it and oh, my heavens" all in the same sentence, thanks to our gorgeous Southern bell, Kalee. Thanksgiving day festivities started around noon and by 9pm, there were only a few boxes checked off the list so Dave went into action and went through every challenge on the list until they were all completed. Several bottles of alcohol later and lots of photos being taken, Steve could finally be left alone and head out to the bars. What a trooper!

So, here I am left with great memories of another great Thanksgiving. I suppose this is the part where I should say what I'm thankful for. I'm thankful for my parents and my brothers. I'm thankful for the girlfriends, husbands and significant others that make my family even bigger. I'm thankful for grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and my future niece/nephew. I'm thankful for Dave, Jo, James and Josh for having the opportunity to be part of their lives for an entire year. I'm thankful that I get to live in such a beautiful country where I have new experiences everyday and meet people from all over the world. I'm thankful for my friends from home and my friends I've met here. And it wouldn't be Thanksgiving if I didn't say that I am thankful for (you guessed it) Heeleys. Honestly, I feel like I could go on all day. I have a lot to be thankful for this year.

Cairns

After Erin and Mike Thompson left Sydney, Craig and I started our trip to Cairns. Our trip got off to a rough start as we stayed out drinking the entire night before our 7am flight. Needless to say, we were passed out on the airport floor waiting for the plane to board. It wasn't a pretty sight.

Everyday was an action packed with adventure. Our first day was spent at Cape Tribulation/Port Douglas. It poured the whole day so it was hard to be very active. The highlight was holding a koala. It's illegal to hold koalas in New South Wales which is where Sydney is but we were able to do it in Queensland.

Day 2 was spent at Great Barrier Reef to snorkel and scuba dive. Since it was a two hour boat ride to get out to the Reef and we were traveling on rough waters, I quickly lost my breakfast before we even got there. Craig says it's the most puke he's ever seen. He's seen me vomit since the beginning of our relationship though so I don't think he was really phased by it. Unfortunately, I was too sick to enjoy the day and had to sit out after snorkeling. I still loved being out there though.

Our favorite part of the trip was whitewater rafting. We did an extreme version which essentially means we rafted in much more dangerous areas, got thrown into the water and got sent down the "drowning simulator" which is about the time I cried to Craig and didn't let him leave my side. I should also mention that when we were tossed into the water, Craig (accidentally so he says) punched me in the face and then I got stuck under the boat. I had a few choice words to say to him that I will not repeat.
Vinny, our fearless tour guide, quickly became my favorite person. He knew I was scared and promised to take care of me. Once I calmed down, I really enjoyed myself. It was five hours of my adrenaline pumping and such a cool experience.

For some silly reason, we thought it would be fun to spend our last day bungy jumping. We have been sky diving so we thought this would be another one-in-a-lifetime type thing to tick off our bucket list. While we were getting our ankles strapped to the cord, "Another One Bites the Dust" started playing on the loud speaker and I thought I was going to lose it. All I can say is jumping off a platform 150 ft in the air is a seemingly impossible task. Craig and I were a couple of little girls and basically just leaned over until we fell. We could not bring ourselves to actually jump. I can honestly say that I'm glad I did it but I will never do it again.

After five days of near death experiences, we were ready to come back to Sydney. We got back late on a Thursday night and slept like babies.

Melbourne

The days between the bridge climb and leaving for Melbourne early on August 24 are starting to blur together so let's just assume we had a good time.

The four of us apparently thought it was smart to get on a 7am flight until that morning at 5am when we were just wishing we could stay in bed. Once we got our cranky butts up and to the airport, we noticed something that we weren't used to--no need for identification of any kind. We flew through security without ever even showing our boarding passes. It wasn't until we were about to step on the plane that we flashed those bad boys. I don't mean to be arrogant but after 9/11, wouldn't the rest of the world realize the importance of airport security?

Here's us just walking up to the plane...


Since we only had a few days in Melbourne, we tried to fit as much in as possible. Our first stop was the Queen Victoria Market. It was easy to get lost in this place because it was just never-ending rows of cheese, bread, candy, fruit, vegetables, clothes and every souvenir imaginable. It was a good thing we weren't there too long because I could have done some serious damage.

Next, we checked out the Titanic exhibit at the museum. As soon as we walked in, we were given a passport with information on it of an actual passenger. At the end of the tour I found out my person and her child both died so I was a bit bummed.

A friend of ours gave us a list of the hot local spots in Melbourne to check out so we did our best to hit them all. The weather was crappy while we were there so made sure we stayed in one place until the rain stopped long enough for us to walk outside. Basically, we were boozing for most of the trip.

Melbourne and Sydney are the UF and FSU of Australia. There is a constant rival of which city is better and of course, people favor which ever place they live in. I'm going to be unbiased for a second and compare the two.

Melbourne
Pros
-Great shopping
-Easy public transportation
-Unique bars and restaurants
-A huge outdoor market

Cons
-No beaches
-Cold weather
-Small city

Sydney
Pros
-Gorgeous beaches
-Big city
-Very scenic (i.e. Harbour Bridge and Opera House)

Cons
-An average public transportation system
-Too many dirty pubs
-Traffic

Let's just say I'm happy to be on the Sydney side.

Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb

If having my two of my best friends here wasn't enough, I was lucky enough to see my Craig! On August 20, he arrived and I couldn't think of a better way to show him the city he has been dying to go to his whole life than to take him to the top of the one of Sydney's most well-known landmarks, the Harbour Bridge. Getting to the top of the bridge (the highest point of the arch is 440 feet) back took about 2.5 hours. There were tons of ladders and stairs but we managed.

Blue Mountains

Blue Mountains

Erin, Mike Thompson and I had the pleasure of spending the day with Jo's dad, John, in the gorgeous Blue Mountains a couple weeks ago. The Blue Mountains is about 90 minutes away from Sydney and has some of the most breathtaking views. We ended the day by watching the sunset and drinking a bottle of wine with Jo's brother, Grant. We had a blast!




On the train ride back to Sydney, Erin and I entertained ourselves by listening to songs on her iPod, lip syncing and acting out the lyrics and then made Mike Thompson guess what we were listening to. Most of the time, MT would figure it out within the first 15 seconds but let us continue to make fools of ourselves until the song was almost over. I swear we could have fun doing anything.