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.