Christmas is a lovely day wherever you spend it, but there is something special about Christmas in a cold climate. It’s huge a contrast to our Christmas on Ha Long Bay (Vietnam) last year!
We’d brought a pile of clip on Koalas and Australian delicacies with us, so hid the Koalas all over Evie’s house. A cute little reminder of home, and a bit of fun for the kids. I’m not sure that the locals were fussed on the idea of Vegemite, but the caramello koalas, fantales, tim tams, jaffas and cherry ripe will probably go down OK.
Gifts were opened in the dark… but thankfully that meant 7:30, not 4:00am – bonus! Before I left Australia I’d got the low-down on all the weird and wonderful stocking fillers that used to appear when I was a child. Thanks to internet shopping I was able to source fortune teller fish, an acrobatic monkey, flipping cow and dog, racing snails, slinky… the list goes on. Of course this was complemented by the obligatory nuts, chocolate coins, sherbert fountain and Terry’s chocolate orange. It was an absolute blast from the past to watch the girls unpack the stockings with the look of ‘what the…?’.
The girls were also very spoilt by Evie, Gran, Kate and Peter who had all found gorgeous gifts that fit nicely into a suitcase, and somehow didn’t double up – what stars! It was also lovely to catch up with Bonne on FaceTime – the wonders of modern technology 🙂
After opening gifts we sent off some sky lanterns to remember Poppy, Grandpa and Evie’s John. A nice way to remember those that we love in the pre-dawn light.
Christmas lunch was at Gran’s, although the cooking was completed across 2 houses – gives you some sense of the volume! All our favourites were on offer – Turkey, brussel sprouts, parsnips and multiple varieties of potato… and of course, ‘stuffing pies’. I don’t know if it’s just a Bamber/ Hunt tradition, or if it’s more wide-spread, but the practice of putting stuffing into a cup cake tin and baking it is one of the best inventions ever. EVER.
Best of all, was the opportunity to spend the day with our English family. I’m sure that on Christmas Day 1982 I couldn’t have imagined the adventures that were about to unfold, or how long it would be until we spent another Christmas in the UK. It truly was a very Merry and memorable Christmas 🙂
Merry Christmas to all!
love M & theBunch xx
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