Christmas on Hayman Island

Christmas

G'day Mates! Wishing all of you a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year! 

My Australian Christmas: It was the most different Christmas I have ever had. The reasons why......

1. It's an average of 30 degree Celsius everyday, therefore, it literally does not "feel" like Christmas.

2. A tropical island.....which is a new one for me :). 

3. Spending the day at the beach with a lot of people that I didn't know well or simply did not know.

4. A lack of Christmas spirit (in my perspective, of course). The typical Christmas is spent getting "pissed" or what I know as getting drunk. Most Australian felt that it was a normal holiday, nothing unusual.

5. No Christmas services

6. No Christmas programs to enjoy

7. Unable to watch the magic of Christmas in little children's eyes, when they open up their Christmas presents. :)

8. No prune tarts :) ......or any of the traditional Christmas food.

9. There was no Christmas tree to be found anywhere.

10. No original peppermint candy canes.

Regardless of the differences, it did feel like Christmas in one aspect. I was fortunate enough to visit with friends and family over Face Time, which was awesome :) Thank goodness for technology! It's so easy to chat to people!

Christmas Eve was spent over at D1, Mia and Buff's room! Our rooms do not have any furniture other than beds, so that's why you will not see us sitting on a lovely sofa or arm chair ;).

Miss Mia!

Christmas Eve snacks! It was all the corner store had to offer :). This was the first time I had Doritos and salsa as a Christmas Eve food!

Spent the evening with my awesome travel companions, relaxing, singing and just being.

Bon Bon's. These are an Australian tradition. They are mini fire crackers. They often have them on the Christmas tree as decoration, but they are usually filled with a paper hat, a piece or two of candy, a small toy and a joke. Before you sit down to eat Christmas dinner, you would pull one end, while another person pulled the other end. It then "cracks" open. Then you put your paper hat on your head and eat dinner. 

Pablo and Fabrina are from Argentina. They are a couple of my co-workers :)

My Christmas dinner plate!

Yummm!! Dried apricots, almonds and pistachios! A good combo :)

Part of the AHS work crew!

Ann! Seafood is a traditional part of the Aussie Christmas.

Mango cheesecake, cherries and pecan pie! Yumm :)

Chillin at the staff beach with a bunch of folks! Slacklining, listening to the guitar and harmonica, watching a backyard game of cricket. Oh and playing catch with a football.....so much fun. Although the footballs here are not the same, it was still a hoot :)

Enjoying the warm waters of Christmas Day

Tony and Haidi! A couple of my awesome co-workers.

The music players

I love Buff's laugh in this pic! :) and Brianna is loving it too!

Australian Christmas

Sunset slacklining!

 Boxing Day morning hike to watch the sunrise! Brianna and I joined Brian and Tiffany on this early morning adventure :). Although it was so early, it was worth it, especially when I don't wake up too early on a regular basis ;). We ventured to Dolphin Point, an island lookout, to watch the sunrise. Beautiful!

The morning light starting to come through!

Brian and Tiffany, fellow Americans! When you meet someone who knows Wayzetta.....Wuolett Bakery and Punch Pizza to name a couple, you realize how small the world is! Tiff is from MN. 

Bambs, loving the morning :)

Sunrise!

Love it! Life is grand!

Boxing Day evening.....at the staff beach! During the day we relaxed at the staff beach again and to my delight, I met this amazing family that is new to the island! The father is going to be the new school principal. His wife is going to be a teacher. Class size at the beginning of Feb will be five. They have two kids! Adorable I might say :). They wanted to slackline, so I gave them a hand and they loved it! This is Noah, my new buddy, who just yesterday gave me the most adorable picture that he drew of the slacklining events!

And here is Tilly giving it a go!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and may your New Year be wonderful! Cheers until next time! :)