This is just the start of my lengthier Christmas post, but nevertheless I wanted to give it a start. My dear friends back at home in good old Germany, as fast as you are approaching winter with temperatures around or below zero, we are approaching summer here. This does not exactly put me into Christmas mood, so I was a bit surprised, that at the end of spring I see Christmas decoration popping up everywhere in the city now. The fassade of “my” supermarket was decorated with plastic pine tree banches, shiny balls and oversized bows, plastic Christmas trees in shops, in the mall, just everywhere. I will keep you posted, but for now I just had to let you know that this feels STRANGE!
It makes me aware again, that my “biological” clock is still a bit askew. After experiencing autumn and winter back in Germany, I traveled around the world just to arrive back in autumn again. So I had autum – winter – autum – winter, and now it is finally spring with summer looming at the horizon. Please do not expect me to have anything that might come near an emotional Christmas state. It’s just not happening. This is sun, t-shirts and shorts, beach weather, beer and barbies. No “dreaming of a white Christmas…”, “jingle bells, jingle bells…” and so forth, it’s just not happening here mates!
I happened to mention to our wonderful team assistant, that I am not in the right Christmas mood because I need snow or at least temperatures around freezing. Well, the very next day I had snowflakes lying on my desk and my chair. Ellie, our assistant’s daughter, had so much sympathy for me that she decided to cut snowflakes out of white paper, just for me to help me feel that Christmas is here. “Your wish came true because Michelle and Ellie made it come true” this wonderful little girl wrote. This has been the most moving Christmas present I have ever received in my entire life.
My fabulous friends knew that the Germans have their most important Christmas celebration at Christmas eve. We can’t leave Marcus alone on Christmas Eve they decided, and so they organised a surprise Christmas dinner at the German Black Forest Restaurant in Dutton Park. It was fantastic, and I had a great Christmas dinner together with my wonderful friends. The roasted duck with red cabbage and potato dumplings was delicious, and in combination with a glass of genuine Schneider Weisse it couldn’t get any better.
On Christmas day Greg took me over to very good friends of his for Christmas lunch. Fabulous people who just said “Greg’s friends are our friends”, absolutely uncomplicated, relaxed, laid back. They lived in the wonderful suburb of The Gap, on Christmas day it rained a bit, but we had a wonderful time. Everybody contributed something to the Christmas lunch (I made Italian-style antipasti), it was such a relaxing afternoon.
Christmas in 2010 was different, very different, but I enjoyed every single bit of it, and I realized again what a wonderful circle of friends I was allowed to meet, and what great people the Australians are.