to be honest, i don’t even know what a real aussie christmas is, except that most families usually get together for lunch instead of dinner, as is customary in the philippines.

and considering that australia is such a multicultural country, not everyone celebrates christmas with such fervor that they shut down shops in honor of the occasion. well, the big shopping centres do. which is why i was so grateful that it was business as usual for the buddhists in springvale. without them, we would have starved to death. and on christmas day, to boot. like that story, ‘the little match girl’, but the family version.

it was a very quiet christmas for us compared to last year when we had the whole family over. that was fun. that actually made me look forward to christmas and having my niece wake me up early in the morning to complain that santa didn’t really eat much of the timtams she lovingly left for him the night before. (jeff had one job…!)

good times.

so to somehow make the day a bit more meaningful, we decided to hit the beach. i was thinking more edithvale where it’s nice and quiet. jeff wanted to go st. kilda where surprise, surprise, majority of melbourne’s young population communed to enjoy the sun and the sea while drinking and partying on the grass strip; laughing and sashaying about in their summer clothes and santa hats.

the geriatric in me asked the jurassic in jeff, “isn’t alcohol banned at the beach?”

don’t get me wrong. i don’t wanna sound like a party pooper and god knows how i would’ve been in the group if this was ten years ago and i had my girls with me. but, you know, things change and adulting happens. i have a baby to look out for in case some stupid fight breaks out, as what usually happens when alcohol is involved.

and so i wheeled the pram right by the shore, feeling rather proud of myself to give raven some sensory learning experience with the sand because my younger sister keeps lecturing me about how kids need outdoor play blah, blah, blah… but, nope. she wasn’t interested, alright.

in my defense, i did try to get her in there. stressed the poor kid out so i just let her be. she wanted to be with her papa more which was good because it gave me a bit of me-time. what better way to spend christmas than to sit on the beach reading a book without being interrupted by cute little fingers trying to tear the pages out?

so, yeah, long story short, i was that nerd geeking out hardcore on a book about schizophrenia while all around me everyone was partying and having a good time. i wouldn’t want it any other way.

anyhow, there’s not a lot of people who read my blog but to those who do, thank you and i hope you had a wonderful christmas. cheers!

*raven at 1 year and 7 months old