Christmas in Parramatta!

Thursday was the Christmas Celebration in Parramatta and being the Christmas lover I am, we had to go!

I put on my Santa hat the minute we arrived!

It was really fun - everything was set up in front of the town hall building in the main square.

All around town they have fun banners up for Christmas!

They City of Parramatta even had the 3 Wise Men on Camels for everyone to see!

Then I found this beautiful wood carving of the nativity scene- stunning!

Look I got Jeff to put on his Christmas hat!

As promised - it was a Smurf Christmas!

Then it was time for the Lord (Lady) Mayor to light the tree - it was so pretty! It's a bit hard to see here, but she is at the podium with her magic Christmas wand. She is also standing with the crew from the Aussie outback show!

There was even a chill in the air that night so it really felt like Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Down Under!

Preview of Tonight's Activities

Even though it is the first day of summer here (as the lady on the Aussie version of the Today Show, "Sunrise," told me) it is still Christmas time. So tonight Ashley and I are going to the opening festivities at Parramatta (the suburb where we are living for our new readers...the name pretty much derives from an Aborigine word meaning "where the eels come" hence the rugby league here is the Eels...yes I will sport some team paraphernalia on my return...do NOT wear that Sydney Rabbitoh stuff around here!) Town Hall. I think we will get there towards the middle of the event but the awesome activities are as follows:

6:00PM Meet and Greet the SMURFS (including Smurfette)

6:30PM Go Seek Christmas Jingle Jangle Journey Christmas Show (yes they said Christmas twice in the title but that means double the Holiday fun!)

7:00PM The Smurfs Christmas Show

7:30PM The Outback Aussie Very Special Christmas Show (outback? yes I assume this will reinforce some our stereotypes and biases about the Australian people)

8:15PM Official lighting of the Christmas tree by the Lord Mayor (who is in fact a Lady)

We'll let you know all about it on our return!

Thank you, ABC

Of all the networks back home only ABC lets you stream their shows online while in Australia....we can't get Netflix or Hulu....or Pandora even, as my wife here reminds me. Everything here is reruns from the US or reality TV...you know they still have Beauty and the Geek here?

A Surry Hills Saturday

After our decorating was done, we headed out to a new area of Sydney called Surry Hills. Several people have recommended it to us so we had to go!

We spent several hours tour the area and shopping in the cute boutiques.

Jeff and I were wandering the streets and ran into a cute pop-up shop so we stopped in. I am so glad we did because we both came out with some cute new clothes.

Apparently pop-up shops are big here because we seem them all over but have never been in any. They basically open a shop in an empty store front and it's just the clothes. Most are at a big discount from other stores (big plus!).

We found several other cute shops but got so wrapped up in having good time, no pictures were taken! We found one that was very eclectic and had fabulous furniture and we bought a few cute ornaments for our tree.

I am pretty sure if we could, I would buy all the furniture at the store and try and ship it back home.

This is the old school that they are renovating in Surry Hills - so cute!

It even had two separate entrances for boys and girls. If you look closely you might be able to read it.

Check out the old police station too - very cool.

I am sure we will be back here too! It's so close and very great shopping!

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas...

If only in my dreams!

So Christmas time is upon us and as everything is getting cold in the states, things are just getting warmed up here! It was 85 Sat but that didn't stop us from decorating the place for the Christmas season.

Since we already have several decorations and two trees at home, we went with a minimalist approach to the decorating. This was hard for me since I LOVE to decorate for Christmas, but there is always next year.

Jeff and our little tree

Every time the hubs and I go on a vacation, we like to buy an ornament to commemorate the trip and remember for years to come. This year we got this guy - a koala wrapping presents!

We even customized him so we could remember when we were here.

I got to place him on the tree!

Here is Jeff topping off our little tree.

TA-DA!

Our stockings are hung on the banister with care. In hope that St. Nicholas soon will be here!

Another random side note - Coke is doing a really fun marketing campaign here that encourages you to share a coke with someone. All the cans and bottles have a name or person on them.

Jeff was sharing with Prancer!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Our Thanksgiving Celebration

Jeff and I decided to celebrate Thanksgiving on Friday here in Australia because he did not have time off from work and that it was still Thursday in the States! We figured this way we could celebrate with everyone from far away!

So after several trips to the store looking for our normal ingredients, we were all ready to start cooking.

We found almost everything we needed for the dinner but never did find the fried onions to top our green bean casserole. :(

Another thing to point out - we never did find a uncooked turkey so we used what we had - this guy! He was a precooked 6 lb Turkey. Sorry Ellen - we did not have Dingo as you were told!

Here is Jeff ready to perform his Thanksgiving day task of carving the turkey.

Looks yummy!

I also made thanksgiving cookies instead of a pie. Jeff and I are not big pumpkin people so we wanted to make a chocolate pie. I looked all over for Jello to make my grandma's chocolate pie recipe, but there was no Jello to be found! Cookies did just fine.

After everything was cooked we were ready to eat. We had homemade stuffing and green bean casserole with the mashed potatoes and turkey.

What a spread!

Jeff and I were ready to dig in! It was great!

My only suggestion for next year - do not use the bag of pre-made mashed potatoes. They tasted a bit like cookie dough and were not kept for leftovers!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving with their family and friends. We are so thankful to everyone who is a part of our life.

Pretty Bird

Friday morning as I was drinking my coffee, I look out our balcony window and saw the most amazing bird. It was really rainy so it is hard to see - but this little guys colors were so vibrant!

He sat on the ledge there for a good 5 minutes as I took photos and watch him.

Now I am not a bird watcher by any means, but he was so amazing!

This was the perfect start to our thanksgiving celebration.