Merry Christmas from the Southern Hemisphere!

Port Stephens, NSW Australia

It's Christmas Eve here in Sydney and besides being a very hot day, it's cooled down this evening and is now raining. I was just thinking about when I was living in Washington State and my siblings and I would wish and hope so badly for a white Christmas and now here we are living in a country that has Christmas in summertime. I've been living in the Southern Hemisphere for 3-Christmases now and I still can't get used to that.

This is also the 3rd Christmas that we've been away from family. I can't get used to that either. I can't wait for the year that all of our families get to be together during the holidays. I miss making Christmas cookies with my mom and sister, decorating gingerbread houses, the cooler weather and all the cheesy Christmas decorations, which are lacking here. Big time. I also tried to find the gingerbread house kits and they are MIA in Australia. So are red and green sprinkles for my cookies. OH YEA- and candy canes!!!!! WTH? I finally found some after searching 2-grocery stores and they were pink and white. Not going to cut it, Sydney.

I am very thankful that I have a husband here to celebrate with and that he tolerates my love for Christmas music, Christmas movies and my Barbie themed Christmas tree (thanks Mom for all the Hallmark Keepsake ornaments you have given me throughout the years!). I especially look forward to the upcoming years that we will be able to start our own Christmas traditions with our little guy, no matter where we are in the world. I hope he will someday look back at his childhood and have as good of memories as I do celebrating Christmas as a kid.

Today and tomorrow on Christmas Day we will be thinking about our friends and family and wishing that everyone has a special day filled with memories and love.

                                 

My favorite Christmas movie of all time!

http://images5.fanpop.com/image/photos/31400000/National-Lampoon-s-Christmas-Vacation-national-lampoons-christmasvacation-31459912-1024-768.jpg

Just some images that helped me get in the Christmas spirit this year

Photos via Pinterest by: http://media-cache0.pinterest.com/upload/130674826659674497_Prv6unnH.jpg

http://www.melaniepainter.com/2012/01/holy-crickets-aaron-is-e-famous.html

http://www.marthastewart.com/921723/swedish-gingerbread-house-how

Photo via Pinterest by: http://img4-1.coastalliving.timeinc.net/i/2005/11/christmas-white-room-l.jpg?400:400

Photo via Pinterest by: http://recipenewz.com/recipe/Gingerbread-Men-201211140423/

Well hello, 3rd Trimester

Date night at the Opera House

This past weekend was a scorcher! Temperatures were close to 100 degrees so we headed to Coogee Beach with another one of my preggo friends and her husband to enjoy the ocean to cool off.  Coogee is south of the famous Bondi Beach and a lot less crowded and chaotic, has less backpackers but is just as beautiful.

We received some tickets to see Tchaikovsky's 'Queen of Spades' for later that evening. It was an opera and a symphony all in one and really interesting and beautiful at the same time. If you read my older posts about my tour of the Opera House, 'Queen of Spades' was performed in the symphony hall that has the enormous pipe organ. I grabbed a sneaky picture of the theatre; so beautiful and impressive. My cell phone picture below doesn't come close to capturing all the detail.

 I really enjoyed the music and so did the baby; he was dancing around the whole 3 hours! Isn't classical music supposed to make a baby in utero smarter, later in life? I'm thinking I should read up on this! Aside from the music, the story was a little dark. The opera was in Russian so they had the translation on a reader board up front but I found myself watching the little conductor man and all his erratic movements instead of following pieces of the story. Come to find out, Kevin was doing the same thing :).  Nonetheless, it was a fun experience to see a show at the famed Sydney Opera House.

Red lights shine on the Opera House Roof and the Sydney Harbour Bridge at nighttime.