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Our Aussie Christmas
Written by Tamara on January 14, 2009 in News
Knowing this would be our last Australian Christmas for some time, we set out to make this one Christmas to remember. It started back in November when we had a garage sale which saw us sell most of our Christmas decorations. We had thought we would have made the move to Canada come December 25th, so we had drastically downsized. Our special keepsake type decorations had already been shipped to Calgary, leaving us no other choice than to don our thinking caps and plan a tree like no other.
It started with a cardboard box…lots of sloppy green paint and some outside fun. The photo on the left is our finished product and boy did we get some comments. All feeling rather proud as a result I must admit.
For those reading who are not from Australia, our Christmas was a little warmer no doubt than yours. We cranked up our air conditioner, did some family baking, read books about the birth of Jesus and watched our favourite Christmas movie…“The Polar Express”.
We once again visited Townsville’s “Stable on the Strand” where a live nativity captured the real meaning of Christmas. This 5 day long event is put on each year by Youth With a Mission and the combined churches here in Townsville and is a great outreach to the community. As we walked around the town of ‘Bethlehem’ the hot and humid weather that was present was no doubt very close to the actual weather from that town where Mary gave birth so long ago. Needless to say we were very grateful for being able to return to our home later that evening for some air conditioned comfort. 
Our Christmas lunch was shared with over 100 staff and students from Reef to Outback, YWAM. The extra blessing was that we as a family did not have to do any prep or clean up. A sure blessing for a family of 4 who had been up since 5:20am!!
As we spend our next Christmas in a slightly colder climate, wearing a few more clothes no doubt, it sure will be fun to be able to look back upon our 2008 Christmas with very “warm” and fond memories. Excuse the pun! It sure was a highlight making our family Christmas tree from a cardboard box. Part of the memory being that it took 3 days to dry due to the copious amount of paint the kids put on it and the extreme humidity known to Townsville.
January 17th, 2009 at 11:34 pm
I must admit that despite it being a smaller and quieter Christmas for us than previous ones, it ended up being a lot of fun.