Today is the last day to enter the Travel Tribe Blog Hop competition to win a $50 Amazon gift card.
All you have to do is comment on each member of the Tribe’s post for the competition and complete the Rafflecopter entry form which you can find on Andi from Misadventures with Andi’s post for the hop.
Good luck and enjoy reading everyone’s festive posts before the contest ends on Jan 4 at 11:59 PM PST!
Wow so Christmas is done for another year and now we are looking forward to celebrating New Years Eve already. I have to say I am very confused by what day it actually is today but am very glad to still have another 8 days of holiday left until I go back to work on the 5th January.
So how did you all spend your time over Christmas Day and Boxing Day? Me and the Aussie spent Christmas day with our lovely American Friends (who would like to be referred to as “the Americans” :-)) and their gorgeous puppy Rosie, she is officially my favourite dog in Australia!
During the day we pretty much did the following, swim for a bit with some champagne, eat a delicious lunch, swim for a bit with some wine, eat dessert (pumpkin bread pudding with maple syrup and brandy cream which was a-m-a-z-i-n-g), learnt how to play carcassone, went for another swim, ate second dessert (more bread pudding) and finished playing carcassone. Life in the tropics and on Christmas day is tough as you can imagine!!!
We had some steak on the BBQ for lunch with some salads I had a go at creating and quite enjoyed sampling. Cooking on the BBQ at Christmas is, I believe, mandatory. I am a bit of a throw some leaves and tomoatoes etc in a bowl kind of salad girl at home so it was fun to give some more fancy salads a try.
In the evening I FaceTimed my family who were at my Brothers for the day, which I loved as I got to enjoy some of the usual hustle and bustle of Christmas Day with them.
On Boxing Day the Aussie’s brother came over for lunch and I put together a traditional Christmas dinner that I would have had my family. It was a bit on the warm side cooking the dinner and I had commented to the Aussie how much I was missing having a BBQ because there wasn’t enough room in the oven to cook everything I wanted to cook for lunch so it had to be cooked in stages (complete with my terrible calculation skills when trying to work out how to get everything cooked on time).
The Aussie’s brother then turned up with a BBQ as our Christmas present this year! Such a cool idea and one that I am very pleased about receiving. It’s yellow too which I am sure is secretly the Aussie’s favourite colour!
I was very lucky with my gifts which included money and some tea towels to remind me of home from my parents (already bought some new books!), some camera equipment from the Aussie (I now have no excuse for not getting the DSLR out)and a beautiful penguin ornament from my beautiful friends in Somerset.
I’m also really just enjoying relaxing and having a break from anything strenuous! Only 362 days until Christmas!!!
As I mentioned in this post I have been participating in the Blog Love Travel Blog Tribe Hop!
I thought I would share all of the posts from my fellow Tribe members just in case you missed them. Don’t forget to visit all of the posts and leave a comment so that you can participate in the competition to win an Amazon voucher.
Jess from North and South Nomads wrote a fantastic round-up of her favourite blogs for 2014. If you are looking for some blog inspiration then you should definitely check out her post.
Natalie from Cosmos Mariners wrote about Christmas traditions in Charleston here – do you think you would be brave enough to take the Polar Bear Plunge?
I wrote about my favourite Christmas Traditions here.
Andi from Misadventures with Andi wrote about Christmas in San Fransisco. There’s so much to do there and I would love to try the buttered rum!
Denise from Kuanyin’s Travels about the meaning of Christmas for her and her gorgeous son.
Barbara wrote about life on the circus train for her first married Christmas for her post.
To enter the competition please visit Misadventures With Andi and click on to the rafflecopter contest at the bottom of the link.
Somehow there are just 3 sleeps until Christmas, how did that happen!?! I have just half a day of work left until my holidays and I cannot wait to be able to sit back and relax for a couple of weeks.
I’ve also finally put up our not so little Christmas Tree this weekend and am loving the festive spirit it creates. I also watched Love, Actually which was as great as always.
This year we weren’t able to fly back to the UK for Christmas with my family due to those annoying finances. I am though already planning the trip next year and cannot wait to spend lots of time with my family and friends (only about 50 weeks to go!).
We’ve planned to spend the day with a couple of our friends in Darwin this year. They are from America so it’s going to be fun and interesting to combine our different traditions together. We’re going to be cooking some yummy food on the BBQ and of course in the Aussie tradition will be hanging out around and in the pool!
Christmas in Darwin is quite different than Christmas in the UK. It’s obviously much hotter (around 33 degrees C versus 12 degrees C) plus there’s about 70 to 80% humidity so all you want is an ice cold drink (cider for me please) and to live in the air con and/or a swimming pool.
Last year we had Christmas lunch under the veranda whilst it rained most of the day. It was very strange being sat outside at Christmas.
In the UK also everyone wonders whether it is going to be a white Christmas but in Darwin we are all wondering when the rain is going to come. Apparently the monsoon rain won’t be coming until mid to late January so we have a little while yet for this humidity 🙁
The weather also influences what we do and most importantly what we eat on Christmas Day in each country.
As a family we would probably only have turkey a couple of times a year, at Christmas and Easter so it’s a bit of a special treat and I always look forward to sitting down with the family on Christmas Day for the turkey with all the trimmings including pigs in blankets (sausages wrapped in bacon), sprouts (apparently I used to steal them from everyone’s plates at Christmas which must have been pleasant) and you can’t beat some bread sauce.
In Darwin, and Australia really, I understand that it’s more likely that you would eat some roast beef or lamb than turkey. Ham is also popular as well as anything you can cook on the BBQ and your less likely to have a full roast dinner because it’s too hot to cook which is a shame as you can’t beat some proper roast potatoes.
I did have a go at a full roast last Christmas and managed to cook it all on the barbie!
The Aussie’s brother is visiting us on Boxing Day for lunch and we’re planning a bit of a full Christmas dinner then depending on how hot its is. I’m definitely wishing we had a BBQ still because it would be great to stick everything in it to cook whilst sitting in the cool house rather than running around in the kitchen.
We also always watch the Queens Speech with my family and I am looking forward to sitting down and watching it because they also show it here for us because Australia is a Commonwealth Country. I am looking forward to watching the Doctor Who Christmas special after watching the trailer recently. It also will be on here before in the UK because of the timezones so will have to make sure I don’t give away any spoilers because my brother is a HUGE Doctor Who fan.
In the evening in the UK, after watching all the Christmas TV specials we would sit down around the table again and enjoy some cold meats, pickles like pickled beetroot or cabbage which is amazing.
We probably won’t do that here this year but instead I am really really excited to FaceTime my family when they open their presents on Christmas morning. Last year we did the same and whilst I wish I could be there with them FaceTime is the perfect way to feel part of the day with them.
Last year I even got to sit down with them whilst they ate their Christmas lunch, though I had food envy!! My Mum’s a fantastic cook.
What are your families Christmas traditions? What do you always look forward to at Christmas?
Check out the other posts from our Blog Love Travel Tribe Blog Hop. You can find all of the links here.
To enter the competition please visit Misadventures With Andi and click on to the rafflecopter contest at the bottom of the link.