Christmas In The Summer- An Aussie Christmas Under A Blue Moon

Santa decorations on surfboards is truly a novel sight.  A Christmas under the hot summer sun is something I have never experienced before and it has been absolutely exciting!  Not to mention, this is the first Christmas with a blue moon in over four decades!

Sunny Beaches:

With water warmer than the California shores in July, we made sure to take advantage of the beautiful beaches of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia.  We have searched online for a good beach to visit and decided on the beach on exit 69.  (definitely easy enough of a number to remember)
 The beach is a dog beach with a view of some of the higher buildings on one end and on the other Hell's Gate of Noosa National Park.  A river that connects and disconnects with the ocean throughout the day.  We watched people kite surf and adorable dogs of all shapes and sizes run along the length of the beach.



Christmas Traditions:
Chris's family has always had a tradition of eating panettone and hot cocoa on Christmas Eve.  The panettone was surprisingly much easier to find in Australia than it is in the United States.  We couldn't find the brand of chocolate his family usually uses so we settled with melting Toblerone instead. The result was lovely.

 


On another note, we were stoked to see bon bons sold everywhere.  It's a dream come true after seeing it as a key prop on Doctor Who.  We had no idea there was such a tradition prior to our binge watch of the show.  So we bought ourselves some for funsies.  Got some more cool stuff/junk, but the experience was worth it.




Exchanges of lovely gifts:

With our families far away and a tight budget with the two of us, we just purchased a bunch of little items (couple dollars a piece) for each other and wrapped them up for some gift giving fun.



I also used some of the shells we have collected in Magnetic island to create some bracelets and necklaces for my co-workers at the retail shop.




Christmas day began with a gigantic Toblerone and a box of Cadbury chocolate from our lovely landlady Jill.


Barbeque in December:

After our beach trip, we joined Jill's family barbeque and enjoyed some delicious foods and wonderful conversations.


It's times like this that always reminds me the joy of giving and to appreciate all the relationships we have created during our travels.  To all of you that have gifted your time by visiting my blog, I'd like to say "thank you". Wishing everyone a wonderful holiday season.


What did you do this Christmas?  Share with me in the comments below!