Where are you Christmas?

Aussie Slang word of the day is:

Chrissy: Christmas

The count down begins. It is officially 10 days until Christmas. Christmas is my all time favorite time of year. I enjoy getting into the holiday spirit by going out in the mad holiday rush to buy gifts, buying holiday almonds at the shops (Michelle you know what I'm talking about), putting up Christmas decorations, decorating a Christmas tree, making Christmas goodies, spending time with family, going to temple square to see the lights, drinking hot chocolate by the fire, going sledding, skiing and ice skating, listening to Christmas carols and snuggling up in a blanket to watch my favorite Christmas movies Elf, The Santa Clause, Christmas Vacation, and the Christmas Story. However, this year has been different. The song 'Where are you Christmas' by Faith Hill keeps playing in my head.

Where are you Christmas
Why can't I find you
Why have you gone away
Where is the laughter
You used to bring me
Why can't I hear music play

My world is changing
I'm rearranging
Does that mean Christmas changes too

I don't want to sound like the Grinch who stole Christmas, but I can't for the life of me get into the Christmas spirit. This could be due to the lack of snow and the fact that it is 100 degree weather here and all I want to do is go for a nice cold swim at the beach to cool down.

It's quite strange walking down the aisle at the grocery store and hearing Christmas carols in this type of heat. It takes me by surprise every time and I think to myself "Nah, It can't really be Christmas." Brandon and I didn't bring over any of our Christmas decorations when we moved because we were planning on coming home for Christmas each year. Unfortunately, greedy airlines see 'the season of giving' as a chance to take advantage of people and charge ridiculous amounts of money to fly. Sigh. So here we are in Australia without a Christmas tree, Christmas decorations, not a chance of snow and the thought of drinking hot chocolate (or shall I say Milo) in this stifling weather is purely unappetizing. How to get into the holiday spirit? In response to Faith Hills question "Does that mean Christmas changes too?" The meaning of Christmas never changes no matter where you live and it's important to not get blinded by Santa clause and Christmas traditions, although they are wonderful, what we should be celebrating is Christs life.

However, Since we will be calling Australia our home for the next three years or so, and it's pretty unlikely the season is going to miraculously change to winter, I guess it's time to take on an Aussie approach to celebrating Christmas and make some new traditions.

Time to light up the barbie and hit the beach for a swim.