A Beached As Christmas

Despite my reservations about being alone for Christmas, I had a surprisingly good day down under. Christmas Eve, I spent four hours baking and getting in the holiday spirit: a chocolate cake with Betty Crocker vanilla icing and M&Ms, butter cookies with frosting and sprinkles, cream cheese cookies, an angel food cake, and sugar cookies with M&Ms, all from scratch. This is very impressive for me, as I've never made a cake from anything but a box. Regardless of my feat, I would still kill for a box of funfetti cake mix. 

On Christmas day, I got to do exactly what I wanted. I found some friends from the Pipi Patch and chilled on the beach. We ate cookies, played volleyball, and went for a fantastic dip in the sea. We even got some killer group photos, including a successful all-8-of-us-in-the-air shot. 

When I got home, my roommates  Marie-line (from Montreal) and Avia (from Christchurch) and I had a sweet dinner: baked chicken with sun-dried tomatoes and brie, brown-sugar glazed carrots, and pesto and garlic pasta. We split a bottle of New Zealand Merlot wine and cut into the cake. 

Everything was delicious and it was so nice to relax and have a low-key day. 

 

 

Then, my friend Bronson, got a puppy for Christmas, just like every kid dreams about. I got to go over and play with Bones, and watch a bit of Phantom of the Opera, since there wasn't a Christmas film on tv. He is the cutest puppy ever. I want one :) 

 

One of the fun Christmas traditions down under is Christmas crackers. Inside is a paper crown, a slip of paper with a joke, and hopefully a toy. Clearly, Brons and I did not have to fight over who got the elastic bracelet that came out of my cracker. And he's the only one I know who would wear a pink, blue, and yellow plaid hat, with a paper crown on top. 

 

All in all, Christmas was pretty good. It was fun to be with other people who just wanted to hang out, and Heather in Room 6 at Pipi even shared some holiday spirit. Her mom sent over gifts from Canada including these precious packs of white cotton candy sold as 'Santa's Beard.' Definitely something else to import for Christmas in the future.