A personal post

It's Christmas Eve here in Queanbeyan and I am feeling a bit pensive. Hmm, pensive? Not in a bad way.

First, let me add a couple things I also thought of about driving. It is illegal to talk on a cell phone or text while driving. And, all tickets in Australia are really expensive. Speeding tickets can be $300+, and that's for 30km/hr over I think. There are lots of random breath tests given. I haven't been tested yet, but I've seen three since I've been here and Mick's been through one too. It isn't just at night. These random roadblocks happen during the day as well, any day of the week. The drunk driving limit is 0.05, so it's lower than the US and they are really harsh on driving penalties.

Ok, so yesterday...whew! It was a very frustrating day in some ways. The grocery store was INSANELY busy. Seriously, I think every free person in Queanbeyan decided the store was THE place to be yesterday at 2pm. We had a couple things break yesterday- an ipod docking station of Em's and the car's passenger side mirror was slightly damaged. The docking station we couldn't fix, but the mirror we taped up and it's peachy keen jelly bean. :) The kids helped me make People Chow of course, as the pics from yesterday show. They were desperate to have some, and some of the fudge. But they were not listening well at all yesterday, which is unlike them. Maybe it was just Christmas approaching excitement. I'm not sure. So they didn't get to try the treats until last night, but they loved them.

We have neighbor kids who come over to play and they came by last night. Unfortunately, both are boys so Emily doesn't really want to play with them, and when she does, they are rough playing with her. A couple of weeks ago, the older boy, Reese, who is 12, opened a door not knowing Em was on the other side and she had a bruise on her cheek for a while. (And yes, I know there were far too many commas in that last sentence!) Mick told her just to tell everyone she got in a fight with a tiger and they should see the tiger! :) He is such a good dad. Anyway, Reese plays a bit rough and Em doesn't like him and Eddie fluctuates back and forth. Ed likes the 8 year old boy, Jay, better. I think the family is just a bit different and maybe the kids haven't been taught better. They were telling me last night that they know all their Christmas presents already. How sad is that? Christmas morning should be a good surprise! I think Reese and Jay's hearts are in the right place...like Reese especially tries to get both Em and Ed playing and having fun and does some thoughtful things like asking both me and Mick as well as Eddie if he could borrow a playstation game. Yet they do some thoughtless things too. For example, last night they came over just as I was helping Emily and Eddie make their homemade pizza (they put on the sauce and toppings) so they knew dinner would be soon. When I called Eddie up and told him the pizza was ready, instead of Reese and Jay leaving, they just waited downstairs. Mick and I didn't know they were still down there until Eddie said something. And they go into Emily's room without her permission. So, I am in charge of talking to them today if they stop by. Just interesting dynamics and I wish Emily had a girl to play with.

Because it's Christmas Eve here, I've of course been thinking a lot of what would be happening if I were in the US today. I got up early today and made peanut butter fudge which is cooling. I'll make sausage balls too. I'm not making Christmas dinner because Mick's dad and Lesley invited us tomorrow for lunch and I'm sure we'll have turkey or prawns or lamb. Something Aussie Christmas-y. Brian and Lesley are big on health food and organic food so I can't bring them any treats. Instead, we're bringing a bottle of wine.

Mick's been getting presents from people on his route. Aww, giving the postie a present! :) He says people love posties and are always asking him questions and talking to him. We didn't give our postie anything, but she only just delivered a letter to me, and Mick hasn't gotten one yet. My first letter, btw, was my Christmas card from Mandy. So thank you Mandy! :) It was really nice to get a Christmas card to put on our mantle this year. And nice to get a letter here. I always feel more like it's my home once I get that first letter to me, even if it's a bill or something. :)

It's cloudy today and rain is predicted for this weekend. lol, I wish I could record the noises I'm hearing. The kids are still asleep, but two Rosella parrots are arguing in the tree out front and on our roof and it's noisy. :)

Oh! Last night, just as the kids headed to bed, I went to our bedroom and turned the TV on to have a few minutes of downtown before sleep. Poor Eddie walks out into the hall, and I can see his room from the bed. He's crying and I thought he was upset because Mick had a stern talk with the kids about being good for me and listening and we'd also discussed the cost of expensive adult things like ipod docking stations and how they shouldn't be broken and should be looked after and that upset both kids too. No, Eddie wasn't upset about that. He'd seen a spider in his room on the wall. So I grabbed my shoe and told him to show me where it was and I'd kill it for him. Now, you all know I am NOT a spider fan. And yet, when Eddie asks me to kill a spider, I don't hesitate. Well, Mick heard Eddie crying and took over, so I didn't end up having to kill the spider, and good thing! Mick flips on the light and BAM! Huntsman spider, huge! Remember that pic I posted on facebook of the Hunstman spider? Yeah. Giant. No wonder Eddie was FREAKED! Mick killed the spider but poor Eddie was scared. So Emily loaned Eddie one of her teddies, a lion to protect him. We had a family talk about how Huntsmans aren't poisonous and he was just hanging out there eating the mozzies that were going to bite Ed. Eddie came and stayed with me in the bed for a while and we talked about spiders and decided instead of funnel web spiders, we would call them funny web spiders and they probably wrote jokes in their webs. :)

If I were in the US, I'd be in Memphis now, helping Mom bake and cook. My aunt and uncle are on their way to Memphis, or may even be there by now. I imagine Stu and Ashley might stop by. I wouldn't have gotten out of bed at 7:15am though. I can guarantee that! I wouldn't be making homemade Bisquik or marshmallow fluff. I would be having lots of discussions and chats with my parents, my aunt and uncle, brother and sis in law.

Here's it's just as good to watch the excitement on the kids faces and see them helping bake and merging Aussie and US Christmas traditions. The kids make me laugh lots. For example, right now they are sitting on the couch making faces at each other and saying over and over "Would you like to marry me?" And earlier we had a raspberry blowing contest. They keep life super exciting. :) And I remember last Christmas being without Mick and how that was super hard too. So it's a trade off isn't it? If I had a transporter I would be able to be both in the US and in AUS. But then I'd be running around like crazy and up at all times of the day and night. I guess the truth is that no matter where I am, I have to make some sacrifices and really, I'm lucky. 20 years ago, I wouldn't be able to Skype with my family on Christmas day. I wouldn't be able to text my friends. I wouldn't be able to have international connections no matter what country I was in. I wouldn't have been able to maintain my relationship with Mick or have met Emily or Eddie or Bruce or Claire. So thank you modern technology. :)

I do want you all to know that I miss you. I miss my friends, my family, my colleagues. I miss the US and the cold and Christmas traditions there. I'm so lucky you all still stay in contact with me, via facebook or email or skype or all of the above! I want nothing more than for each and every one of you reading to have a wonderful Christmas, filled with love and joy and family and friends and celebration. For those of you like me who are Christians, I hope that you treasure the celebration of the birth of Jesus and all that comes with that. :) And whether you are Christian or Jewish or Agnostic or Atheist, whether you will be with family or friends on Christmas, I want you all to know that there's a friend in Australia thinking of you and sending you love and happiness.