It's Christmas Time!

Okay so I am slightly late in posting this, but hey better late than never.
Christmas the time when family gather, food is abundant (unfortunately the relationship between food consumption and waist line size is proportional) and I find new and more imaginative ways of doing creative things to may parents power bill (more on this later)!

For my overseas colleagues who read this blog I thought I'd let you in on a bit of an insight into an Aussie Christmas, as I have been dutifully told that we do things "weirdly" (in a nice sense) - Quote from a Texan friend.....

We have our similarities in that we still exchange gifts and spend time with our family but we do other unique things:
 

1. Christmas in Australia is usually a warm affair so we eat and drink cold things to substitute.

• Popular choices are prawns and beer (or the occasional cocktail) - No Christmas is complete in Oz without copious amounts of prawns (or shrimp as they are sometimes called, but shrimp in Oz are something different)
• Other choices include cold leg hams, chicken and turkey. We are very lucky in our areas to have several butchers who do their own smoking and source only local hams to provide us with an excellent selection.

2.  Deserts are often varied considerably.

• We have the traditional selection of Christmas Puddings & Christmas Cakes - I have friends who often make there's 12 months in advance and leave them to mature.
• We also eat another Aussie delicacy called Pavlova (this is a very contentious issue with our nabours accross the Tasman who claim that they came up with it first) or Pav is a baked meringue topped with freshly whipped cream, fruit and chocolate. 

3. Sporting matches are abundant

• An Aussie Christmas is not complete without either The Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race or the Boxing Day Test
• Most Aussies will watch either the Boxing Day Test (Cricket) or the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, or both on Boxing Day
• I personally go for the Sydney to Hobart as I can track it online.

4. Trips to the beach are a must.

• Or if you are like me and live four hours from the coast, any excuse to go for a swim in the creek is fine.
• Relevant excuses include having to fix the flood fence.

5. If you live on a farm, there's always something to do.

• Cows and horses have no sense of timing, so there is always something be mended, a flood crossing to fix or a cow (or 20) to preg test.

Image Sources:  
http://www.spill.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Camils-prawns2.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/MCG99.jpg