Melbourne Christmas

My Christmas post is finally here! After spending two years in a row with Alastair's family, I can easily say that these will be some of my best experiences in Australia. The celebrations begin around noon, and they go at least eight hours. If you don't have a glass of wine in your hand, you will have one soonafter. Regardless of the abundance of alcohol, I treasure the traditions and the people who make the day so special. 

At 11:50 am on Christmas morning, I stood in the lobby of our Southbank hotel with my family, waiting for our taxis to arrive. I took a candy cane from a basket at reception. 

When we got to Uncle Nick's house, the first thing I noticed was the Christmas ham. Even my mom couldn't stop gawking at it, and she hates ham!

The first dish of the afternoon was a cold plate of prawns, smoked salmon, avocado, greens and some fantastic homemade sauce (I wasn't sure what it was). Al's not a big seafood person, so I happily helped him finish his plate after I ate mine. 

By the way, if it looks like a lot of plates, there were 28 people there!

Since there were so many people, everybody brought a unisex gift with a $20 cap wrapped in red with a white bow. It made Christmas shopping much easier for us.

Our place setting included a Santa hat with our name pinned to it (the "R" is part of a "Merry Christmas" set) and a Christmas bon bon. Every bon bon contains a paper Christmas hat that looks like a crown, a toy and a fortune on a piece of paper. To open the bon bon, you need to grab one end and have somebody grab the other. Then, you pull very hard. An end breaks off, and you can get your goodies in the middle!

Al's grandpa (Gramps) made a speech while we ate our first course. He talked about how happy he was that we were all together, and he welcomed the out-of-towners. Most of Al's family live in Adelaide, but there were also people there from Canberra and, of course, the United States.

After our appetizers, the Christmas lunch spread was ready.

Carved turkey

Roasted potatoes (one of my favorites)

Grumpy's (Al's grandma, who is the antithesis of grumpy) tomato pie, which is chopped tomatoes, bread, onions and probably lots of butter. It's another one of my favorites. 

Carved ham

After lunch, the desserts started to come out. There were several bowls of brandy butter, which is whipped butter, sugar and brandy. I'd eat it by the spoonful (I did eat tiny spoonfuls for a little while), but I'd be very, very sick. It's a Christmas tradition, and it goes with cake. It tastes like brandy, but not too strong. I actually think it's delicious, but my arteries are happy that it only comes out once a year. 

Later on, Al's uncle Andy collected (or stole) people's letters so that he could have "YMCA" on his shirt pocket. I got to keep mine, since I had an "R".

The younger boys played with their new remote control helicopter. It captivated me for a while, but then I was distracted by the dessert.

Nick has a beautiful view from his back yard, but pictures do zero justice. It's very green and hilly.

We also opened our Kris Kringle presents. Grumpy picked one of our presents, which was a pooping sheep. You put jelly beans into the sheet, and it's comes out of its rear end. She was very amused.

I take back what I said before about being distracted by dessert, actually. I was distracted by Andy emerging in a Santa costume.

Al's dad Jamie sat on Santa's lap to ask for some last-minute Christmas gifts. Unfortunately, it was too late for Santa to go back to the North Pole to get his presents. Next year, maybe.

THEN, I got distracted by the dessert.

Christmas pudding (like fruitcake but more cake-like), fresh berries, brandy butter and cream (like whipped cream but not sweet and comes in plastic containers- I can do without it, personally). I think this was my mom's plate. 

We stayed for hours after that. I didn't take too many pictures with people. They're all on my mom's camera. If I get them soon (and like them), then I'll add them!