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I don't know how I went for so long without ever watching Nightmare Before Christmas, but it's awesome. I borrowed the soundtrack from my library today and am now listening to it on repeat, learning all the lyrics.
What's this?
There are children throwing snowballs
Instead of throwing heads
They're busy building toys
And absolutely no-one's dead
Turns out I should have worked a bit harder at learning the lyrics to certain extremely well-known carols. That or learning how to count backwards from twelve. Whatever, New Tradition: Carols By Candelight was a (very cold and windy) success!
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I have worked in retail for a ridiculous number of years, and for at least the last THREE, I have had Christmas Eve off. This year I was scheduled to work, but in a Christmas miracle, got it off, so I could continue my Wishing Tree Present-Buying Tradition.
Which was slightly not as per tradition, as the Wishing Tree people had evidently decided that yes, we should make more decisions at Christmas, and forced us to pick our own girl/boy aged [blank]. SO HARD.
In the end, I sat down and wrote a number so I wouldn't continue wandering around, changing my mind every five steps, or worse, end up with a present for a five year old boy that he could share part of with his sixteen year old sister and also his grandma. Actually that sounds rather nice.
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For Christmas I bought myself a new hair straightener, my housemates a vacuum, and books for everyone I know.
Oh! And a Christmas tree! A real one! The discovery that this is a real thing that you can do (as in, you can do it without having to fly to America/Europe/The North Pole) is still very exciting to me.
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I saw Julia Gillard, Prime Minister of Australia, at Marion while I was Christmas Eve traditioning. It's pretty cool that she just wanders around shopping centres having coffee (and posing for photos for ages. Seriously, I did all my 'maybe a three year old girl?' 'maybe a ten year old boy?' shopping while she was taking photos. That is a long time).
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I visited my Grandma for Christmas Eve Carols and Mass. And SERIOUSLY, People In Charge Of My Traditions, WHY MUST YOU CHANGE THEM? 'Happy Christmas' is the exit song. Followed by 'We Wish You A Merry Christmas.' That is all. I expect the world to be back on its Christmas tradition axis by next year, thank you.
After our Christmas Treats With Grandma Tradition, we continued our Awesome Present Buying Tradition. This year's theme? Replacement jewelery. (Not sure if you can see that we're wearing matching necklaces, or that I'm wearing three. Not pictured: the ring I will get the next day.)
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Christmas Day included a Not Quite As Good As The Real Thing, But Still Pretty Fun: Opening Presents Via Skype Tradition. Books! And more books!
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Last year, at the Bay Sports Festival, I got the most ridiculous sunburn: a rectangle on my back with a zigzaggy top. So this year, I was careful about my back, which of course means I have a ring of sunburn around my belly-button, a line across the middle of my thigh, and a squiggle in the middle of my chest. It was a lovely day for playing frisbee (if you are the rest of the frisbee community) or lazing around at the beach watching frisbee (if you are me, and have a No Exercise In December Tradition to uphold).
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And one more photo, because I missed posting about the SAFDAs and this awesome dress - which you can't really see - when they actually happened, and also I like this picture.
Merry Christmas, Everyone.
