Happy Christmas

Apparently it's Christmas Eve.  I know this because I have two kids who are besides themselves with excitement and also there is a smattering of Christmas decorations across Brisbane.  Other than that there is nothing to differentiate today from any other day.  Oh apart from some last minute shopping hysteria after which Big Daddy was forced to knock back a few beers in order to recover!  Christmas in Brisbane takes place at the height of summer and I have to admit to finding this difficult to deal with and there isn't the same buzz here as there is in Ireland.  Christmas Eve in Ireland is a time when everyone is out and about getting last minute bits and pieces.  It's a day where you happily run into old friends and usually go for a few drinks.  Brisbane on Christmas Eve is like a ghost town.

This is my third Christmas in Brisbane and I have to admit to struggling with it and along with that I have been wrestling some vicious homesickness.  It's all very well signing up for the big travel adventure but it comes with some serious pot-holes along the way and Christmas in Australia is one of them for me.

The problem is I have two kids and I'd rather pull Santa's sleigh aound the world by myself than do anything to spoil their Christmas, so going around like an old misery guts is not an option.  Still I have to admit to having being a little down and distracted and I had no idea how I was going to shake this particular funk off.  And then I received a beautiful Christmas present from my daughter.

This is the hand-made wrapping paper it came in:

The Wrapping Paper - Made By Her Own Fair Hands

This is the card that accompanied it:

Christmas Kisses

And this is the gift:

My Very Own Snowflake

Which was accompanied by this:

The love and devotion with which she put it all together just blew me away and I realised that Christmas is less about location and more about the place you are within yourself.  I'd much rather be in the West of Ireland right now but I'm not, I'm in Brisbane and I intend to be fully present for the festivities - anything less would be letting my little girl and her brother down so I'm going to try and have the best Christmas I can and I hope you do too.
Happy Christmas - The Mad Mammy.