Its beginning to LOOK a lot like Christmas...

And its a good thing that it LOOKS like Christmas because it sure doesn't FEEL like Christmas.  I try to park my car in the shade at the embassy, but not too close to the gum trees as when it is this dry they will SNAP IN HALF and possibly crush my car.  So near to shade is as close as I can manage.  When I got in my car last week, this is what awaited me:

In case it is difficult to read, that says 102 degrees.  Fahrenheit.

We were lucky though that this week, a cold front moved in and brought some rain which cooled everything off to a nice 70 degrees.  We had a Christmas party at the office and everyone was sweating bullets because it was mega hot.  Needless to say it has been weird.  However, it has also helped me to battle my homesickness since it doesn't feel like Christmas it doesn't seem like Christmas either.  Despite this, the calendar still reads "December" so celebrations abound!

Here in Canberra sits the Guinness Book of World Records house for Christmas lights.  On Christmas Eve, I went with friends to see it.  It was a mad house.  People were lined up around the block.  The family who lived in the house had made arrangements to collect donations for Sids and Kids (an organization similar to St. Jude at home).  The entry fee was a "gold coin donation" which here in Australia means either one or two dollars. I took some pictures but they didn't really come out all that great.

It is tough to read but the number of lights is over 500,000.

I have no idea who any of those people are, but that's how crowded it was!

Some of the unlit decorations they had as well.

These people I do know....

Christmas day I went back over and had brunch which was nice and I got to talk to some of my family.  On Boxing day for me, I got to talk to most of my family and got to Skype with them too so that was cool.  I got to see them open their presents which is the best part of Christmas.  The rest of the weekend was pretty uneventful.  Because the postal service is what it is, I am still waiting on some of my boxes to arrive from family back home, but the stuff I did receive was super.  It wasn't too bad for being my first Christmas away from my family.  So that's the scoop on Christmas this year.  As I write this I am downloading movies from Amazon to watch on my Wii (THANK YOU ELLEN!!!) and am settling in to be a couch vegetable.  Glad this one is in the books and ready to see what 2014 has in store.