We had fun embroidering the barren lilac tree with multi-colored lights and creating tiny white sparkles on several spruce trees in the front yard at Niebrugge Studio. It was beginning to look a lot like Christmas, stealing a line from a song! There is something wonderful about lighting up the darkness of winter in Alaska with anything that glows. We outlined the dock on the lake in white lights and included the chairs in the display.
With darkness arriving around 4:15PM and finally leaving around 9:00AM, there is plenty of time to make magic with lights.
Gail Niebrugge, Alaska artist
MAGIC!
Blessings to you and all your family, Gail, for a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year!
With love from sunny Western Australia in summer!
Noella (hugs)
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and your family Noella. How do you Celebrate Christmas in the summer? I’m curious.
Hugs, Gail
Gail, many families go to the beach, but usually it’s barbecues or cold cuts and everyone’s favourite salad recipes as families get together. Pavlovas, trifles and fruit salads are the traditional desserts.
Often it’s the homes with swimming pools where the family will meet, particularly where there are children, otherwise most families take it in turns. A few families (usually European in origin!) still slave over a hot oven to serve a traditional roast dinner.
Traditionally, cricket is played in the backyard or in a nearby park, and there is always the mandatory ‘family photo’.
Australia (particularly sunny states like WA) have BBQs a lot, which is where the colloquialism, “Throw another prawn on the barbie” comes from. In the afternoon everyone usually lies around in the lounge room, sleeping it all off, and then the cold leftovers are served at tea time, often joined by friends.
Now we have such a multicultural population, I am sure there are many other ways Christmas is celebrated nowadays. Also, there are special Christmas dinners with full trimmings held in marquees outdoors, sponsored by charities and churches, for the homeless, those without families or the lonely.
It was hot again this Christmas. We went to our older son and D-i-Law’s Mother’s home, together with Sharon’s 3 sisters and all their young children and babes for a cold meat and salads, prawns, crayfish (lobster) and marron shared lunch, followed by fruit salads, trifle and pavlova. We contributed a large leg ham on the bone as Barry is a butcher.
We went to Church in the morning, where I play rhythm guitar in a music team of eight of us. We meet weekly as a home group, and though our Church is not big (about 45 folk), it is relaxed and friendly. We meet in a local family centre and are very welcoming to the community.
I hope you had a lovely day.
Noella (hugs)
Noella, this sounds lovely! Thank you so much for sharing your experiences. I like the idea of being outdoors and having a bar-be-q picnic for Christmas. Church services are important on Christmas day here in Alaska too. I used to play in our church bell choir, but I like the idea of a rhythm guitar in a music team, I’m sure the music is wonderful.
Thank you, Gail
I would love to play bells! The closest I got is to play the set of chimes as well as guitar, at our 3 sessions at the local shopping centre, singing Christmas Carols, leading up to Christmas. Almost the entire Church joined together. It was fun, but I still find it strange to sing of snow in our heatwaves!
The bells were fun. I don’t read music, so I just used a colored felt tip marker to highlight the notes for my two bells. But, some people can play all the bells alone, and that is amazing!
I grew up in southern California where our Christmas’s were warm and sunny, but we didn’t bar-be-Q for the holiday. I wonder why? We did the turkey thing in the oven.
Gail