christmas season.

Here's a bit of culture shock for us: here in Australia, you can publicly say "Christmas." You can call your company gatherings "Christmas Parties,"  and "Merry Christmas" is advertised everywhere in writing and on public decorations, both in a secular and religious sense. It feels weird, but it's nice to not have any heated drama surrounding the occasion. It seems like in the US, the politically correct "holiday season" often goes overboard and can lead to some crazy double standards from all sides of the debate.

Anyway, it's Christmas in Melbourne, and the whole city has been decked out in holiday flair. There are seasonal decorations everywhere, including a massive tree in the middle of the CBD and a fun lights show displayed directly on the Town Hall building, every ten minutes on weekend nights. The Myer department store has an annual tradition of dressing their windows with creative and intricate displays, featuring a new theme each year. Families traditionally line up in droves just to catch a glimpse of these legendary creations, braving rainstorms and hot summer conditions. Ben and I haven't lined up to witness the magic just yet, but from a distance it looks like this year's theme is "Demonic Gingerbread Creatures." Pretty festive!

Also, corporate companies take their holiday season seriously, making employees take work off from the week of Christmas to after the New Year. No Scrooges in Australia! Which is awesome, because I'll get to spend a whole two weeks hanging out with my partner. Ben has been working really long days ever since we arrived in Melbourne, so it'll be a nice break for him.

This isn't my first Christmas away from my family, but it's Ben's first holiday season away from his, and it is also the first Christmas I won't be with anyone else's family. But like I've said before, Ben and I are a family all by ourselves now, and we're making our own family traditions for future puppies and children to partake in. 

Here is a list of the new Kortlever Family Holiday Traditions:

1. Decorate the house in festive trash. Someday we will have Nice Things, like ceramic snowmen figurines and light-up mini winter wonderland houses. But for now, we will utilize old pizza boxes and pasta sauce jars, dolled up with discount store ribbon and plastic ornaments. 

2. Bake cookies. Also, have a vacuum cleaner handy, especially if Candice is baking them.

3. Record a Christmas song. 

We will probably think of more traditions, but #3 has been taking up all my brainpower this weekend...

CK