Our Christmas

Last week at work a friend asked me how I was going she realised that this time of the year, might be hard for me.  It meant a lot that she realised that, because for most people Christmas is their favourite time of the year, and I know that before Aaron and Noah died, I really didn't consider that Christmas may be hard for some people.  Christmas used to be my favourite time of the year when my whole family were here.  

But now it's different. 

Now it's the time of the year which reminds me even more of what we are missing.  It reminds me of happier times when Aaron and I used to argue about the right day to put up the Christmas tree, and as the years went on I seemed to get him to agree to put it up earlier and earlier.

It's a reminder of all the traditions we used to do together, which I now have to do just with the boys on my own.  It's hard trying to figure out on my own what presents to buy for the boys and how I'll afford to do it all on top of everything else.  It used to be fun thinking about things together,  and then going shopping together.  Now I avoid going Christmas shopping as long as I can, because the crowds and families and Christmas carols playing in the shops are just another reminder of what life used to be like. 

It's hard seeing families at the Christmas parade, looking at Christmas lights and at Carols by Candlelight together,  knowing that they used to be some of our favourite traditions to do as a family together. 

As the years have gone on, I don't dread December as much as I used to.  It's still hard, but this year I enjoyed the lead up to Christmas more than I have in the past eight years. I think knowing that my family would all be together on Christmas day for the first time in years (except for my sister Nicki and her family) helped a lot.

Jay and Harri are good sports and don't complain about keeping up our family traditions, even though they'd probably prefer not to do all of them.  I actually think they know how hard this time of the year is for me, and they do what they can to make it as easy as possible.  I'm very lucky to have such great kids.   

It was nice to meet up my friend Lynne and her boys and Makayla and Gavin at the Christmas parade. 


Nora was so excited about everything. It was fun to watch her excitement and remember how fun Christmas is when you have little kids.

Kobe kept begging to put up the tree at the end of November, and I agreed because we had a window when everyone was home, so we had to take the opportunity while we could! 

Erin was staying while we put the tree up.

For the first time ever, Kobe didn't need to be lifted to put the star on the top. 

I also realised that our tree must be shrinking!

At school I did a lot of work with my students about Christmas, and what Christmas is like in Australia.  About half of my students don't celebrate Christmas but their parents are happy for them to learn about Christmas and do Christmas activities.

For my students who do celebrate Christmas, it's very different to how we do, and I wish that our Christmas was more like theirs - they go to church and the have a special meal with their families.  They don't get any presents. 

We were reading about the traditional food that Australians eat at Christmas time, and only one of my students had heard about pavlova and had tried it. So the next day I brought in a pavlova for them to try.   They absolutely loved it and they all wanted seconds and thirds! I love experiencing simple things like this with them for their first time.

The week after we decorated our Christmas tree, we went to the cemetery to decorate Noah's tree at his grave, and to put some Christmas things at Aaron's grave.




I think our favourite tradition is going to see 'our Santa'.  Every year we wonder if he's going to be there, and are always so happy when we see him.  We've been visiting him now for at least 13 years, and although we only know him as 'Santa' it was a lovely surprise when he came to Noah's funeral and introduced himself as 'Santa Claus' to me.

When the boys walked up he was very happy to see them, and I asked him if he remembered us and he said 'of course I know the King family'.  He's such a lovely man and we will be sad when the time comes that he's not Santa anymore.

Kobe has enough Christmas spirit for the both of us and wants to do everything Christmas. He begged me to make a Gingerbread House with him, and I took the easy way out with a kit, but it was still stressful! It made his night to do it though.  I always feel sorry for Kobe that he has to put up with me being the Grinch and not enjoying Christmas anymore, when he's still so young and excited about it all.

After we went to the cemetery for Pepsi on Aaron's birthday, we headed out to see the Christmas lights.  We had done a quick drive by one night when Mum was with us, but Kobe and I were keen walk around a couple of streets where the whole street was lit up.  Tim and Helene and the kids came too, and it was magical seeing so many houses lit up together.

 Arden said it was 'magical and like Heaven'.

We were mesmerised by this house where the lights changed in time with the music.  The traffic was crazy as half of Launceston were all there on the same night.

We are always grateful for friends who we meet up with at Carols by Candlelight.  Aaron used to love Carols (mostly because he had a crush on Jo Palmer who is always the MC but that's another story!).  We were surprised that real candles were back this year.

We continued our Christmas Eve tradition of having a picnic in the lounge room, while watching something Christmasy on TV. 

This year we were so happy to spend Christmas with my family, and it was great that my brother Chrish came down from Sydney for it.   We opened presents at home and then headed out to my Mum's for brunch. 

Chrish arrived on the boat on Christmas morning with his dog Tess, in a brand new car.   He was being funny on the phone with me the week before, saying that he had something to tell us in person at Christmas time.  I was thinking he was going to move back to Tassie, but then realised he wouldn't cope with the cold, so assumed he was moving to Queensland. I was actually happy about that, thinking we'd have free accommodation in Queensland! But it was just a new car, but it's very exciting for him.


After brunch we headed to the beach to meet up with everyone.  Some of my cousins and their families were also there. 

It was a beautiful day and everyone had lots of fun on Eden's new jet ski and biscuit.






It was lovely to run into some friends on the beach and one of them told us that they spotted the Richmond football player Toby Nankervis on the beach.  Harri was super excited and was brave enough to go up and say hi and ask for a photo. He didn't seem to mind.  Harri was amazed at how tall he was (especially asHarri is so tall now!).

After a couple of hours at the beach, we went to Eden and Steph's house for Christmas dinner.  My niece Chloe had decorated the table so beautifully.

There was so much yummy food, but the best thing about the day was just being together with most of my family. 



It was lovely having Eden and Steph's Japanese exchange student Mayu with us for Christmas as well.  She has lived with them most of the year and it's going to be hard for them to say goodbye to her in January.

Chloe also made home made Christmas crackers, complete with jokes and a Ferrero Rocher chocolate. 

After dinner we went outside to get some family photos using the timer on Chrish's camera.  

It's not a proper family photo unless Jared is sticking his fingers up in at least one of them! 

We had to get this one for Mayu. 

Harri is very excited to be taller than Uncle Eden now...just!   

The little kids love Jay and Harri. 

We had a lovely Christmas day and ended up playing 'Heads Up' to finish off the night, which was a lot of laughs. We missed my sister Nicki and her family, but are looking forward to seeing them in January when they come over to visit from the USA. 

On Boxing Day the weather was beautiful again, so we had a huge day at the beach again.  

 It's nice having Chrish down in Tassie for a week or so.  We haven't been to Sydney at all this year, and I joked that maybe we shouldn't go again as he has come down twice to Tassie this year.  He's always got his camera out, so I'm lucky as I get to steal his photos  - thanks Chrish!

 My nieces and nephews are always trying to put crabs down my top to scare me!

 Poor Steph was trying to do a good deed and was trying to save a beach ball for some kids, while she was on the paddle board with Hugh.  The wind and current was too strong and took her way out and the life guards ended up going to pick her up. We knew that Eden would eventually come by on his jet ski and would be able to help her, but we did have a laugh, especially as one of my cousin's kids was rescued on Christmas Day after he tipped out of his kayak.  At least we were giving them something to do!

It's not Boxing Day without some beach cricket.  It's always fun when there's so many playing. 

It's been so nice to spend Christmas and Boxing Day with family this year.   Now to pack away the tree and really get on with summer holidays.  I'm sure there will be lots more trips to beach and we are looking forward to Nicki and the family arriving, so they can join us.