A Quiet Christmas

Since we were out late on Christmas Eve, we slept in until 10 a.m. on Christmas Day. We relaxed. Olivia opened a few small gifts that I brought along. We watched Christmas movies on the television before heading out at noon for another day of fun in Sydney.

As I briefly mentioned before, Australia celebrates Christmas during the summer. It tends to be warm and sunny. And when we asked the few Aussies that we know for advice on how to celebrate a traditional Australian Christmas they all said the same thing: go to the beach and eat food made on the barbecue, or as they call it, the barbie.

Further research showed that this time at the beach is a big drunk fest and not the Christmas atmosphere we wanted to expose Olivia to, so instead we opted to go to one of the few places opened on Christmas Day: Sydney's Wildlife World.

There, with a bunch of Indian tourists, we learned about the wild animals of the outback. We saw a crocodile eat a chicken. We petted a sleeping koala and paid for our picture to be taken with it. And we watched the sleeping kangeroos.



Eventually we found oursleves in a Lego room and Olivia was in heaven.

Apparently there was some kind of special Lego displays at popular Sydney attractions while we were there. Olivia loved them and said "cheese" everytime we took her photo in front of one.






After touring the city, we walked to the hotel where we enjoyed room service and a movie. A quiet Christmas. A peaceful Christmas. My kind of Christmas.

Christmas Eve

This week I was kindly reminded that I've been lacking on finishing up the blog posts about our Christmas in Australia. Thanks for reading and thanks for the nudge that I needed.

Back to Christmas Eve. Location: Sydney, Australia.


The grand plan was to attend church on Christmas Eve. We had two options: St. Mary's Cathedral and St. Andrew's Cathedral.

Two cathedrals. Two services. Two choices.

In the end we decided to attend St. Andrew's. Its service started at 11 p.m., which seemed a little more reasonable than the midnight mass at St. Mary's.

Our evening started with pizza at a small cafe near our hotel. Then we walked the streets looking at the Christmas lights, admiring the holiday displays at the department stores and laughing at the Australians who were out partying and wearing very little clothing. Maybe that's what happens when Christmas is held in the summer instead of the winter.

Our first stop was the Queen Victoria Building. The stores were closed, but the doors remained open so that holiday visitors could take in the large Christmas tree in the center of the building. It's hard to tell from these photos, but the tree is several stories high.



Then we rolled Olivia in her stroller down to David Jones, a department store similar to Macy's that does a special window display for Christmas. This year, the store had six displays that featured moving puppets illustrating various Christmas carols. Olivia loved it. We were standing at the first display for The First Noel, when the music suddenly stopped playing. Ah, the Aussie said standing next to me, they cut the music at 10 p.m.

The next stop was a government building next door to St. Andrew's, where we stood and watched its light display.


At 10:30 p.m. we walked into the historic church and took our seats. We thought by this time in the evening, Olivia would have fallen asleep. She wasn't. In fact, she was going strong, digging through the bag of goodies given to her when we entered the church. Several people suggested that we move to the crying room. Olivia looked offended. We stayed in our seats. Then the Australian family behind us started talking to Olivia. "Aren't you up past your bedtime little girl?" the man said. Olivia again, was annoyed and returned to her coloring book.

At this point, I struck up a conversation with the young woman sitting next to me. She kindly explained that she was from Iran and studying computer sciences at a university in Sydney. She said that she attended a different Christmas service each year as a way to learn about Christianity. She asked if I had ever been to the Middle East. I told her I haven't had the opportunity yet.

Olivia immediately liked this woman and continued to color with her the rest of the service. We were surrounded by people from Taiwan, China, India, England, Japan and it was an amazing feeling. To celebrate Christmas with people from around the world. It's something I won't forget anytime soon.


Another thing I won't forget is the pastor's sermon. He talked about baby Jesus and if Jesus was born today what would he be like. Like perhaps if he was born in the United States, the pastor said pointing to a PowerPoint presentation projected on a large screen, he would live in Hollywood and would be a famous actor. Up popped a picture of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Then one of Brad Pitt.

If he was born an Australian, he would be a famous athlete, the pastor finished and up popped photos of cricket and rugby players along with Olympic athletes.

In the end, it was a wonderful Christmas Eve service. Olivia didn't cry once. The choir and orchestra was talented and definitely made a joyful noise. When we walked to the hotel at 1 a.m. I had a feeling of being blessed to spend Christmas in such an amazing country.

Sydney Christmas: Day Two

Two weeks before our trip to Australia, the tour company informed us of "great news": they upgraded our half day city bus tour to a full-day bus tour. Everyone on the tour was excited about the whole day of fun for the same price, except for Benny and I. We groaned. Olivia's never been on a bus tour before, let alone a daylong one. Would it work?


We started the day early. Olivia was excited to be sitting in her own seat, looking out the window. Maybe this won't be so bad after all. Then the bus stopped at the next hotel and waited to pick up other guests and after three minutes of waiting in a still bus, Olivia wanted to move. So we pulled out her crayons and brand new coloring book from Grandma Donna and let her color to her heart's desire. Or at least until the first stop on the Sydney City Tour.

Our first stop was across the harbor from the Opera House. It was a lovely lookout with picturesque views of the cityscape. While the rest of our tour was getting photos of themselves to post on their Facebook pages that evening, Olivia was running after a group of pigeons who had settled at the park under the bridge.






We continued on our way, stopping at various lookouts with different views of North Harbor, South Harbor and Middle Harbor.




Olivia was apparently still sleepy after our day of fun on Dec. 23, so she caught a cat nap when we had a 45-minute stop at Manly Beach.




On and on we went, riding the bus and drifting to sleep ourselves. Our Kiwi (New Zealand) driver had a calming voice that seemed to rock everyone to sleep. But if you could understand him (which was a bit hard at times with the accent), he was saying hilarious things that were not appropriate for a family bus tour. Benny wrote them down in a small notebook, chuckling to himself the whole time. If you're lucky, he'll post them later this week.

Finally it was lunch time and time for our harbor lunch cruise. We had to wear stickers to identify ourselves as part of the group. Olivia placed her sticker on her belly and proceeded to play peek a boo with her sticker.


We ate lunch in shifts since Olivia had ample energy after her Manly nap and wanted to run! While the rest of the guests were outside in sunny weather taking photos of the Opera House, Olivia was running back in forth in the cabin between Benny and I. We were working to wear her down before the afternoon part of the tour. I was impressed with how well she could run in the cabin. It turns out our little O has sea legs.


After lunch it was back on the bus and the first stop was the Botanical Gardens. Again there were birds to chase and dirt piles to play in. All in the quick 20 minute stop.




Then we went to Bondi Beach, one of the most famous beaches in Australia. It is where everyone in Sydney was planning to celebrate Christmas with sunbathing and barbecuing. It is also the first place where there were lifeguards (called lifesavers by our tour guide) were put in place, way back in the 1920s. There Olivia had a snack and attacked the playground. She ran and played with Aussie kids her own size, but at times it seemed like the little ones were confused by each other's unfamiliar accents.

More quick lookouts and drive-by photo shoots, then it was back at the hotel around 5 p.m. Olivia survived her first bus tour! And without a tantrum! Or screaming! It was a family dream come true.

But it was Christmas Eve, so while we were done with our daylong bus trip, we still had Christmas to celebrate.

Traveling with a Toddler

Back in the fall, we saw an advertisment for a trip to Sydney, Australia for Christmas. It sparked an idea. What if we flew to Australia for Christmas? Doesn't that seem like an appropriate way to spend the holiday? Add another stamp to Olivia's passport? It will be summer there, so the weather will be sunny and warm. We can spend the holiday on the beach. Plus they celebrate a Christian Christmas there, so it will feel a bit more like home. And there is the best part: They speak English there.

After pinching some pennies and packing some suitcases, we met our tour group at 9:30 a.m. on Dec. 22. The bus was ready to go. We were ready to go too: All we had to do was change Olivia's diaper, get her a snack, fill her juice cup and finalize our Visa paperwork. Slow. That's how you travel with a toddler. We were the only family with a child on the trip and the rest of the group was annoyed with us at first. But I ignored them and smilied when they rolled their eyes when they saw how much stuff we had. While the rest of our group had minimal luggage for the 7-day trip, we had two suitcases both approaching the 45-lb weight limits. Guess we won't be buying much in Australia.

We climbed aboard the bus and headed to the airport for our flight to South Korea. Yes, we had to fly 2 hours north to fly 9 hours south. If only there was a direct route between Okinawa and Australia, all would be good.

After checking into our flight, we got a quick lunch. Olivia proceeded to knock my water glass over, getting herself all wet in the process. Ah, traveling with a toddler.



We arrived in South Korea with no problems. Our layover was 5 hours long, so we had time to kill. Luckily the airport had a indoor playground and Olivia played there with coming-and-going traveling children from around the world for the next 3 hours. After that she feel asleep. Our plan was to keep her awake until the flight ... apparently she didn't get that memo. Just because it was a red-eye flight, doesn't mean that Olivia wanted to sleep on the plane. She wanted to watch Toy Story 3, which she did at least 3 times during the flight and cry for her bed. Ah, traveling with a toddler.

By noon on Dec. 23, we were in Sydney, ready for our first day of holiday, as the Aussies call it. The weather was beautiful, so we ditched our suitcases (we couldn't check into the hotel yet) and walked to Darling Harbour. This popular tourist destination was within walking distance of our hotel (Olivia's stroller riding distance) so we headed toward the water and went to the Sydney Aquarium. There, Olivia was excited to see a crocodile, lizards, sharks, stingrays and all kinds of colorful fish. She ran around the entire place, pointing and saying "fish" over and over again. She even surprised us by saying words like "turtle." The excitement. The energy. Ah, traveling with a toddler.






On the walk back to the hotel, Olivia fell asleep, so Benny and I took advantage of the adult time and strolled to Sydney Tower. We took in the sights from the largest building in the city while O snoozed.







We finished the day with a multi-course dinner at a lovely Greek restaurant. The food was outstanding and filling. Olivia wasn't a fan. She enjoyed her lunch of chicken nuggets at the Aquarium more and choose to color in her coloring book during dinner.

In the evening, we collapsed into bed. We survived day one of our vacation. I wonder how day two will go.