Christmas Season

I have a confession to make. This year for the first time in memory, perhaps ever, I can feel myself getting into the Christmas season. I find this a somewhat strange and a curious sensation as I am in a place which is totally alien to my normal perception of Christmas. Rather than waking up to a cold icy morning not wanting to crawl out of bed I find myself in 30+ temperatures about to eat fish for Christmas!

What I think has sealed this enjoyment for me is the simple fact that for the first time in my life I have actually enjoyed Christmas shopping. Rather than running around trying to buy Christmas presents for relatives whom tastes I barely know or have no idea about I find myself buying Christmas presents for friends and my girlfriend which is a all-together different sensation. I actually have a clue now about what they might just want and am not concerned that the top won't fit them or be the right colours!

Christmas Tree spree
Back home the tree would have been put in our front room a week or so ago without anyone paying a particularly large amount of attention to it. The kids would have dashed around it, Joe would have wondered what the hell had taken over half the room and my sister Danni would have been simply curious as to what all the fuss was about. I often wonder that myself actually!

Anyway, here Christmas tree shopping appears to be done somewhat differently. Its Christmas Eve and I was wondering exactly when the tree was going to go up if it was. I had been reassured these last few days that 'something will happen' but as Christmas drew closer my scepticism became deeper and I wondered where this tree would appear from.

This afternoon my girlfriend asked me if I could jump in the yute with her and pick up the tree. Suddenly I realised we were going to get a Christmas tree and the felt suddenly happy that this was actually going to happen! It wasn't until we had driven round the corner that she turned and said to me 'here's the gloves you'll need then'! As she passed the rugged gloves which were frankly falling apart I wondered what I was actually about to do. Pictures of me yanking a Christmas tree from the ground appeared in my head, as did the picture of my falling on my butt trying to be successful in the attempt!

I guess a little bit of background info is crucial at this point. At this precise moment in time I am living in the Barossa Valley about an hour away or so to the north of Adelaide. Now this IS the wine growing region of Australia, where most if not all the main wines exported worldwide come from. Whether its Jacobs Creek, Wolf Blass or St Hallets they all come from here. It is a truly gorgeous place to visit and an even nicer place to live.

So anyway as we drive round the corner we go up a dirt track of a very well known winery that many if not all people reading this will have heard of (here's a clue, its got a Creek in the title!) . Stopping at a rather large tree which resembles a Christmas Tree but just much larger than would ever fit in our living room my girlfriend hands me a saw and says 'come on thats cut a branch down as that'll be our tree'! Apparently in Australia, or at least the Barossa Valley they don't bother with growing the trees. No they just go and knick a large branch of the local international winery!!! After trying to figure out which one was better we eventually cut the thing and managed, somehow, to carry it into the yute.

As if so often the case with these things it was only when we got the tree back home and somehow into the living room that we realised that half out lights for the tree did not work!

Still have to confess it does sit rather nicely in the living room!