Ali and I pull crackers on the beach
Christmas is the only day of the year that guarantees I'll be with my family, open presents and eat almost my entire body weight in delicious food. It's that special time when Mum buys enough meat, pastries, cakes and alcohol to feed a small village, then still wonders if she should have bought that lovely cheese board from M&S "just in case". This Christmas was far from usual however.
Myself, Ali, Ella and Mark (Ali's flatmates) set off early on Christmas day for an exciting 3 hour road trip south along the coast to Jervis Bay. Upon arrival we located our spot in the campsite and surveyed our surroundings. The intimate white sandy bay proved to be the perfect setting for an unforgettable Christmas. Snow was replaced with sand. Red robins were substituted by parrots and cockatoos. Christmas tree with palms. In fact there was nothing traditional about this Christmas at all except for our redeeming roast turkey dinner, Christmas crackers and Santa hats. Despite the fact that our tropical environment wasn't at all very festive we were determined to maintain as many other traditional elements as possible.
Our festive dinner table
Mark apparently endured a rather unpleasant soaking
I enthusiastically set the dinner table as I would normally do back at home. Except it wasn't really a table it was more of a very large blanket delicately placed on the sand. Ali and Ella started cooking the vegetables on the gas stove while Mark and I made sure we all had a cold beer in our hands. Because it was so damn hot, us boys rotated time in the 'kitchen' with the girls so that we could each take turns to keep cool in the water. Our efforts were well rewarded as dinner was a huge success. Afterwards we opened our gifts. Ali and I both received water pistols which was heaps of fun. We continued to listen to music and pull Christmas crackers on the beach. Naturally, beer and bubbly was consumed throughout the afternoon and fueled many water fights or dangerous explorations around rocks. Once we exhausted ourselves with all that we took a long nap under the warming sun. We awoke to find ourselves, in astonishment, the only ones left on the beach. And just in time to watch the sun set too.
We awoke from our binge related nap just in time
Now, without the help of daylight, we decided to erect the tents. I suppose we had momentarilly forgot that such an activity needed implementing. I suggested that we use the headlights from our car so that at least had some light on the subject. Ali and Ella happily stood and watched as me and Mark fumbled around with sheets, pegs, strings and poles which amused them to no end. I'm proud to announce that we errectd the tent surprisingly quickly and were settled in no time at all. We did however do one last amazing thing before finally going to bed and that was sneaking back to the beach to star gaze. There were billions of them. Truly an amazing sight.
