Winter..er...Summer Wonderland?
The Christmas season has officially hit us!!! Only I can't find myself truly feeling the xmas spirit. Maybe it's because it's 80 degrees out. Maybe it's because the house isn't decorated with ornaments Kiki and I made when we were 8. I will say that Australian's have the same knack for going overboard with decorations that Americans have. There's a house just around the corner that is absolutely covered from lawn to chimney in lights. They even have a teddy bear Santa in a little plastic sleigh on top of their carport.
I still find it funny that all the decorations used here are the same as back home - giant snowflakes, holly branches, wreathes...but at least I haven't seen any snow men! You would think that they would find decorations more fitting to what xmas is actually like here - sand castles and shells and stuff like that. And poor Santa! He still wears the red suit and abdomen-tickling beard. Apparently Santa fainted due to the heat in the middle of the xmas parade a few years ago. I think the old guy should petition to be able to wear boardies.
Speaking of Santa and flying (haha, like how I did that?) Toff's sister, Stephi, has an interview with flight center today! She's made it through the phone interview and the online aptitude test, so if she makes it through her group interview today the next step will be a one-on-one interview. We really hope she gets it - Toff reckons it's the perfect job for her and that she'd be really happy there. Not to mention how COOL it would be to have a travel agent in the family :)
In other news Toff and I went to his company xmas party at Russell's Pizza last week. (I would post pictures here, but have just discovered that the reason they take so long to upload is b/c the files are too big. So for now you just have to go to facebook, and I'll work on resizing the files for next time.) We had such a great time! It truly is a fantastic place - really laid back, rustic, and slightly quirky. Not to mention the amazing food! I think a wedding held there would be a lot of fun for everyone.
This past weekend was also our 2nd and final engagement party. It turned out really well too! Everyone loved the beer pong table (only a few games were played, but it was still a great topic of conversation). And the pulled pork sandwiches were a hit! I had thought everyone would be wary when I instructed them to put coleslaw ON their sandwich...but everyone dove right in and looooved it! Soon I'll have to put together an American recipe book for everyone with that in it, as well as pumpkin pie and pumpkin rolls. Everyone was instructed to not bring presents, which worked out really well, everyone just brought a card, which was really nice. As Toff says, we are not getting married in order to get presents! A few people did break the rules, but they joined together with other people to do it, so we just got a couple of gift certificates to some furniture stores, a new grill, and a new fry pan that Toff fell head over heels in love with :-) We definitely want to say "no gifts" for the wedding as well - I understand people want to get wedding presents for you, but we're going to put a little note on our invites - "Remember...we do not have a house!!!"
Other than that we're both just working away. Next week family friends from Japan are coming to visit. Ten years ago Ryota came and stayed with Toff as an exchange student, then Toff went and stayed with his family. So it's really neat that just through a school exchange the two families hit it off so well with each other. They chat and send cards often, and visit when they can.
We're looking forward to Christmas and New Years - my first warm one for both!!! We want to go somewhere for NY, we just don't know where yet :) We're also looking forward to moving into Toff's house in February so we can start getting furnishings for it, and have a whole 3 bedroom house available for people to stay at in July. And we're also super excited to have our friends Rosie and Devin come over to work at the winery with Toff and live with us! It'll be really neat to have them. Toff's boss has another guy from Oregon coming to work for him too, so, knowing that Toff's house has 3 bedrooms and that only 2 will be occupied, he's offered up the 3rd room to him. So it'll be Toff and the 4 Americans!! I'm so excited!!!! :-) hahaha
All right y'all! Take care until next time!!!
muah!
Cara
I still find it funny that all the decorations used here are the same as back home - giant snowflakes, holly branches, wreathes...but at least I haven't seen any snow men! You would think that they would find decorations more fitting to what xmas is actually like here - sand castles and shells and stuff like that. And poor Santa! He still wears the red suit and abdomen-tickling beard. Apparently Santa fainted due to the heat in the middle of the xmas parade a few years ago. I think the old guy should petition to be able to wear boardies.
Speaking of Santa and flying (haha, like how I did that?) Toff's sister, Stephi, has an interview with flight center today! She's made it through the phone interview and the online aptitude test, so if she makes it through her group interview today the next step will be a one-on-one interview. We really hope she gets it - Toff reckons it's the perfect job for her and that she'd be really happy there. Not to mention how COOL it would be to have a travel agent in the family :)
In other news Toff and I went to his company xmas party at Russell's Pizza last week. (I would post pictures here, but have just discovered that the reason they take so long to upload is b/c the files are too big. So for now you just have to go to facebook, and I'll work on resizing the files for next time.) We had such a great time! It truly is a fantastic place - really laid back, rustic, and slightly quirky. Not to mention the amazing food! I think a wedding held there would be a lot of fun for everyone.
This past weekend was also our 2nd and final engagement party. It turned out really well too! Everyone loved the beer pong table (only a few games were played, but it was still a great topic of conversation). And the pulled pork sandwiches were a hit! I had thought everyone would be wary when I instructed them to put coleslaw ON their sandwich...but everyone dove right in and looooved it! Soon I'll have to put together an American recipe book for everyone with that in it, as well as pumpkin pie and pumpkin rolls. Everyone was instructed to not bring presents, which worked out really well, everyone just brought a card, which was really nice. As Toff says, we are not getting married in order to get presents! A few people did break the rules, but they joined together with other people to do it, so we just got a couple of gift certificates to some furniture stores, a new grill, and a new fry pan that Toff fell head over heels in love with :-) We definitely want to say "no gifts" for the wedding as well - I understand people want to get wedding presents for you, but we're going to put a little note on our invites - "Remember...we do not have a house!!!"
Other than that we're both just working away. Next week family friends from Japan are coming to visit. Ten years ago Ryota came and stayed with Toff as an exchange student, then Toff went and stayed with his family. So it's really neat that just through a school exchange the two families hit it off so well with each other. They chat and send cards often, and visit when they can.
We're looking forward to Christmas and New Years - my first warm one for both!!! We want to go somewhere for NY, we just don't know where yet :) We're also looking forward to moving into Toff's house in February so we can start getting furnishings for it, and have a whole 3 bedroom house available for people to stay at in July. And we're also super excited to have our friends Rosie and Devin come over to work at the winery with Toff and live with us! It'll be really neat to have them. Toff's boss has another guy from Oregon coming to work for him too, so, knowing that Toff's house has 3 bedrooms and that only 2 will be occupied, he's offered up the 3rd room to him. So it'll be Toff and the 4 Americans!! I'm so excited!!!! :-) hahaha
All right y'all! Take care until next time!!!
muah!
Cara
I can't believe Santa fainted, that just cracked me up. HYDRATE SANTA HYDRATE. I love and miss you oodles and I'm glad you're having a blast :) SMOOCH
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