Christmas!

unfortunately i have to start this post by saying that i had my hedgehog mr. pricklepants put down on boxing day. he was the sweetest little thing and it broke my heart to say goodbye to him but he was so sick i know it was the right thing to do. my dad and i buried him in the backyard at our beach house at north avoca where we spent christmas this year.

although i never was before, these past few years i've found i've become one of those people that dreads the holidays and can't wait for christmas to be over. i like the decorations and the christmas cheer and the traditions, but aside from that it's all but lost its shine. not to mention the fact that it rained all christmas & boxing day, which didn't leave much time to go to the beach. having said that, i've written a list of all the nice things i can remember about christmas because these are the things i'd rather focus on in the new year.

going away to my family's beach house that i hardly ever go to, going for a walk on the beach with my brother's girlfriend taryn and playing fetch with a dog called vanilla the whole way up and back, and that vanilla was so excited she spun around in circles every time we picked up the stick, peanut butter lindt balls, my grandpa telling stories about when he was young, cherries, actually going for a swim on the one sunny day i was there, getting glittery red pedicures with taryn, darrell lea christmas nougat puddings, playing pool with my dad and my grandpa, my mum's cinnamon & nutmeg candle, eating breakfast outside on the deck with a cool breeze, making zucchini fritters with my mum, cringing at the christmas carols on tv but watching them anyway, toblerone tiramusi and the fact that it took four people to make it, watching breakfast at tiffany's with my dad, peppermint bark & almond roca, taryn's advent calendar where you move the little felt star from day to day, the wonderful lunch we had for my dad's birthday on christmas eve, and the view from the restaurant, pannacotta ice cream cake, my grandpa's goodnight kiss on christmas night, the doggy who came to visit on christmas day trying to stay out of the rain, crackers and cheese and quince paste and rosella jam, saying "it's a christmas miracle" about everything, making tofu rice paper rolls with my mum, my dad and i listening to leonard cohen, just the two of us on christmas night after everyone else had gone to bed, virgin mojitos, soft gingerbread cookies shaped like stars and angels and christmas trees, glittery clarins bon bons with miniature products inside and scalloped edges, my dad playing van morrison's 13 minute version of "i'll take care of you" and me recognising it and playing him my gil scott-heron version and napping on the couch and watching love actually on christmas afternoon.