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Dec. 27th, 2006 01:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
erratioEvery year previous to this Christmas has been entirely something that happened to other people. I would avoid the Christmas shopping like the plague, loathe the carols being blasted out over the speakers of every public place and spend Christmas day at home bitching about the lack of non-Christmas TV.
So what changed this year? The major change was that Ali and I decided that it would be a good idea to hold Chrismukkah this year, a la the OC. So when the Christmas decorations started appearing in stores I took notice with an eye to buying some of them. And sure some of it is horrible and kitschy but some of it is really cute/charming. Then there was the whole working aspect, for the first time I was surrounded by people who didn't regard Christmas as an unwelcome intrusion into their lives. People would come into work humming along to the carols. Talking to some of them I discovered that contrary to what I was led to believe Christmas has not been overtaken by commercialism. It's still mostly an excuse for the family to come together and do nothing but eat and enjoy eachother's company, much like the Jewish festivals are for my family.
Anyway, I'm not going to get too sentimental about all this. Suffice to say that I now have some understanding of what it is that other people see in Christmas.
Chrismukkah shopping started on Friday. I went to Bondi Junction to meet up with Ali and Mednez, and then we headed to my Coles, where I promptly ran into one of my coworkers, Nidal, who got moved from the morning shift to the afternoon for a couple of weeks. Then we headed back out to the Asian cheapo shops to try to find some non-sucky tinsel and baubles. Mission accomplished, we then went back to Coles to pick up the turkey and some other party-related stuff. And then we spent a couple of hours sitting around,'poking' the 'turkey', and making bad puns before Ali and Mednez had to leave.
On Saturday I went to the dreidel store in Bondi (okok, it's called Gold's World of Judaism, but dreidel store is a much better name imho), stupidly forgetting that on Saturday the Jewish shops aren't open. D'oh.
On Sunday I went back to the dreidel store after work to pick up some brightly coloured plastic dreidels so that at Chrismukkah I could introduce everyone to the dreidel game. As soon as I got home I discovered that Zhe had come back from China, so Alex and I headed out to visit him. Once there we were shown copious amounts of holiday photos, and then Alex had to leave to meet up with some other people. After that Zhe and I played some Heroes, halfway through I got a random random call from Nidal wishing me a good Christmas and he missed us because he wasn't working mornings anymore and so forth, it was rather cute :). Then it was time to leave to eat drink and be merry. Actually, more like to eat and finish shopping for Chrismukkah. In KFC we ran into Hein and his housemate Thanda, but they weren't coming to Chrismukkah because they had some Burmese people over. Boo. After the eating and the shopping we went to my place to pick up the supplies I'd left at home and then it was driving to Ali's late at night, with both of us too exhausted to really say or do much.
The next day started around 9am, with much turkey to be cooked and many many potatoes to be grated. Time went by quickly and soon we had pretty much everything ready, all we were missing were the guests, until Danny and Jenny turned up, followed shortly after by Mia who came bearing a T-Shirt for me! (It says "I'm not a full-blooded Jew, I'm JEW-ish").
Actually, now that the photos are up I think it would be better to let them speak for themselves: [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/cecile/sets/72157594443439852/[/url]
After the meal we pulled our Christmas crackers, took stupid photos of the equally stupid toys we got out of them, and went bushwalking in the area near Ali's house. I think one day I want to move up north, because seriously having bushland 5 minutes away from your house has got to be one of the most awesome things ever. And after that we came back to eat more even more turkey and to listen to people with silly accents reading an english passage out loud. And then I got a lift home with Zhe, and that was the end of Chrismukkah day for me.
PS: I only half finished this entry a couple of days afterwards, the rest I finished on New Years day, hence the last part being so flat and boring, I can't remember any of the interesting details anymore
So what changed this year? The major change was that Ali and I decided that it would be a good idea to hold Chrismukkah this year, a la the OC. So when the Christmas decorations started appearing in stores I took notice with an eye to buying some of them. And sure some of it is horrible and kitschy but some of it is really cute/charming. Then there was the whole working aspect, for the first time I was surrounded by people who didn't regard Christmas as an unwelcome intrusion into their lives. People would come into work humming along to the carols. Talking to some of them I discovered that contrary to what I was led to believe Christmas has not been overtaken by commercialism. It's still mostly an excuse for the family to come together and do nothing but eat and enjoy eachother's company, much like the Jewish festivals are for my family.
Anyway, I'm not going to get too sentimental about all this. Suffice to say that I now have some understanding of what it is that other people see in Christmas.
Chrismukkah shopping started on Friday. I went to Bondi Junction to meet up with Ali and Mednez, and then we headed to my Coles, where I promptly ran into one of my coworkers, Nidal, who got moved from the morning shift to the afternoon for a couple of weeks. Then we headed back out to the Asian cheapo shops to try to find some non-sucky tinsel and baubles. Mission accomplished, we then went back to Coles to pick up the turkey and some other party-related stuff. And then we spent a couple of hours sitting around,'poking' the 'turkey', and making bad puns before Ali and Mednez had to leave.
On Saturday I went to the dreidel store in Bondi (okok, it's called Gold's World of Judaism, but dreidel store is a much better name imho), stupidly forgetting that on Saturday the Jewish shops aren't open. D'oh.
On Sunday I went back to the dreidel store after work to pick up some brightly coloured plastic dreidels so that at Chrismukkah I could introduce everyone to the dreidel game. As soon as I got home I discovered that Zhe had come back from China, so Alex and I headed out to visit him. Once there we were shown copious amounts of holiday photos, and then Alex had to leave to meet up with some other people. After that Zhe and I played some Heroes, halfway through I got a random random call from Nidal wishing me a good Christmas and he missed us because he wasn't working mornings anymore and so forth, it was rather cute :). Then it was time to leave to eat drink and be merry. Actually, more like to eat and finish shopping for Chrismukkah. In KFC we ran into Hein and his housemate Thanda, but they weren't coming to Chrismukkah because they had some Burmese people over. Boo. After the eating and the shopping we went to my place to pick up the supplies I'd left at home and then it was driving to Ali's late at night, with both of us too exhausted to really say or do much.
The next day started around 9am, with much turkey to be cooked and many many potatoes to be grated. Time went by quickly and soon we had pretty much everything ready, all we were missing were the guests, until Danny and Jenny turned up, followed shortly after by Mia who came bearing a T-Shirt for me! (It says "I'm not a full-blooded Jew, I'm JEW-ish").
Actually, now that the photos are up I think it would be better to let them speak for themselves: [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/cecile/sets/72157594443439852/[/url]
After the meal we pulled our Christmas crackers, took stupid photos of the equally stupid toys we got out of them, and went bushwalking in the area near Ali's house. I think one day I want to move up north, because seriously having bushland 5 minutes away from your house has got to be one of the most awesome things ever. And after that we came back to eat more even more turkey and to listen to people with silly accents reading an english passage out loud. And then I got a lift home with Zhe, and that was the end of Chrismukkah day for me.
PS: I only half finished this entry a couple of days afterwards, the rest I finished on New Years day, hence the last part being so flat and boring, I can't remember any of the interesting details anymore
