Holidays at Home - Christmas and NYE 2016

As it was our first year back to Aus and Riley is starting to understand the holidays, we wanted to have Christmas at home.  Its been nine years since we had a Christmas tree! Not to mention NYE in Sydney is one of the best places in the world to be and our apartment has a great view of our local Manly fireworks.

I was torn though as I also wanted to head out of town and do SOME travelling but Jared only had a week off.  So we compromised - Christmas and NYE here and a quick four days in Tasmania in between. 

 

Holiday time in Australia is a very social thing - its summer time and beaches, BBQs and friends are the norm. We kicked off Christmas Eve at a friends for a small dinner party complete with the traditional ham. And then it was off to meet our friends at the beach on Christmas Day.  The weather was HOT! So we finally headed to Pip and Phils for a dip in the pool and our Aussie Christmas BBQ - ribs, beans, grilled corn - summery but Holiday worthy.

Christmas morning we spent opening gifts at home with Riley who quickly moved from opening one present to the next and got pretty much nothing but animal toys.

 

 

 

Found the Chocolate

And then we invited our neighbors for brunch - mimosas, salmon garnished with dill, lemon and cream cheese, pancakes, berries, eggs, and bacon.

 

NYE wasn't as intimate but the food was even better. Again we headed to Pip and Phils for an all day party - pool time in the afternoon moving to the patio in the evening for dinner and fireworks. And the food was magical - cheese platters from our local artisan cheese shop, prosciutto wrapped dates, coconut prawns with pineapple sweet chili sauce, roast lamb, bacon wrapped asparagus, cheesecake - and a degustation of champagne, wine and port.

It definitely was worth staying home for.