Upside down

It is November, and a very lovely November it is. The daylight hours have been stretching. And spring has fully crept up into the tops of the trees, and they're all full of leaves and sunshine and shade. The sun is up before I am, so I can shower in the mornings without turning on the overhead lights. And the sun doesn't set until late in the evening. Summer is only ten days away, and I love it. I love it.

This week is Thanksgiving week in the US. That's a big holiday where I come from. It involves cold weather and orange pumpkins and cloves and turkey and cold gray weather. Occasionally I remind myself that it's Thanksgiving the the US soon. That's such a bizarre thought. The word "Thanksgiving" doesn't match the glorious nearly summer weather at all. In honor of my roots, however, I played every Thanksgiving hymn I know as prelude at church today. It made me think of pumpkins and cloves and cold gray weather, and it was really out of place. I was pretty sure someone was going to come up and tell me to stop, that the baked-pumpkin hymns really had no place in the glorious green and floral scents of late spring. And then it occurred to me that they probably almost never play those hymns here, so the people probably don't associate them with pumpkins and cold gray-ness. And nobody was listening anyway. And perhaps I could even get away with playing some of the funny US patriotic hymns for prelude and no one would even notice? But I didn't go that far.

Related to crazy backwards weather holidays, Christmas is coming. There are Christmas decorations up and Christmas ads on the tellie. Christmas in the northern hemisphere celebrates midwinter's day. Here, it will land almost on top of the summer solstice, the lightest, warmest, sunniest time of year, when people go hang out at the beach and grill sausages and lick ice lollies and I can't wait!

But it's funny to watch the TV commercials in which the family is out at a barbecue, everyone in shorts and sleeveless shirts, eating watermelon, with jingle bells playing in the background. And then a nostalgic pause as the Christmas lights go on, all strung along the green leafy trees. And then the disembodied voice: "This Christmas season, celebrate with groceries from Coles." It seems so bizarre.

Our church is trying to find someone to play Santa Claus at their Christmas party. I asked some women at church today what Santa Claus wears here. Still the fuzzy suit? Won't that be really really hot? And they looked at me like I was brilliant and said, "Yes! Let's do an Aussie Santa! With red shorts and a T-shirt and a Santa hat." Still seems a little silly. I know for sure that Santa head is going to be too hot. But whatever.

Anyway, with another month to go, we are finalising our Christmas plans. We have almost found all the presents we need to ship -- this week -- to our international family members. More locally, we have to figure out what to do for a Christmas tree, as we did not ship our old fake one when we moved, and more importantly, and where to put it. There is a plant nursery I pass on my way to work each morning that is now selling potted pines. I'm thinking that might be the way to go this year. And then we will have to decorate.

I can't wait to do an Aussie style Christmas. For the week between my last day of work and the ends of December, I want to spend each day trying out a different beach, working on my body surfing and boogie boarding skills. Merry merry merry!