This family portrait was produced with the assistance of our lovely and talented photographer friend, Klaus, earlier this year during sunset at Elwood Beach. It perfectly captures our love of life, the beach and each other! We’re going to have to get Klaus to do a portrait shoot each year for us (he doesn’t know yet … thanks in advance, Klaus! :-).
Christmas can be a stressful time for a lot of people, especially for those who lose sight of what it’s really about. Presents are lovely to give and receive, but is it worth it when there is stress and disappointment involved? Children should receive gifts because their smiles, which come with opening those gifts, are just priceless. As adults, the best gift we can give to each other is quality time spent together.
That’s what our family is about. That’s what we try to teach our children.
We eat, drink and laugh together. Today is going to be total mayhem. We’re spending this Christmas with my family, as Andreas’ family is in Germany. It’s going to be mayhem because we have visitors from Adelaide and New Zealand joining our already huge extended family. Laos people get quite merry whenever they get together, and it’s not just at Christmas!
There’s sure to be some other friends from the Laos community popping in as well. An invitation is generally not necessary to gatherings such as this one. Take my brother’s wedding for example – he invited 250 people and some treated it as a free meal for the whole family, taking the guest list to 350 on the night! Thank goodness that it was at a venue which caters for unexpected numbers on a regular basis!
It’s not a traditional Christmas by any means. We’ll have loads of asian food and there will be no turkey in sight! I think that the lack of turkey was my fault. Many years ago, I rang my mother and told her that I was running late to start preparing for Christmas lunch. I asked her to put the turkey in the oven to get it started and I’ll finish it off. My poor mother took it upon herself to stuff the turkey with vermicelli noodles and plenty of asian spices! There was so much spice that it seeped through into every centimetre of the turkey, making it inedible for myself and my boyfriend then. Mum has not attempted a turkey since! These days, she might purchase a cooked chicken for the day.
My poor husband is so lovely to endure this strange Christmas celebration of ours yearly. In Germany, there are Christmas markets to stroll through, gluehwein (mulled wine) to be drunk, carols at the church or at a big Christmas tree in the city. Most importantly there is snow. Over here, we have the Laos karaoke going with sauvignon blanc and beer to cool us down from the scorching heat! Hubby has chosen to look at Christmas here as just another ordinary day. He’s always complaining “It isn’t right to have Christmas in summer!” like every other German living here in Australia. It’s the only Christmas I’ve ever known.
It doesn’t matter that we don’t have snow or do things like everyone else, we just enjoy being together. My family and I treat Christmas day as another excuse to get together – not that we need an excuse!
We hope that you’re enjoying some special time with family and loved ones and that this Christmas season sees you well.
[big_text]Merry Christmas[/big_text]
[big_text]With love from Fabulous Femme : )[/big_text]
Update: We try to do a family shoot every year … find here our 2014 version of our shoot.