Christmas in Sydney

This is my first time to celebrate Christmas out of the country and away from my family and loved ones (though I am with my mom and half of my extended family) and it's kinda exciting and at the same time somehow sad because Christmas in the Philippines is really happier compared to all countries in the world.

Nevertheless, I still managed to enjoy the Christmas season here in Australia. I will tell you how my Christmas been here in Sydney, Australia.

Prayer Guide for Family Mass

On Christmas Eve, we celebrated Mass in St. Mary's North Sydney where the Parishes of Our Lady of the Way come together to celebrate as one. This is a Family mass that's why there are lots of children playing dress up during this time.

The mass here in Australia is different from the mass in the Philippines. The people don't care to stand up or kneel down, they only sit and listen to the priest. The only time I remember standing up is during the "Our Father" song then after that the people sat again.

Angels in the outfield

Since it was a Christmas Mass, there was a Nativity play by the children. There were cute children played as animals, shepherds and angels too. Joseph and Mary is of course present in the play. I was amazed that Mary was carrying a real baby boy! I never seen it in the Philippines.

After the celebration, Rein and the rest of the Vega Family helped in fixing and returning the things that was used during the celebration. Then we went back home to load the things we need for Noche Buena and sleeping things. We will celebrate in thier cousins who are also Filipinos. When we arrived in their place, we are just like in the Philippines.

Christmas Costume with Chili

We ate dinner: dinuguan, shrimps, fried chicken and lumpiang shanghai. Then we started to play Wii with the kids and the young at heart started singing in the videoke. We had a great time while waiting for 12mn to celebrate Christmas!

The young at heart having a good time

Then 5mins before Christmas, Tito Reg started to give the gifts to the children and when they all got their gifts, they opened it up and started to play with it. The smiles on the faces of the children makes everyone smile too. Eventhough we're far away from home, we still enjoyed this time of the year.

children opening their gifts

Around 12:05am, Andrew called and I was happy! Christmas is complete! \(^_^)/

Since we are 3hrs advanced here in Sydney, I didn't get the chance to wait for 3am just to greet people from the Philippines. So I just waited the morning to greet people in facebook. Sorry, I can't txt everyone!

Christmas Breakfast

We then went home after breakfast in their cousin's place. We took a bath and had our own Christmas celebration here at home. We prayed first by lighting the advent wreath then Ate Es served as the Santa for today. We opened our gifts with glee.

Christmas Wreath

Family with the Christmas Tree

Opening of the gifts

We had our own time with our gifts and we rest because we haven't got enough sleep last night. Then we had our Christmas dinner! We had an Australian dinner, with Turkey, our traditional Hamonado, Salmon, Cheezy Potatoes, Cheese, then we had Fruit Salad, Fruit Cake and Buko Pandan for dessert. We also had this Christmas poppers where we are to pull both sides to get some little gifts and jokes inside. There was also a paper crown inside that we wore while eating. We had such a wonderful feast. :)

ham, turkey and salmon

cheese

fruit cake with cherries

with the Christmas Poppers

jokes inside the poppers

dinner wearing the paper crowns

It's raining here in Sydney right now, unlike the other days that we are experiencing extreme hot weather. Now, we experienced 19 degrees in Darling Harbour. We just took pictures of the scenery and went home after because it's raining and we might get sick. We are not allowed to get sick. Hehe. :)

The view in Darling Harbour

Christmas tree in Darling Harbour

Floating Restaurant at the back

We had a great unique Christmas this year. And I hope everyone had their own joyful stroy of Christmas! May we remember Christ's love this Season. Happy Holidays! v(^_^)v