Getting in the Holiday Spirit!

Well, it seems we have finally gotten in the holiday spirt here in Sydney.  It took a bit longer than usual, but here we are.  Coop and I went to Kmart to buy a Christmas tree and lights on Saturday afternoon.  It was crazy busy there!  We were looking for the trees, but couldn't find them. Then, down the aisle, I saw a sales clerk with two trees and a customer asking about them. I heard her say that these were the last two trees they had. I then had one of those movie moments where I literally left Coop where he was, pushed past some poor woman looking at decorations and snagged the last tree they had. Phew.  I can only imagine what it would have been like in our house had we been unable to find a tree.  

Coop and I decorated the tree with lights, our ornaments from home and some candy canes. Doug helped Coop put the star on top.  It is a sort of Charlie Brown tree, but it works.  When Tuck woke from his nap and saw the tree, his eyes became enormous and he said, "Wow."  He looked at it a bit more and said, "Mama, tee!"  Then he proceeded to take down the ornaments and the candy canes we had just put up. I think he ate 3 candy canes in about 30 minutes!

Each day with the tree has been an adventure. Tuck rediscovers it each time he sees it. Coop keeps telling us how much he loves it and he wants to "keep it up for two more days!" Still working on that sense of time. :)  The number of candy canes has significantly dwindled thanks to Tucker.  And, we now have a "dreidel train" beneath the tree

Miracle of miracles, I located some molasses. Those of you who didn't know, I have been looking high and low for molasses for gingerbread cookies and couldn't find it anywhere! Here they use "golden syrup" in gingerbread and it is just not the same. It lacks the deep flavour that molasses adds.  It turns out it is kept in the health food section, not  the baking section. Nobody here seemed to know that.  Anyway, we mixed up a batch of reindeer cookies and decorated them with mini-m&ms (no red hots here).  They came out just like I hoped they would. After Coop tasted a cookie, he said, "Mom, you make the best cookies in the world." I love that boy!  Tuck, on the other hand, did not like the cookies as all.  Guess he will stick with the candy canes. :)

Don't even get me started about Hanukkah. There is not an ounce of anything related to Hanukkah where we are. I am sure in some of the eastern suburbs where they have a large population of Jews, we could find some, but I am not willing to do that yet. Thankfully, my mom sent us a selection of Hanukkah items from Target for our celebration. I also found that I had some paper products stashed away from last year!  I have dreidels galore since I collect them and, of course, we have our menorah which belonged to my grandma and grandpa on my dad's side.  Oh and we mustn't forget our wooden menorah play set that the boys love. Tuck keeps saying, "Happy Birthday, Bu-per" when he plays with it.  Coop has used it as a prop in a puppet show and created an alter-like set up with it as the centere piece.  I  heard Coop say to Tucker, "Hey Tucker, want to play Hanukkah?" Tuck didn't respond.

There are two buildings in downtown Sydney that have they "light up" with projectors. The light show is pretty impressive.  We are able to see St. Mary's Cathedral light up each night from our living room. They also sing carols there which we can hear from our porch. Coop and Doug went down to the church last night and saw the light show in person. I am hoping to get down there with Coop one of these nights as well.  Here are two pictures of the church lit up. I got these off the internet, so I cannot take credit! :)  The last photo is Town Hall which is also lit up during this time of year. 

So I guess we made it in time. We are up and ready to go!

Its beginning to look like the holidays around here!