Lead up to Christmas (Dec 2018) – Allerleirauh

Hi everyone!!

Josh and I are approaching the end of 2018 and what better way to see it out then to travel back to Aus for the Christmas holidays. Josh and I were so excited because this would be the first hot Christmas we have in four years!

As usual, the lead up to our flight out of San Francisco was hectic with work that just never seemed to end.

Work work work work work (sing Rihanna style)

However, once Josh got a drink in my hand at the airport, I was a happy chappy.

Josh and I flew on Qantas on their new dreamliner. It was amazing! We paid for extra leg room so it felt like we had our own walking area near the exit. AND this plane was so quiet that Josh and I both got about 8-9 hours sleep each. Considering it was a 15 hour flight, sleeping through most of it made it seem to go so fast.

Once off the plane, we rented a trusty little Kia to buzz around Melbourne for the next two weeks. We barreled down the freeway straight to Mum’s. My family were so excited to see me they kicked my sister out of her room. I’m telling this story because of the next photo of my sister’s bed.

My sister has eight pillows on her bed. It looks straight out of a magazine and absolutely beautiful however Josh has given me a strict 4 pillow maximum on our bed so I could never hope to replicate this (boo Josh!). Anyway, since we were so refreshed from our flight, we dropped our bags at Mum’s and took a quick jaunt up to Essendon.

The weather was a bit grey and it was spitting here and there but on the whole it was lovely rediscovering the suburban streets of Melbourne. Most importantly though, we stopped to have our first brunch of the trip at St Rose on Buckley Street. Look at how happy Josh is when he got the menu.

And the tea, coffee and food? Worth the 15 hour flight home!

My first cappuccino with fancy sugar
Fritters with Aussie bacon
Josh’s smashed avo on toast
Tea that came in a teapot!

Part of being back for Josh and I has been discovering the simple things in life. You have no idea how difficult it is to get tea that comes in a teapot for you to make yourself instead of boiling water in a paper cup with a single tea bag floating in it. Something else Josh enjoyed was rediscovering a weekend past-time – having a cuppa and reading the Herald.

After this we started to flag so we headed back and hung around Werribee. The next day though, we lined up lunch with some pretty awesome people:

Josh wanted his first pot and parmi so we went to a pub in Melbourne. He was so excited when the food came.

Since Josh and I have been away for a while, Al decided to take us to a great rooftop bar on Swanston street to enjoy the nice weather.

Being sunsmart and a hipster – classic Melbourne
Cheeky sweet treat in the arvo

Josh and I forgot how much the sun in Melbourne can take it out of you so we headed back to Werribee just to hang up and rest up for the next day.

Enter Christmas Eve! Before mum could ring us in to prep for dinner that day, Josh, Amrit and I snuck out down the street to get a quick snack at A1 Bakery.

After that, we behaved and went back home to help Mum. Although Josh and I were disappointed with the weather when we first touch down, Christmas Eve looked glorious in the sun.

Christmas dinner outside
Presents for everyone under the tree
Josh juicing limes for magaritas!
Mum yelled at me when I sat on the ironed burlap

Josh and I decided that our contribution this year would be magaritas. Hence the copious amount of limes that you see above. But combine that with cute mason jars and you know you have the recipe for a good time!

From here, it was time to head out to dinner.

And after an excellent feed, it was all over. Thankfully, since the entire family was home, we all slipped back into our respective roles. Which meant the youngest child had to clean up.