no name #6

frostedmagnolia just posted some new christmas icons in her icon comm, myownmorning, and this has prompted this post. See, they're pretty icons, but they just *aren't christmas*. Not to me. Christmas, to me, equals sweat. And squinting (from the sun). And swatting away flies. But mostly sweat. Since I moved to Melbourne christmas has become increasingly strange to me. I used to always go to my mum's and spend the day with my brothers and sister. Steve would dole out the gifts, and the boys would stuff themselves and everyone would lie around and watch dvds. (Boring, but hey - family). Living in Melbourne, though, means no family. Also usually no friends, as most of my Melbourne friends are also Tasmanian friends - and they go back to Tasmania to see their families for christmas. My first christmas in Melbourne, my boss kind of forced me into spending the day with a colleague's family, as she had realised I had no family here. Nice thought, and my colleague and her family were lovely, but it was still really awkward (while my colleague is nice, we're not really friends). Second christmas in Melbourne I spent completely alone. I spent about half an hour freaked by how un-christmassy it felt, before I decided that if it were any other day I'd be fine with it, so I stopped thinking of it as christmas and treated it like it was just a day off.  This year, my workmate/friend Annie has invited me over for an orphan's christmas lunch at her place - she's a transplanted Kiwi with no family here, too. Reminds me - I'd better get on to organising her present.

What plans do you guys have for christmas?