Let it snow, Let it snow.

Yes it sounds really great and in a way it really is. A white Christmas is truly something to behold. Open fires and warm clothes, good friends and family is a wonderful thing as is looking out on fields and houses covered with snow. Its a traditional scene which many Australians, steeped in a northern hemisphere heritage will often long for. I imagine its on the 'bucket list' of many Aussies. In that sense I am very lucky because if the snow comes at just the right time  Christmas Day is a day to celebrate, to luxuriate in that warm inner glow that comes from all the above. Hot Christmas dinners, while something of anachronism in an Australian summer are a real treat in the deep freeze of an American deep freeze here in the north east.

Yet my mind still wanders back to those balmy warm summer evenings in Perth where it gets hotter earlier than most other cities in Australia. Going to the beach on Christmas Day, downing a cold beer at a pool party in Melbourne, sitting outside on Christmas Eve enjoying the 80 degree temperature. For all my Aussie friends that is about 26 or 27 degrees Celsius.

A doctor I know here in Rochester thought he could do something like that with a whole lot of outside heaters. The idea of going outside and breathing the warm fresh air on Christmas Eve really appealed to him. I don't know if he tried it. Its only 2 years since I told him about Christmas at the start of summer but I bet the idea has not strayed far from his mind. It just goes to show that the old adage of the grass being greener on the other side still holds true.

In Australia we put up Christmas trees with decorations the same way we do over here in America but here's the kicker, we buy cans of Santa snow to spray on our windows to give the effect of snow. Will we ever be happy with what we have. I somehow doubt it but that is our nature.

I am sure I will enjoy more Aussies Christmases and I will miss the snow on the ground and the freezing temperatures. I will go to the beach and to the pool parties. I will sit outside and enjoy the warmth in the air. Aussies will complain about the heat and not being able to sleep and Americans will complain about having the snow from the sidewalks (footpath) but we both have so much to celebrate. Christmas is not about pool parties and a BBQ. Its not about hot Christmas meals. Its a time to celebrate life and give thanks for the really great gifts of life. Family, love, charity and faith.