Max's 1st Aussie Christmas

This year was Max's first Christmas in Australia, and so far I can't tell which he prefers. While he did love us bundling him up in a bearsuit and tossing him in the snow last year in Wisconsin, he also really enjoyed the beach this year :) This year was definitely my favorite Australian Christmas because it was just so much fun to see Max's reactions to everything - Christmas lights, music, trees, Santa...

We started taking Max out in the evening to see Christmas lights about 2 weeks before Christmas. His initial reaction was priceless...



(Note the stunned, wide open mouth in every single picture and video). By Christmas Eve, he loved going to see the lights so much that when we got home he was well-practiced at crying when he saw the garage door go up because he knew that he wasn't going to see anymore Christmas lights for the night.

Because the weather here is so nice, another fun Christmas thing to do is Carols in the Park. We went to 2 different parks to see/hear the carols.

The blow-up Santa at our local Carols was definitely the highlight for Max.

The 2nd Carols we went to were at Burleigh Beach and there were over 20,000 people there.
Needless to say, it was nearly impossible to keep Max entertained, until... Santa was flown in by helicopter and climbed out of the helicopter, down a rope, onto the beach while the helicopter was still flying!

I couldn't find a cute Christmas outfit for Max, so I tried to get a picture with these reindeer antlers on. Here's what Max thought of that idea...
This was the absolute best picture I could get. 2 minutes later he tore the antlers into 3 pieces.


Christmas Day...This was the first, and only present Max opened himself. Once he got a hold of this box, he wasn't interested in anything else. (I'm not sure why we keep buying more and more toys at this age...)

After presents we were off to the beach!


This was actually the only family photo we took on Christmas.

When we got home from the beach, we pack up and headed to Mullumbimby to spend the day with Colin's family. Max's favorite things there were...

His cousin's new scooter (are 14 month-olds supposed to be able to ride scooters?!?)

Chocolate cupcakes (that was the only thing he didn't refuse to eat the entire day)

His other cousin's car. Until...

Oops!

The day after Christmas is also a public holiday in Australia, Boxing Day, and it is Colin's family tradition to go to the Brunswick Pub for drinks that day. So, not wanting Max to miss out on the tradition, we took him to the pub :) He lasted about 30 minutes, and then it was across the street to the park. Overall, a wonderful Christmas!!