From the Land Up Over: Summer Holidays

I still haven't gotten used to the idea of Christmas being during the summer. But at least it wasn't as hot as last year. It's actually rained for almost a week straight and has been a nice temperature for most of the holiday season. Sometimes I would squint my eyes and pretend the rain was snow (worked for me)! When the rain breaks for a day or two though, it's back to sweltering heat!

Last year, I was still new to Oz and wasn't working yet, so this is my first holiday experience as a working person. It annoyed me last year when businesses and restaurants seemed to shut down for a week or two around Christmas/New Years. This year, I'm actually part of the shut-down, so I'm ever so grateful for the break and calm. Since Christmas and Boxing Day and even New Years fell on weekends this year, the public observation of those were celebrated on Monday and Tuesday last week and this coming Monday, respectively. That left 3 days between those public holidays, so my employer gave us Wednesday off and because the office is shut anyway, we can use accumulated time off or vacation or whatever to fill the gap. So in essence, I had 6 paid days off work for the holidays. And this is pretty common here unless you work for the mines or a grocery store, or hospital I guess. With most businesses closing during those times and most people off work, it certainly creates a wonderfully relaxed vibe... a true holiday.

If there were one cultural thing I could export to the US, it would be this. I think Americans just work so hard (as people do here and elsewhere in the world), and they deserve true holidays to relax. Many Americans don't know what a real holiday or break is like, especially when they're working multiple minimum wage jobs just to feed their kids. I feel guilty sometimes living here, getting so much vacation time and holiday time. People here think nothing of taking month-long vacations. When I told people my mom only had 2 weeks vacation to come visit me in NZ, they just normally looked at me with a blank stare...like ....what? Everyone in the world can't take 4-6 weeks vacation every year???

A vacation revolution is in order.

We've had nice quiet holidays so far. We had guests come up from the Gold Coast to share a Christmas meal with. Theo and I made lamb and roast veggies and they brought yummy shish kabobs and to-die-for potato salad, among other things. It was certainly a feast (and mostly organic, too)!