Life Upside Down

Merry Christmas, everyone!

This holiday was spent with a diverse kaleidoscope of friend-families, a beautiful patchwork quilt of different bonds and backgrounds connected by experience and a whole lot of love.

Swedish Christmas Eve, Catholic Church with an Iranian friend, and Christmas morning and evening with different families- some blood and some not. Throw in prawns, white wine, pool time and sunshine and you have a very Aussie Christmas and one very grateful American.

This afternoon I’m throwing a few day’s worth of beer, camping gear, yoga mats and cameras in my car and heading up the coast for a folk festival. What started as a pact between me and one of my dearest friends has grown into a mini-tribe of about ten of our best friends heading to this annual Christmastime festival for several days worth of music, workshops, camping, jamming and hanging. The hippie in me is doing backflips of joy.

This time of year is always a little funny, with  missing folks back home and regular traditions. This Christmas has been a really nice blend of new and old, and while it’s hard to be so very, very  far away during the holidays, it’s also really wonderful to have such a tribe of misfits here.

Looking forward to the next few days, a beautiful way to end 2015 with the very people who have made it so very memorable.