The wrong but Right Christmas

It was December 24th and the stockings weren't hung up with care in the incredibly humid heat of Mission Beach, North Queensland Australia. I was working for accommodation at the family run hostel Jackaroo. It didn't feel like Christmas time at all and I was so homesick for my family who were all together back on Vancouver Island Canada. I was making beds which I never ended up mastering even after a month and I thought that in this sticky heat I've never hit this time of low for missing home. Sweat and tears were rolling off of me in an embarrassing abundance. I took an extra hour to do my mandatory three hour shift just because I kept sitting down on the floor thinking about how the Jackaroo Christmas tree was as fake as when I just told my friend Miri I was okay. The whole day I was in this slump, and it didn't help that two of our jackaroo staff members went back home to England to surprise their families for the holidays. Didn't they know that they were part of our family, and we needed them here?
That night because we had so many Germans and Swedish in the hostel Jade the owner decided to have one of Jackaroo's infamous Free Wine Fridays... Except it was to celebrate Christmas Eve because in Europe this eve was more important than Christmas day. With my two best friends from the hostel, Meghan and Miri we celebrated European style and I was able to shake off the blue feeling with laughter and silly antics.
I woke up Christmas morning with a smile still on my face and cheerfully skyped my parents telling them not of the previous glumess of the day before, but of how I was starting to like the tangyness of Vegimite and that I was excited to help Meghan and Miri create an Aussie BBQ feast.
When people ask me what it was like to have Christmas away from home instead of describing the aching feeling of home sickness I remember a no cloud day of sun, barbequed prawns and two girls that were my family for the day. I tell them its like making up a new holiday where its okay to finish the day off with a beach bonfire instead of Christmas carols and hot cocoa. If you're with the right people as I was with my two friends you will always remember the experiences you shared with them. That was my first Christmas away from home and you know what? Even if the Christmas tree was fake it was okay.