Christmas in Arizona

For festive photos, see here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=163656&id=510568119&l=1c8c853cc2

One of my favourite things about Christmas is that Christmas Day in my family is always and without fail exactly the same every year, right down to the time we crack open the M&S cocktail sausage rolls. There's something nice and reassuring about that, I think. (Plus it means I can always count on having a Cadbury's Treatsize Variety Bag is to accompany the Queen's speech). Unfortunately, this meant that my first Christmas away from home, let alone in a foreign country where they don't understand the concept of Christmas pudding, was something of a daunting prospect. In the preceding weeks homesickness reared its head with increasing regularity - the slightest whiff of a Christmas carol could reduce me to a snivvling mess and I think Rich fully expected me to have a meltdown when the day finally arrived.

Fortunately for all involved, Christmas turned out to be really rather excellent. We'd found a beautiful apartment/annex in the desert on the edge of Rimrock, a little town close to the famous red rocks of Sedona, Arizona, and on Christmas Eve we moved in and began the Christmasifying process. First up, Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without a tree. As the cost/benefit analysis wouldn't stretch to us buying a proper tree plus decorations, we fashioned our own out of our 2 backpacks balanced on top of each other, wrapped in a couple of fake pine tree garlands and twinkly lights and strategically hung with cheap candy canes and shiny baubles. It actually looked pretty convincing in the end, we think the Tate Modern might be interested...

Then, of course, there was the food. Neither of us had been let loose on the Christmas food shopping singlehanded before so it was all a bit of an adventure. We went for a traditional approach, but with an American twist to fill in the gaps. So no Christmas pudding or crackers, but instead the joy of egg nog and American football themed Santa hats. We even found a bag of "bagel dogs" to fill in for the traditional sausage rolls. Inspired.

The rest of Christmas Eve was spent finding streaming Christmas songs online (you can't have Christmas without Slade or Fairytale of New York), decorating our own 99 cent stockings and drinking mulled wine. We found a nice church in Sedona to provide carols by candlelight and midnight mass before settling in to wait for Santa.

Christmas Day was similarly successful. First prize for making Christmas has to go to the wonderful Skype, which let me "be there" while my family opened their presents on Christmas morning. The wonders of technology, eh? My presents from home were particularly appreciated - a whole fridgeshelf full of Cadbury's finest confectionery. (Proper chocolate, not the pale imitation they brand as Cadburys in the States or, heaven forbid, Hersheys). After exchanging presents and enjoying a hearty breakfast of bucks fizz and eggs, ham & asparagus on toast we drove out to the red rocks for a Christmas Day perambulation. It was beautiful - see photos. Christmas Dinner also turned out perfectly, a feat which I attribute partly to our culinary expertise and partly to the steady supply of sparkling wine which accompanied the cooking process.

To round things off nicely we took another trip to the red rocks on Boxing Day, including a stop at the impressive and unusual Chapel of the Holy Cross. The chapel, originally conceived to take up an entire city block in Budapest, was eventually constructed in Sedona, built into the red rocks themselves and overlooking the valley 200ft below. The giant cross which forms the building's front can be seen for miles and complements the surrounding landscape surprisingly well.

Before leaving Arizona we ate more festive foodstuffs, watched Christmas movies and packed up the remaining chocolate for a visit to the Grand Canyon - quite a sight, especially in the snow. All in all, t'was a very merry Christmas.