My favorite holiday as a child was Christmas. Since we lived in Australia, we celebrated Christmas during the middle of summer holidays, and combining my favorite season with my favorite holiday seemed only natural.
December always began in a swelter. Flies stuck to the screen door and the bush hummed with cicadas and the Blue Mountains shimmered sapphire in the heat. We drowsed through the last week of school, our legs sticking to the chairs while flies buzzed through the open windows.
On the last day of school, we chattered excitedly on the bus and then ran home from the bus stop. Not only was the school year over, but we had six weeks to explore the bush-covered foothills and swim in the Nepean River behind our house. And Christmas was only two weeks away.
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