A few things to remember from December 24th, 2014:

It’s Christmas Eve; stay left; The sky is so blue; stay left; Art House; stay left; Penguins Parade; stay left; This is beautiful!; stay left

From Melbourne to Phillip Island on Christmas Eve Day. Easy drive to the Island, first stop Pyramid Rock (just to the left of this photo…) The thing I kept having to tell myself was to, STAY LEFT! A small detail when driving on the opposite side of the road. I arrived to the Art House where I was staying, to a table full of people and a glass of champagne. This day was turning out to be excellent. I spent the afternoon with a fantastic family filled with wit, intrigue and just the right amount of self-deprecating humor.

As evening got closer it was decided I should go to the Penguin Parade. So I left the festivities behind in search of little fairy penguins coming in from the sea. I have to admit I was expecting a sort of Bracken Cave bat experience-millions of bats exiting a cave en masse. Not so much the case with the penguins.

I made it to the penguin park just in time to join a tour. Turns out you didn’t need a tour but I was so frantic I was going to miss the little happy feets I failed to read the fine print. It also turned out there was no photography allowed, at all. So already a bit disappointed, I followed the tour guide. As the tour went on it got colder and colder, and we finally made it to the beach where we would see this grand parade happen! I sat there on the sand, legs falling asleep, getting colder and more impatient by the second. I was bordering on semi-bitter when I saw a group of the cutest little penguins pass not too far from me, looked up at the beautiful sliver of the moon, remembered it was Christmas Eve and just how lucky I was to be there.