In the beginning when I’d go with Chris down to Australia for Christmas, I didn’t really have anything I really loved or wanted from down there, as I was getting acquainted with what was interesting there to bring back. So in our large checked bag back to New York, it was mostly things he wanted to bring back: his favorite snacks that cannot be sourced here, like Arnott’s biscuits (Tim Tams, obviously, but many other lesser known ones like Scotch Fingers, Mint Slices, Iced Vovos, TeeVee snacks), Arnott’s savory crackers like BBQ shapes, and The Natural Confectionary fruit snacks. He also has loyalty to certain brands of body products he uses, so he would always make a stop at Chemist Warehouse and bring back several of his favorite roller deodorants.

Eventually, though, I started finding things I liked a lot or knew I could get cheaper there, and the list of items to bring back expanded: in a few years time, I was making sure we brought back things like tea tree oil, which is native to Australia (and cheaper there than in the U.S.). It is used primarily for cleaning/disinfecting, but can also be used on the occasional pimple or bug bite. I also started finding brands of sunscreen I like there (they should at the very minimum make high quality sunscreen there, right?), so I would always make sure we brought back at least a handful of bottles of these. I also found brands of clothing I liked, like Peter Alexander for sleepwear and Kookai for clothing.

Then, we started finding things we liked together: a family-owned fruit wine shop up in Queensland, various wineries or distilleries that made wines and gin we fell in love with. The haul started increasing more and more over time (and weight of our bags, as well!).

Then, Pookster arrived, and the checked luggage items totally changed. The proportion of the luggage devoted to Chris’s Australian snacks decreased massively, much to his dismay, in favor of the birthday and Christmas gifts for Pookster that were given by his family and friends (which, to be frank, are dominated mostly by the endless piles of clothes lovingly chosen by his mom). Through Pookster, as well as through store credits from clothes that were gifted that were too small for Kaia, I discovered how much more fun it is to shop for children’s clothing in Australia: the clothes seemed to be of brighter colors (makes sense given the warmer climate), and who can resist Australian animals like koalas kids’ clothing? Where else in the world can you get a lightweight summer toddler dress covered in koalas, wombats, and echidnas wearing Santa hats?

This year, we brought back just two bottles of alcohol: a Four Pillars Christmas gin Chris’s parents gifted him, plus a bottle of reserve chardonnay from a winery where we had lunch with his cousins in Nelson, New Zealand. More of Chris’s Australian snack haul comes from Australian Costco, where this year, he picked up two big bags of The Natural Confectionary fruit snacks and chocolate covered honeycomb. Chris gets a prescription grade toothpaste for his old teeth. As written about previously, I am now getting 20% azelaic acid cream from there for my face to see if it helps with my sun spots! For Kaia, we bring back Panadol for kids, which is basically children’s Tylenol without the high fructose corn syrup (take that, United States pharmaceutical bullshit); different types of preventive cold medication and sunscreen, plus travel-sized bottles of kid-friendly things like lotion and toothpaste from natural children’s brands I like (I love Chemist Warehouse in Australia – it’s like a fun house for me!). We also get a standard sized box of Weetbix cereal for Kaia because she enjoys it; she’s a Weetbix kid!

The haul has evolved a lot over time, but I suppose needs evolve over time, and we’re all getting older, as well. When I remember, I try to take a photo of most of the things we bring back to document it each year (sometimes I forget, and other times, I feel frazzled with the seemingly endless amount of stuff brought back that I feel a neurotic urge to put everything away ASAP). Eventually, I might go through our photos and stack these specific photos over the years side by side for photographic evidence of how the haul has evolved over time. I think that would be quite fun and interesting to see!