Life Can Change On A Dime

Annabel Langbein loves Christmas and all its traditions. And this year she is celebrating more than the festive season – after some very challenging months for her family, she is celebrating life itself. She talks to Emma Clifton about the silver lining that came from her daughter’s horrific accident, and why she is simplifying her life.

- Emma Clifton

On the day of our Australian Women’s Weekly photo shoot, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas in the Langbein household: an enormous cake, a festive table-setting, a series of beautiful dresses. Annabel has fake-tanned that morning and is growing concerned at how deep the colour is turning as the day progresses. We pause for tea and scones, a ritual that is taken very seriously. There is a decades’ old Chinese teapot, and a rattan warmer basket that keeps it hot between pours. Annabel’s teacups are floral, vintage and beautiful – passed down through the generations (which ensures we hold them very, very carefully).

It’s a beautiful sunny day and the mood is festive. Which is good, because Annabel is a very Christmassy person. In fact, when it comes to her and her beloved husband Ted, it’s probably the one area where they have to agree to disagree. “I grew up in a house where everything was over-the-top Christmas,” she says. “My mother would be cooking for weeks and weeks. Whereas Ted’s family don’t really ‘do’ Christmas. I was like, ‘Well, this isn’t going to work.’ So he’s had to, over the years, put up with the fact that I’m not going to be happy with a sausage on the beach.”