Here in Saudi Arabia Christmas is not a recognized or celebrated holiday. So December 25th is a regular day. The man loves working on holidays of all kinds because it usually means several people are off from work and he has a chance to get a lot of work done.
I admit. I threw a bit of a tizzy fit. I just felt like we should celebrate ON the actual designated day together, and with The Man at work there would be no slowly opening presents together, eating a nice Christmas breakfast, playing with our new toys, watching movies, lazing around all day, etc. So, although it was hard for him, he asked. He got it off. Yay!
We woke up at 5:00 in the AM on Christmas morning so we could skype with my family - who has a Christmas Eve party every year and is 10 hours behind us - and then we ventured downstairs for the opening of gifts.
The night before we had prepped the girls with a video message from Santa via PNP, an awesome website where you can customize a video of Santa with your childs name and pictures and specific information about them... it really is great. I love Madeline's reaction when she sees herself in Santa's book and hears him speaking directly to her about her life. We've done the PNP thing for two years now. We also made cookies for Santa, read some Christmas stories, and watch a Christmas movie.
Christmas morning the girls were ecstatic, although Madeline's face has almost no surprise on it. She seems to be catching on a little early (being only 3 years old) and questioning a lot of things. Basically this means that if The Man and I wish to continue this lie with our children we need to be sneakier. We plan to invest in a Santa suit this year for Paul and set up a situation where Mads may catch Santa in the act or something.
My family watched on skype while the girls opened their gifts, and then we said our goodbyes to them so we could continue our day. Abigail and I went back to bed at 8:30 am (5:00 is waaaay too early for us) and slept in until 10:30. It was pretty nice. Then it was up to play some more.
Paul made his delicious spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. We were able to skype with The Man's side of the family on Christmas day which was great too!
It really was a nice, relaxing and fun day, and we feel very blessed to have each other and feel so very fortunate to live the life we do. I pray every day that others might experience the kind of joy I get to experience each and every day of my life with this amazing little family I have. Merry Christmas!
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