CHRISTMAS EVE

This past week we have had temps soaring above 100.  The heat on the 23^rd was almost unbearable (it is practically the same temperature inside our house as outside) and it left us with little energy to clean, cook, and wrap gifts.  But Christmas Eve morning we woke up to rain!  Oh how we rejoiced in those cooler temperatures. 

Following a pancake breakfast, we finished our advent story and read the Christmas story.

We watched The Nativity.

We made Christmas cookies and dog treats (to give our animals as gifts).

I surprised the kids and made Kraft Mac and Cheese for lunch.  I actually found it (for the first time) in Asuncion.  Kaft Mac and Cheese is one of my kids’ American comfort foods.  They were thrilled.

We open gifts.  In an instant the living room was littered with a hamster cage and connecting tubes, light sabers, Nerf guns, a press-pot, DVDs, Wii games, art sets, books, a new dress, a science kit, LEGOS, games, watches, and stuffed animals.

One highlight for me was watching Julia with her first baby doll.  She loved it and immediately cuddled and “talked” to her. Then she sat down and “read” her one of her new books.

The kids played for hours.

They went swimming in our new plastic pool.

I asked the kids if they wanted turkey for Christmas Eve dinner and they looked at me like I was an alien.  They don’t associate turkey and Christmas.  Just as well, I probably couldn’t have found one anyway. They did, however, ask for fish and that I did find in Asuncion.   

Then we set off fireworks.  By “we” I mean Jeff and Ryan.  Each year as I see Ryan and Jeff side by side discussing what to blow up, I am again reminded that my husband hasn’t really ever grown up and perhaps in a decade Ryan’s wife will think the same thing about him.

When everything was blasted and blown up and our roof was still in tacked (one year they caught our thatched roof on fire), we watched Miracle till midnight.

At midnight we listened to the fireworks and rang in Christmas Day.