Ah Christmas - Better Late Then Never, I guess

This was our second Christmas away from home. I couldn’t really tell if it was easier or harder. I didn’t get my act together early enough to plan a lot of Advent type activities for the month. We read the Christmas story – a lot!. The kids (with my help) made cookies to bring to school. Damien downloaded a bunch of Christmas movies – old and new – and many nights were spent eating popcorn, drinking hot chocolate and watching the movies. We really tried hard to make it special. In some ways, because there is so little “Christmas” around us distracting us with fun and lights and activities, the kids have an easier time realizing it’s about celebrating Jesus’ birth. THEY were the ones asking to watch movies about the “real” meaning of Christmas. THEY were the ones asking to read the story about Jesus’ birth every night. THEY were the ones begging me to pick a name from the Angel Tree at school. I wish I had had made more plans for ways for us to minister to people as a family during the month. But I have some good ideas for next year and hopefully I’ll be more prepared.

Christmas morning was fun. We got on Skype with Damien’s mom and grandmother and it was fun to have them participate and talk to us. The kids opened their ‘Christmas Around the World’ gifts first. It’s my favorite part of Christmas. They get so many gifts from other people that we don’t really feel the need to give them anything. We put some things in their stockings. I made some homemade “scratch-off” coupons. I got the idea form THIS SITE. They were a hit. They each got a coupon for going to McDonald’s, one for playing chess, and one for an hour of video games. My parents got online around 10am and the kids opened their presents from them. Damien’s Christmas gift was to have dinner at a local restaurant. We had Thanksgiving with friends, and Christmas Eve with friends and it was important to him have Christmas just as a family. Hopefully, one day we’ll have Christmas with extended family again. 

After their stockings they opened their Christmas around the world gifts. I was sad that two of the gifts didn't have addresses in them so we couldn't send Thank-you notes. I hope they know how much we appreciate them!

Sora is obsessed with tigers so I got her a little tiger purse. She immediately insisted that it was a backpack and didn't take it off the rest of the morning.