Brooks, the boys, and I celebrated Christmas a few days early this year since Brooks had to work on Christmas day (Sundays are not our weekends). I was determined to make it feel and seem as much as Christmas day as possible so Brooks and I worked really hard the two days after we arrived in Saudi to get the house put together, wrapped presents (thank goodness we shipped some gifts during the beginning of our trip to the USA-- it all made it here in time) grocery shopped, etc. We picked out two big gifts before we ever left Saudi back in November and had them hidden at some friends house. Brooks spent a few hours last Thursday working on building all the gifts and putting them together. Check out the video down below of the boys getting their big gifts! *Make sure to pause my music so you can hear Gavin's reactions!
On our "fake" Christmas Eve we watched Home Alone then before going to bed, Gavin put milk and cookies out for Santa (a tradition someone has been looking forward to and LOVES). He also told Zippy, our elf, goodbye since that was the last time he was going to see him! When the boys woke up around 2:00am (again, jetlag) we watched The Polar Express movie to keep us in the Christmas spirit- and to force Gavin to stay upstairs in his room since Santa had already come.
When we woke up, Gavin was pretty excited and anxious to get downstairs. Until he got downstairs. Then, he was grumpy, started whining, wouldn't speak or get off the couch. UGH. Eventually, he got over it, had a few bites of Chocolate chip Banana Bread I had prepared the day before so I wouldn't be spending our Christmas morning in the kitchen, and was ready to open some presents. Pawpaw and Gammy (Brooks' dad and his wife Juli) mailed us our presents so we started out opening the gifts from them. Customs was nice and left them wrapped in the boxes they were shipped in so I slipped them under the tree the night before. Then, my parents shipped a few items for the boys to have once they got to Saudi, which was a huge hit! We then let the boys open presents from Santa. Gavin loved all his gifts and couldn't handle which one to play with first. At one point, he had them all in his hands. Miles enjoyed unwrapping his presents, but was more into the wrapping paper and eating it then the actual gift inside. Luckily, we were smart to have all the batteries and screwdrivers we needed to insert into the toys immediately to make playing with them more enjoyable! Miles checked his toys out from every angle and really worked on figuring out how they work! He was cute!
Brooks and I opened our presents to one another before revealing Santa's big presents to the boys. I will say... it is a million times easier getting one another gifts when you were just in the states days before. We both were excited about our gifts and have been enjoying them very much.
Next, it was time for presents from Santa. We're kinda running out of space inside our house so we decided toys and entertainment for outside would be the perfect gift!
The boys were excited and loved them!!
For actual Christmas day, Brooks had to work, so the boys and I spent the morning playing with their toys, then I spent the afternoon taking down all of our Christmas decorations. It was a little depressing kind of day... just not the same, but that evening we went to our compounds restaurant and had dinner with 30 other people who are here and had a blast. It actually felt like Christmas. After dinner all the families with kids put on a sing a long and everyone was invited to attend. The kids gave individual performances show casing some of their talent, too. It was a fun evening and once again, we experienced Christmas in Saudi, again!
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