Merry Christmas

I had a hard time sleeping last night, I was too excited to sleep. For all the Christmas procrastination and the lack of decorations, I have to say the Christmas spirit came none the less. Christian just told me, it was the perfect Christmas. I think so too. We've both been homesick for Hawaii, our usual Christmas destination. But yesterday we had a good talk with his family in Hawaii, which helped make us feel a little closer to Hawaii. I'm so thankful for skype!

Christmas is celebrated in Brazil on the 24th. That's when we exchange gifts, have our big feast, and remember the birth of Christ. Last night we had our Christmas dinner and the kids each got a Christmas book. It was so great spending Christmas with my mom and my sister. It's had been years.

After opening their presents at night, and before the kids go to bed, they put their shoes by the window and wait for Santa to fill it up with treats. We did the Brazilian shoe tradition and we also did the American gift tradition and the kids opened the rest of their presents today.

The kids each got a box of cereal. Cereal here is a luxury item times 50. It's funny what you miss and what you take for granted when you're living abroad.

Other presents for the kids included - CDs, DVDs, books, and some toys. Enzo loves capoeira and wanted a birimbau more than anything. We found a birimbau and some capoeira pants his size, so cute. He also got a stuffed lion. We're on the third book of Narnia and he's pretty obsessed with Aslan. Maria also got a singing frog, toy cars, and some sand toys. And the gift of running around naked all morning without me harassing her.

Christian got me a bunch of CDs.  He was bummed that my Christmas list was made up of only web things, nothing he could wrap and put under our makeshift tree. The CDs were a perfect gift, I'm so excited to expand my collection of Brazilian music. Specially because it goes perfectly with the present I gave him... Dance Lessons! Tuesday night we start our private Forro classes.

He already put it in his agenda.

That's the other gift I gave him, the one I've been giving him for the past 3 years, the gift of planning. Christian is a planner, a list maker, and organizer. 3 years ago I gave him a Moleskine planner and he liked it a lot. When Christian likes something a lot we keep giving the thing to him over and over again, he's not the easiest person to give gifts to, that would be my sister Iris.  I gave my sis some jewelry and a tank top which she loved so much she cried.

Tomorrow we'll be gone all day on a boat trip visiting 4 islands. That' my mom's gift from us. We're all excited about that gift.

Tell me about your Christmas. I love hearing about different Christmas traditions and different gifts. Did you get what you wanted? Did you get to spend Christmas with people you love?

I hope you had a wonderful day.
Merry Christmas
Feliz Natal
xoxo, Da