Christmas Over Seas

First of all, I need to vent. I'm not really sure how, perhaps a little problem with the wattage difference, perhaps water from the maid mopping the floor, either way, my laptop charger is fried and I can no longer charge or use my laptop. So, tie to home #1=Dead! Heaven bless the inventors of the iPhone. If it weren't for you and your lack of a social life and nerd-like tendencies, I may have lost my mind by now. But that should explain the lack of posts lately, and the lack of pictures in the future. But I'm still cool, so read anyway.

Well, we had quite the entertaining Christmas. How weird is it too say Christmas over seas and actually mean it? Pretty freaking weird I'll tell you what! Margie, our awesome cook, insisted on making us a fancy dinner on Christmas Eve. So, that pretty much rocked my world! But first of all, I should explain that we were instructed not to leave our house on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Eve, or New Year's Day. You see, these days are a big party here, and parties mean a huge population of drunk people. Add the fact that the majority of the island own guns and you can see why it's not safe. The Filipinos also really like fireworks, and it takes a trained ear to hear the difference between fireworks, and gun shots.

Michelle and I were determined to make it a little like home, and so we tried. Christmas Eve, my personal favorite day of the year, dawned hot and humid. So, while we sweated, Michelle made Getman pancakes. We were able to find powdered sugar and crazy expensive imported lemons...man they were good! New tradtion #1 added to my heart. We needed to make treats for Santa, and so we made some no-bakes cookies, it seemed like a nice alternative to having the oven on for hours! But, having lived in a desert our whole lives we soon found out that no-bakes don't like to set up in hot and humid conditions, even if you put a fan on them. But they do taste pretty awesome when frozen. Then we went swimming, because when else can we go swimming outside on Christmas Eve and not run the risk of hypothermia?

After our excursion in the pool we got all dressed up, and had a wonderful dinner. We ate on a beautifully set table, complete with folded napkins and goblets. We had all sorts of awesome food, including ham ball, and a yummy pork dish I can't pronounce. Tradition #2, fancy Christmas Eve dinner. Then we read the scriptures, opened pajamas (mine were from my closet, stuff doesn't fit my luscious shape out here) and watched Home Alone. So fun! The kids were as exited as ever, and had no doubts that Santa knew where we were.

Noche Buena is a tradtion out here. Everyone wakes up at midnight and has a huge feast! The fireworks and gun shots began to shake our house at about 11, and lasted until long after we were asleep. We did our best to take part in this new tradition, minus the kids of course (some traditions like Santa just can't be sacrificed), and we ate queso and cookies and were asleep by 2. Hey, don't judge! It's hard to be awake out here.

At lunch on Christmas Eve Kaitlyn asked Heavenly Father to let her wake up when everyone was still asleep so she could see Santa and tell him Merry Christmas! So we slept with a mattress in front of the stairs. We openend presents with our families! That was the most amazing little miracle! We had 2 laptops running, the Bailey family on one and the Beck family on the other. So fun, even if we are still waiting for most of the packages they were assured would be here by Christmas!

We spent the day in our pajamas...with the air on! Our Christmas present to ourselves. We all got some sweet presents, including Tangled (who loves Asia? Oh that's right, me). But he most amazing part of the holiday of miracles was to talk to and see our family! There may be an ocean between us, but the miracles of technology made it feel like a small puddle!