On Christmas Eve morning, Scot met some friends out at a park (it was unseasonably warm that day) while I fought the crowds at the grocery store.
Incidentally, Christmas Eve crowds are no less busy here than they are back home. A universal truth, I suppose.
When they came home, I had some of our family favorites on the ready - Rye Bread Snacks and Nachos. No better way to spend the holiday than with some cheddar cheese. :-)
After naps, it was time to start celebrating. Spaghetti dinner and then a series of Skype calls! Technology is fabulous. We called Grandma Nola and Grandpa Bud first and the girls opened their presents from them while we chatted. Then we called Julie and Marilyn and Chuck and Sandy. The girls were in a whirlwind of new stuff and couldn't be happier. We are very lucky to have such great family...and nearly everything arrived on time! There were only a few stragglers that came after Christmas. Many thanks to all!
Santa thankfully found his way to Dedici 1, with piles of presents left for the girls sometime in the middle of the night. In the morning, the girls opened up their presents from Santa and inhaled a few Kinder Eggs that he left in their stockings. That evening we were invited to a friend of friend's house. I admit, I wasn't particularly excited about spending Christmas with people I didn't know very well...but I bucked up and we all went, and ended up having a really great time. Our Embassy friends Lika and Jack, with son David (8) were the ones who invited us and they had met this couple at an event last year and had gotten to be good friends with them over time. Barbara and Andy are about our age - she is Croatian and he is English, and they were a riot. They had an amazing spread of food and liquor and loud music. The kids had a grand time playing David's new Xbox Kinect. It wasn't like being home, of course, with family and "old" friends, but it was the next best thing.
The 26th was a Croatian Holiday and Scot's birthday. Let the countdown to 40 begin :-) Our friends Mica and Todd had people over for brunch that day, given that all of the Embassy staff had the day off. We had a nice time visiting with the adults, and the kids, as usual, had a great time playing with all of their buddies. I'm trying to remember what we did in the evening - I think it was pretty quiet. Dinner and tv, perhaps. Oh, and this, which in actuality may have been a few days later...but it was too great of a picture not to post. Scot getting pampered by his two daughters and the long-awaited Orbeez Soothing Spa, which Santa left for Ava.
1 comment:
That is, perhaps, the greatest picture of all time.
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