Christmas in the land of sand...

Its no secret that Christmas last year wasn't the jolliest of days for Stella. We weren't sure how she'd do with another Christmas away, but after traveling to the states and celebrating there, she was just fine, thank goodness!!!

Christmas Eve brought with it drama of a different sort. Right as I set everything out on the counter to start my Christmas baking the water shut off. There was a leak and while the terrible, temporary rigging that had been done to it a few weeks ago seemed to be holding perfectly fine, apparently Christmas Eve was the prime time to try and actually fix it. Just for transparencies sake... none of us had showered yet and we had a sink full of dirty dishes and plans for the evening. So...that was fun. The entire morning and afternoon was spent with the watchman coming in and out of the house, not being able to wash dishes, flush the toilets, shower, or cook (because I didn't need or want any more dirty dishes).

Finally, around 5 the water came back on and I at least got our goodies for dinner fixed. Some friends were coming over to decorate cookies and have a dinner of Christmassy snacks so I made stuffed mushrooms and sausage balls and they brought a cheese plate and homemade chips and salsa. We played games, ate food, and had a "snowball" fight!

They left and headed home and we set out milk and cookies for Santa.

And the rest of the Christmas Eve happenings happened and Santa came!

Christmas morning had me awake before anyone else (as usual on Christmas morning!) and I laid around just buzzing with excitement (and the sore throat I finally succumbed to) waiting on the other fools in this house to wake up! Finally at 6:30 Stella came in and we woke Christopher up!

He and I headed downstairs and turned the Christmas lights on and then let Stella come downstairs!

She was so excited to see her Jurassic Park LEGO set! She has begged for that thing for months! Santa also brought a LEGO Friends set, a digital microscope that magnifies 1000x, Atlas Obscura's Worlds Most Adventurous Kid book, headphones, and a stocking full of goodies.

Somehow all of that fit in her stocking...Santa magic!

The raptor claw lollipop was a hit

Christopher got his favorite books signed by the author, face socks with Stella on one pair, Angus and Lumee on the other, cologne, a neck massager thing, and a socking full of goodies (which I have decided is my favorite thing... both to dump out and to fill!)

His stocking goodies

Christopher outdid himself this year and got me my new phone, a quartz cluster ring, a wireless charging pod, wireless ear pods, a Nespresso milk frother, an infrared thermometer for cooking, and a cookbook I've wanted- Salt, Fat, Acid, and Heat! And of course, my stocking (which had three gourmet salts!)! And the best gift of all, of course... I finally came down with the cold that Christopher and Stella had.

Stella played with her new toys and watched Christmas movies and I took some cold medicine and slept through the Christmas movies on the couch and tried to feel better. After far too short a nap, we got up and got ready, all decked out in our Christmas finery and we headed to the Art Rotana in Amwaj to enjoy their Christmas brunch!

The Fagg's joined us and we ate, drank, and were merry all afternoon! We even took Christmas crackers and the kids brought gifts for each other!

After we ate the guys had a couple of drinks and Ashley and I took the kids and headed outside for some of the random activities they had scheduled...like a "train"ride...which was a four wheeler pulling little kid train cars (think shopping mall trains). Despite the weird events, we were treated to this gorgeous sunset...

One last shot in front of the big Christmas tree...I love doing life with this man.

We came back home and FaceTime'd the family and Stella told them all about our day and what Santa had brought (and we got to see everyone else's Santa loot) and then we all headed to bed early... exhausted but happy! It was a far different Christmas than we've ever had before and I can't say that I'd ever go out to eat again on Christmas, but it was really good and really happy and there were no tears and minimal sadness at missing our family, and I call that a giant win!

I did realize that while I love Christmas. Obviously...if you've met me you know this. But what I really, truly love is Christmas Eve. Christmas Eve is my absolute favorite! I think its the anticipation and build up of the next day... and the staying up late and preparing everything and the Mom side of things... just all of it. There's so much to look forward to on Christmas Eve. Christmas Day happens so fast and then its just over and theres nothing left to look forward to.

The next morning we woke up and I had barely any voice and felt like hot garbage and we ended up having to cancel our Boxing Day party. I slept on and off and lounged on the couch trying to feel better the whole day. Luckily the kids in the compound are all on Christmas break and out of school so Stella spent the entire day playing outside with them!

All in all, our second Christmas in the land of sand was really great! It definitely helped to have visited NC and celebrated with the family beforehand. It was just the balance we needed this year after the Christmas morning tears from last.

Merry Everything and Happy Always to everyone!