Celebrating on Japanese Time

Our Christmas day began yesterday on Christmas Eve around noon...when Christmas actually began in other parts of the world. We had a wonderful time of unwrapping gifts with the kids and both sets of grandparents. A wonderful time too of trashing the living room followed by hours of struggling with an incomprehensible number of twisty ties that stubbornly held on to each toy with a vice grip. The kids had a great time and made out like bandits. More Legos for Lego Boy, lots of Littlest Pet Shop Pets for the girls, and a stealthy spy remote-controlled car for Jacob. Alex also joined the group of elite DSers; now she doesn't have to borrow the boys'. Michael promptly retired to his workshop to make quick work of the Lego set. And Jacob was quick to begin his spying.

Our Christmas festivities continued with our "Christmas Dinner", if you can call it that. We cheated and got much of it at Sam's. Which means there was little preparation--not our typical kind of meal. It was a dinner around the world: chips and salsa to represent Mexico, tortellini with alfredo sauce for Italy, croissants on behalf of the French, moroccan couscous, and rotisserie chicken--American, I guess? Despite the strange meal, we filled our bellies and had some time to relax before our Christmas Eve service.

The kids did great in their play. And my little sheep, despite her costume, was the cutest lamb of them all. I have a couple of readers who might disagree with that, but that is their right as mommies. Just as it is mine! Besides being adorable, Audrey even participated by singing and doing the hand motions...a huge step since Aloha! VBS 2008 when all she did was play with her hula skirt. Jacob made great progress as well. Surprisingly, he not only made it up on stage but sang his little heart out.

When we returned from the candlelight service, we had our traditional reading of the Christmas story and then sent our little elves off to bed. Our night wasn't over, though, because even though we unwrapped gifts and had our faux dinner, we were unable to reschedule Santa. Guess he was busy on the other side of the world.