Finally a day before Christmas Eve I had to start planning and do something to make it feel like Christmas. So I decided on a menu: roasted whole chicken instead of turkey, rice with meat, mashed potatoes, cabbage salad, corn, gravy, and cranberry sauce. Luckily my cousin Stephanie was here to help me out because last minute with the kids doesn't really work well. We dragged them to the store with us and thankfully we found a whole chicken and everything else we needed.
Before starting to make the Christmas Eve meal, we baked cookies for Papa Noel (as Cristiano calls him). It was Cristiano's first time baking cookies and he had a blast. As soon as I put my hands in the batter to mix it he said "oh wow" very enthusiastically. His reaction was priceless! So I gave him his own bowl with a bit of batter and he enjoyed playing with it. In the meantime, Stephanie was picked the green and red M & Ms from the bag to use as decoration. Cristiano then helped me decorate the cookies with the Christmas themed M & Ms.
Once baked, we of course had to taste them and everyone agreed that they were delicious!
Michael came home from work early. At the time, I was chatting with my aunt Leila in Lebanon on What's App and we were talking about our plans for Christmas Eve. She asked me who I was hosting and I said just us. So she asked me what Michael's colleagues were doing and I paused...it was a great question and I had no idea. She wondered why they weren't coming to our place and again, I had no idea. To be honest, lately, I feel I have so much on my mind that I am not thinking straight. As soon as our conversation ended, I asked Michael to find out whether his friends would like to spend Christmas Eve with us. It was the right thing to do seeing as they are also away from their families. They all confirmed very quickly and somehow our plans became more exciting. It started to feel a little more like Christmas as we weren't going to spend it alone.
Michael went out with Cristiano to buy another chicken, more items for the cooking and some wine. I was very nervous about the meal. I was worried it wouldn't taste good, but everything ended up being delicious. We were happy with the company and his colleagues loved the food.
After our guests left, Cristiano prepared a plate of cookies and some milk for Papa Noel. He was very excited to sleep so he can wake up and receive the presents Santa will bring him.
Michael and I went out to the mall for some gifts for each other and for Stephanie. The roads and malls were crazy. Christmas music was playing in the streets and in the mall, carolers were singing everywhere, servers were dressed in red, and there was even a snow man in the corridor of the Hyatt hotel (I was very excited to touch the snow!). Our shopping was done very quickly. We just wanted a small item or two for us to participate with the kids in the gift opening.
Then I finally got the chance to wrap the gifts with Stephanie's help, and we were ready for Christmas morning!
Christmas morning came and Santa had passed and ate the cookies and left a piece for Cristiano, which Cristiano ate with pleasure.
The boys had a great time opening their gifts and even more so they had a great time, and are still having a great time, playing with the toys they received. Last year Cristiano was very focused on the boxes of the toys but this year he really appreciated the actual toys. Every one was a success. Cristiano was even excited for us because we received gifts from Santa. What stood out the most was Michael's Spider-Man shirt which matches Cristiano's Spider-Man shirt. One of my gifts were flip flops and when I wore them the next day Cristiano said to me: "oh wow, haidoleh Papa Noel jiboun", which means "oh wow, these are the ones Santa brought". So cute!
We spent the rest of Christmas morning at the pool and in the afternoon after nap time, we visited an area called Arab town. I will post about that experience soon. All in all a VERY different Christmas, but a nice one nevertheless.
Merry Christmas everyone!
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