Christmas Day

Well guess who made it to Luanda?? Santa!  

Friends of ours are German and it is a Christmas tradition that Santa comes to their house on Christmas Eve at 4pm and gives the children one gift.  Since everyone was leaving for Christmas I may have volunteered Brett to help out (not really thinking that through). After we got him all suited up I had him do some practice HO HO HO's. Needless to say I was a little worried. Anyone who knows Brett, knows that he never really took to Drama in high school and unless he has a whole lot of alcohol under his belt his acting skills are ...hummmmm somewhat challenged.  But I told him not to let down the children, this is a small tight knit community and if he screws this up we may no longer have any friends.  

However all reports came back that he did a great job, Santa even turned down the drink he was offered, oh and they got it all on video, which one day I hope to see. 

Later Christmas Eve we went to our neighbour house for the best chicken enchiladas I have ever tasted. I ate so much I felt sick and I basically rolled home but it was so worth it. 

 Since then I have been scouring the internet looking for chicken enchilada recipes. I get my hopes up looking at the pictures and remembering that beautiful night ..... and then Brett walks by and says, we don't have  sour cream, we don't have tamales, we don't have...... why can't he just let a girl enjoy herself. 

This is Ella and her two new friends, they are the sweetest twins I have ever met, we were calling them the twinkle triplets.

Did I mention we also had Margaritas!!!!

Opening gifts. So this year needless to say under the tree was a little bare. Brett and I figured we spent about $10, on Ella this year and the rest of her gifts were all give to us by friends who actually planned ahead. Please believe me when I say I was not trying to be cheap this year, I went to the one mall twice determined to find Ella a great gift but everything was ridiculously expensive, (ei. barbies $95, dollar store princess necklace $30, Barbie nightlight $91, Princess castle - didn't even want to know).   

But when we opened gifts christmas morning Ella was so excited and happy, she even said this was the best christmas ever (note: she does say that every christmas, or any day she gets more then one new toy). So I guess it really may be true, less is more.

 Both Brett and I were thinking this is great, she didn't get spoiled, she is so happy, we don't have 50 new toys she will never look at again. We felt it was a pretty good Christmas. (Further note: by afternoon our early risers became extremely tired and proceeded to tell us this was the worst Christmas Eve ever....ahhhh )