Saturday, December 27, 2008

Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM OKINAWA!
I think I might have mentioned this before, but in case I haven't. . . . We LOVE Christmas! Sam and I had different Christmas traditions growing up. When we had kids we decided that instead of arguing over which tradition to follow we would create our own.
We decided to start celebrating on Christmas Eve because Christmas day is usually busy with the military. So Christmas Eve we make a huge breakfast dinner and stayed up late watching t.v. This picture of the girls cracked me up. They were completely sucked into this little British cartoon called "Charlie and Lola".
At midnight we read the Christmas story and then open presents. I have to make a disclaimer to make before the next picture. . . Sam and I have a four present rule for the girls. Every year they are suppose to get something they want, something they need, something to share and something to read. This is the plan, but the girls have Sam wrapped around their fingers, so this is what they actually got for Christmas.
Cala just smiled at Sam and told him "Your little princesses are so spoiled." I have to agree with her.
The girls got distracted after their fifth present. We actually had to prompt them to open the rest. Their favorite were the Leapsters, these hand-held kids game systems. Audrie started playing with her's as soon as she opened it.

And she continued playing it throughout the next day. . .

She gets this addiction from Sam. Christmas morning one of our Navy friends came over to hang out. They played video games for HOURS!
On Christmas day we always go hang out with other military families. This year we were really blessed to have Christian neighbors. This is a real rarity in the military. We all got together and had Christmas dinner. The kids were so cute. Here in Okinawa everyone throws up a peace sign whenever they take a picture. All the kids have picked up the habit too.

Right after dinner the dads did what they do every Christmas. . . they jumped on the video game system. This year it was the Wii. The kids were all playing Mario cart and the dads took over. They were so funny because they got so competitive.
After all that fun and excitement we end our Christmas by coming home and falling asleep in front of the TV. We hope all of you had fun celebrating Christmas in your own way! We missed you all this year!

1 comment:

SouthAsiaRocks said...

That sounds like a lot of fun! Cool! It's fun to be overseas on holidays in it's own special way :) You all kind of become family to each other - it's so cool!
That fireplace at the ceeling does look a little funny though :)