Especially this year.
Apparently the dock workers in Oregon had a strike, which meant no live Christmas trees would arrive in Macau until about December 22nd. We had ordered one way back when they had to be ordered (like in October), but canceled it. Though the option to buy a little 50s-looking fake tree presented itself, we opted with something homemade this year - and will likely never forget our Christmas plant!
Once again we did our traditional gingerbread house - everyone's getting more artsy and it's probably time to let Jozie and Haven do their own - maybe next year when they're not imported and insanely expensive.
In Macau, several places like to decorate with their own HUGE gingerbread houses! Pretty cool. The frosting on them is real - I tasted it. :) Claire probably did too - she's always trying to grab chunks when no one's looking.
Jozie was in a school Christmas choir this year - she wasn't that excited about it but we were excited about watching her and the experience she'd get by performing at various locations around Macau. And she looked so cute in her matching red vest!
Here she is singing at the TIS Christmas party:
She was also in a Christmas concert and her class sang about having a Christmas BBQ in hot Australia!
Jozie got to be Mrs. Darling in a 2nd grade play:
Haven gave her teacher, Ms. Lok, a Christmas present. What a cutie!
Jozie and I got to go up to Zhuhai, China for an afternoon and do some Christmas shopping. She found a cute bead bracelet for her teacher Ms. Fester.
Christmas Eve was wonderful as usual, and even better because my mom and brother were here with us! We had our nice candlelight dinner and then opened "sister presents."
On Christmas Eve night we left out some delicious no bake cookies and "real" milk and everybody got into the Santa Claus story. We don't play him up much but it was fun to track his progress via Google, especially when he was visiting Macau so much sooner than Utah!
Here's Jozie's Christmas list for Santa (boy I love these):
1. Locket
2. Logo friends
3. Loopaloom kit [bracelet making stuff]
4. Anna dress [from Disney's Frozen]
5. A kitten in America or a bird - do not tell me kitten or bird
6. Glitter
The next morning, we got to hang out and play and open presents with this great lady! What a treat!
It was also awesome to spend the holiday with this guy!
A highlight for me was this gift from Jozie:
I had lost my wedding ring months ago and Jozie was adamant that I not buy a new one but wouldn't tell me why. :) Turns out she had found it under a bookcase and wrapped it up for Christmas.
Another special present was a locket that Jozie requested with pictures of me and her inside. What a sweetiepie.
For lunch we had our usual Christmas pizza and then we played played played!
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