Holidaze

Man, December flew by, didn't it?  Earlier this month we had our '80s-themed Christmas party with Alan's squadron.  Initially I was really worried (and ticked, to be honest) about having to dress up.  Little did I know, dressing like we did in the '80s is way too easy here.  We had no trouble at all dressing the part, even pregnant (one guy actually asked if "that" was part of my costume!).  Alan was "Maverick," of course.  It actually ended up being a lot of fun because everyone was a really great sport and participated.  There was crimped hair, lots of neon and leggings, blue eyeshadow...and one guy who dress as "80 years old," which was super creative.  Here's us on that night, and a crazy guy that did the Risky Business bit.  Trust me, you didn't want our front-row seats for that one.:

Adam had a blast getting in the spirit this year.  He had plenty of opportunity to make a complete mess while attempting to decorate goodies.  Here, he's making a Christmas tree out of a waffle cone, green icing, and all sorts of candy:

And here he is doing a really great job decorating sugar cookies:

Then, of course, came Christmas morning.  Adam was soooo excited about Santa this year.  Despite our constant efforts to teach about the real meaning of Christmas (he does know it's Jesus' birthday) and the unimportance of gifts, he just wanted to know if Santa was coming, like any other three year old.  We even wrote a letter and took it to the "special" drop box at the post office.  His list was long, but mostly consisted of anything Toy Story.  Early in November we had ordered a real, working Buzz Lightyear and pull-string Woody from Amazon.com, but as of December 23rd had not received it.  So we were frantically working on a backup plan.  But, lo and behold, Alan went to the post office on CHRISTMAS EVE (!!!) and there was the Disney box.  It was a Christmas miracle!  Christmas morning, for the first time in his life, Adam didn't wake us up first - he went straight out to see if Santa had come.  Actually, he had probably been preoccupied with the thought of Santa not coming for most of the night - we had to have a "naughty or nice" conversation after a bad showing at church on Christmas Eve.  Anyway, Alan and I awoke to the voice of Buzz Lightyear from down the hall.  Here was his joy:

He didn't notice or care that there was a whole pile of wrapped presents also under the tree (Damn!  Think of the money we could have saved!) - Buzz and Woody were it, as far as he was concerned.  Don't mistake his inexperience for unselfishness- he was very excited at this new revelation of more presents:

It was a memorable Christmas Day in a new country.  We had a fantastic, beautiful dinner with friends and were picturing how different our life will be come next Christmas.

For New Year's Eve we were invited to another theme party.  This was a "Hollywood" theme - you were supposed to dress up as a movie character.  Seriously?  How creative can these people expect a pregnant woman to be?  Alas, Alan saved the day with the suggestion of Juno.  So we went as Juno and Paulie Bleeker.  I actually won third place in the costume contest!  There were no pictures, sorry, so here's what we looked like if you've never seen the movie:

photo credits

That sums up our holiday season.  I hope yours was jolly.  What exciting things we have to look forward to in 2010.  It's sure to be a year filled with surprises.  Happy New Year!