Christmas in NA

well, Merry Christmas! we had a great one here full of fun, gifts, decorations, Christmas programs/parties, and friends to share it with. I hope you enjoy the photos that helped document this special holiday here...

this was right after we put up our tree. my dad had sent a basket for Thanksgiving, so i put the extra ornaments in there and put that under the tree as a little extra decoration. i bought the Christmas tree and ornaments from a friend that went back to the States. she was right in thinking that the holiday decor would help brighten up our season! i also was really excited to find this spray snow stuff for our windows. i knew that my roommate was used to snow, so i wanted to bring a little snowy feeling to our pad:)

nice and up close shot of the tree. in the middle there you can kind of see the genie lamp ornament--that was a gift from a shopkeeper in Egypt! fun!

so, my roommate suggested handing out goodies to our neighbors for Christmas. i decided to make up chocolate cookies, some mint candies, and these buckeyes pictured above! these are my most favorite things! i think i made close to 300 by the time it was all over. you will be seeing them in photos to come:)

my fabulous lang helper (and dear, dear friend) joined me for our Int'l Ch's Christmas program. it was a blast. it was a really neat, new experience for her and i think she enjoyed getting to hear more about why we celebrate. we had a really nice evening.

so, i got inspired by my lovely friend, Lesly, and made up some homemade gifts for my lang teachers, my classmate, and our building's concierge. i made up hot cocoa/mocha mixes. i was so excited to find everything needed to not only make up the mixes, but to wrap them up as well! the red and green wrapping is used for book covers here. it worked for me!

now, fast forward to Christmas day. my roommate was housesitting for a family, so we decided to have our group's Cmas there. here is lovely Shannon with a gift i got her and her family from Egypt. she cried, which in my family means SUCCESS! :) we had a really fun time opening gifts and sharing in the celebration.

of course we had to have great food! we decided that since we had gone all out for Thanksgiving, why not change things up a bit and go mexican for Christmas. i was in charge of the salad and fixins'. below was my first plate of food:) it was so delicious! enchiladas, beans, rice, pork tacos!

then came dessert! shannon made up delicious cherry and pecan pies (my two absolute favs). my roommate made up gingerbread cookies and of course there were buckeyes:)

so, after handing out the boxes of goodies to neighbors, we received gifts from two families in our building! one family brought flowers and a wonderful note of Christmas greetings while another family gave us this cute card with a wooden box for each of us! i was totally blown away! how generous and sweet this was!

after Christmas I had two friends, Ai and So, come over so they could check out our Christmas tree. they had never seen one before, so it was really fun to watch them check it out, take pictures, and comment on the tree and decorations. it was a really fun and the loved it all.

i have been so thankful for packages that have been sent! the one above came from Rogers and was full of some homemade peanut brittle, fudge, and divinity! i have gotten to know the package delivery guy and the folks down at the poste pretty well:) below are the goodies that my dad and bonnie sent to me along with the great box my dad painted up! i was so excited to receive these...thanks!