Dec. 25: Christmas Day

Christmas Day

We were very excited to share a typical Christmas at our house with the boys. When we were all up, we opened the stockings together. Then we went upstairs for breakfast. Kayley and I had set the table the night before. We like to make it fancy for the occasion, and we put out a red tablecloth and decorations. We used our Christmas dishes. I made cinnamon rolls from scratch, which is what our family always eats for Christmas breakfast. When I was growing up, we always had pineapple upside down cake, which is a German tradition.

Alex, who said that Santa does not visit Nigerian children, was very excited that he got a stocking FULL of chocolate!

So was Jer!

After breakfast, we opened our gifts. We like to have the youngest children pass out all the gifts. Once the tree is empty (our tree gets so many gifts under it that I have to hang a bunch of presents IN the tree!), we go around the circle and take turns opening gifts, sharing with everyone what we got and who it came from. This took until 11:00, and we started working on dinner then.

Our twelve foot tree. We put traditional ornaments on it this year so that the boys could see what a typical American tree looks like.

The girls were very excited to receive some of their toys back that they had gotten taken away for being naughty...

 Jamo...

Jer is excited...

What could this be?

Kayley with some of her loot...

Dad got a tray from Egypt!

Alex really loves his new soccer shirt!

The girls were very excited about their dresses from Egypt! What a special treat!

Mom got a very special jewelry box from Jer from Egypt...

...and a very special wallet from Alex from Nigeria!

We reset the table with our Christmas dishes and set up a buffet on the bar. We had turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, corn casserole, rolls, and homemade apple pie for dessert. It was truly wonderful having all of the kids home at the same time!

Kayley's decorations

I have no idea where this tradition originated! An old tradition is that 2 members of the household break the wishbone. This is a bone that the birds have that people don't. It is located near their ribs. The tradition goes that you each hold part of the wishbone and make a wish. Then, you break the bone. whoever gets the larger knob at the top supposedly gets their wish granted. Alex won, but ironically, Jer got his wish!!! (More on that later!)

Alex had shared a couple of days ago that in his family they get up at 3 in the morning on Christmas to make food to share with the neighbors. We told him last night that we were going to honor his tradition and celebrate by getting up at 3! He did not think that was funny!!! I, however, thought it was hilarious! After giving food to the neighbors they go to church and then come back home and eat lunch. A traditional dinner would include fried rice & chicken. A dessert of chim chim is typical, too. Chim chim is similar to beignets or sopapillas, only small, like popcorn. After that they go see family members that they haven’t seen for a few months. They open their gifts on Christmas Eve. He said that they usually get clothes and shoes to wear on Christmas as a gift.

For the Coptics, Jermaya said that they don’t celebrate Christmas on the 25^th. They celebrate on Jan. 6 (their Christmas Eve) by going to church. On Christmas Day (Jan. 7), Jer said that they get up in the morning and open gifts after eating breakfast of hot chocolate or milk and tea and eat fancy cookies called langshire. These are hard cookies with jam in them. They then spend the day with friends at the amusement park. They eat a lot of junk. He said that he usually eats so much that he throws up! They spend time with their families later on in the evening. They go to their grandmother’s house, eat again, then go hang out with friends. A typical Christmas meal would be similar to spaghetti pie, in addition to steak, baked turkey, and Caesar salad. Then at 7:00, they go back to grandmother’s again, and eat some more. (And throw up more!)

The afternoon was spent playing with our new toys and cleaning up. We had leftovers for supper and watched a movie together.