Christmas. We’ve never been ones to do much of anything regarding the day. But kids, they learn about this stuff one way or another, and so this year we invited Santa Claus for a visit.
A few days before Ouest had frantically blurted out, “I forgot to send Santa my Christmas list.”
Ali, quick on her feet, “No, I sent it last week and told him we would be in Todos Santos, so he knows.”
Ouest’s list consisted of three things: a skateboard, a model dinosaur, and pencils. How adorable is that list?
Since she had already gotten the skateboard for her birthday Ali told her that she had crossed out skateboard and asked for a surprise instead.
“Oh, okay, thank you, Mama. Thank you for doing that.”
It should be noted that Lowe didn’t seem to care about the whole Christmas thing at all. He’d nod and agree as Ouest told him stories about this Santa Claus business, but if Ouest had stopped mentioning it he would have never asked about it.
So anyway, Christmas morning the kids woke up at six and clambered out of their room. Ouest donned a headlamp and began searching for the presents. That’s when it dawned on us that Ali had completely forgotten to unlock the door. Disaster! Santa couldn’t get in.
But what’s this? Lowe looked out the window and spotted, “Decorations.”
What?
We looked outside, and there, right outside our window was a driftwood Christmas tree, decorated beautifully with the cans we had left outside the night before, as well as some Hershey Kisses and Gummi Bears. Oh, Santa, how thoughtful of you.
The kids squeeled and ran outside to gather up their goodies.
From then on it was the same scene being played out in hundreds of millions of homes around the world. Ouest got her pencils and dinosaur, Lowe got a boat for his cars, and they shared a box of Legos, some Toy Story figures, and a hula hoop. Everyone was happy.
Ali apologized profusely for forgetting to open the door before she went to bed, and we all got a good laugh.
Ouest said, “Santa always finds a way.” Like she’d been through all of this a million times before.
We called our families later in the day and Ouest couldn’t wait to tell each family member the story. She’d been asking us all week to tell her stories of Christmas when we were kids, and now she had a story of her own. (I feel like I’m leaving Lowe out of this story, but truthfully, he just doesn’t care much.)
“Hey you guys, let me get a picture of you by the Christmas tree.”
“Can we try one more time, please?”
In the afternoon we drove back north to La Paz and hung out at the beach in town. And that was Christmas 2014.
21 Comments on “Baja Humbug”
Merry Christmas Pat, Ali, Ouest and Lowe.
Love the coke/soda-can decorations!
Those are actually Tecate beer cans. 🙂
What’s important for Christmas? Being around the people you love.
I’d say you got that in spades.
Simply perfect. That sounds absolutely magical. Merry Christmas Bums!
You must have a secret, super secure toy storage compartment on the Travco.
Under the couch. About the only place they can’t get at one way or another.
Sounds like the perfect Christmas!!! All the best to you and yours!!Marilyn
What a cool way for Santa to visit … and a magical memory for your kids. Happy New Year .. and belated birthday to Ali!
Pat,
Awesome Christmas…
Has Ouest said anymore about going back to school?
You get extra points from us for having such a creative Christmas spirit. Love it!
Happy holidays from our home to yours.
Mark and Cindy
Not really trying to preach but do you ever mention to your children that Christmas is the celebration of Christ’s birth? I have gathered you aren’t particularly religious but it seems like it might be wise to mention this so they don’t think it’s nothing but Santa and getting presents Unless that’s what you celebrate…
Actually, Marie, you are preaching to my people. I know Pat and Ali and they are on track to join my Heavenly Kingdom someday. You, however, might not make it here.
Who said anything about who is going to heaven?
Why is it that people begin comments with ” not really trying to…” and then proceed to do that very thing? Yes, you were trying to preach AND judge. Quite frankly, it’s none of your business what Pat and Ali teach their children about this or any other holiday. “It seems like it might be wise” for you to tend your own garden.
We actually do just that. Christmas is about Santa and Easter is about the bunny. We don’t bring religion in. Similar to how we we don’t really pay attention to the religious roots of Valentine’s Day or Halloween. We think of it more of as a cultural holiday, sponsored largely by Hallmark and big business. Sorry for dis’ing Christ but that’s how we roll.
That is the coolest Miracle Caterer Day Xmas tree I’ve ever seen!! Brilliant! Happy New Year Bums.
Love your very creative Christmas display! Our first Christmas as liveaboards was in 1978, in Grenada. There was another sailboat there with four small kids aboard. There’d been some teasing that Santa wouldn’t be able to find them because they didn’t have a chimney. When the kids started getting stressed over this, we told them there wouldn’t be a problem because Santa could just come down the mast. I guess that worked okay, because there were plenty of presents Christmas morning.
Love the Tecate can decor!
And so happy to see I’m not the only one that couldn’t manage to get a non-blurry shot of my kiddos tearing the paper off their gifts! We did a super low key Christmas this year too: 3 small gifts a piece, then headed to the beach!
I truly like the very simplistic approach, here in the states its gone totally out of control, nice to see a family back to basics.
Should be a great story for your kids when they are in college, the beer can Christmas tree, love it!
Happy and Healthy New Year
I hope Santa was good enough to provide some replacement Tecate cans for youse guys!
we didn’t do Xmas presents either (well, with the 2 oldest) until grandparents and peers brought it in. we probably had about 5 years of Xmas=dinner and celebration wtih family and a tree. actually one year we were in an RV on the beach in Texas and had an Xmas “ladder”. Must not have scarred them too badly as they are now 20, 18, 15 and 13 and this year we had the Xmas “clothes rack”. 🙂 Kids brought Santa in and we never really had to lie to them about it but since they seemed to want and need that fantasy we played along and helped guard the secret. have a great Xmas!