Christmas in Cairo, Egypt, 2009

Our boys, who never get up before seven in the morning unless we’ve set the alarm for a trip or something else exceptional, woke up much closer to six on Christmas Day, the one morning Courtney & I wanted to sleep in because we were up the night before wrapping presents and setting the house up for Christmas. The boys came into our bedroom, asking if they could go down stair to see if Santa had come. When they got to the bottom of the stairs we heard a kind of shriek, and then William “Now there’s our proof that Santa exists!” He later explained that he had made this deduction based on the following empirical evidence, "a) there were presents under the tree, and, more convincing, b) the cookies and the milk were gone!" (Yes, he is the one who listed his arguments as 'a)' and 'b)')

They came back up to report their findings, and Courtney & I quickly thought up the following plan to give us a few more moments of sleep; “how about you guys go through your stockings and open what’s in there, and then we’ll open the rest of the presents a little later?” By now however, Abraham was already awake and wanting to go with the older boys, so I had not much choice but to follow them downstairs. Here again, William offered clever commentary. Showing me one of the labels I had put on his stocking presents in the wee hours the night before, he read “To: William, From:” and then patting the empty spot (I had forgotten to put ‘Santa’), winking. “Nobody!” I looked at him puzzled, and he explained, “Santa knew that I was doubting *his*own*existence*, so he played a trick on me and wrote ‘To William, From nobody’!”

A Robosapiens, Darth Maul doll, a few Playstation games, Dance Dance Revolution Disney Version, various Bionicles, books, and other presents later, we all settled down to a genuine Swedish Christmas lunch, with ham, pickled herring, herring salad, Jansson potatoes, deviled eggs, beans, red cabbage, and home made bread to dip in the ham broth. It was the best Christmas food I’ve had in years! This lunch was followed by a very lazy afternoon, another meal, a movie, and several hours of pleasant reading, making our Christmas Day in Egypt 2009 absolutely perfect.

Today, Boxing Day, it's back to business: the washer is running again, Courtney's grading, I've already cleaned up the house, and we've got tennis practice (and a game for Courtney & myself) this afternoon.