Getting ready for Christmas in Saudi

Today we got all the Christmas decorations out!  Here is a picture of our tree.

We are not supposed to have any Christmas decorations at all, but we sneaked in a bunch of stuff with our shipment.  Our tree was in a box marked "Ornamental Patio Plants" and all of the rest was stuck one piece at a time with clothes, dishes, linens, and toys.  I don't think they took anything out at customs.  At least, I can't think of anything we are missing.

One problem was that we had stockings, but no fireplace!  So I took a big piece of butcher paper, taped it to the sliding glass door, and drew a fireplace.  Everett colored it in with paints and crayons.  Voila!

We are listening to Christmas music all the time already, and it's about as festive as I can make it feel.  I am trying to think of it as Christmas in Florida - it feels weird that it is so warm, but we'll just wrap some lights around a palm tree and call it a day.  Like in the Corona commercial.  Merry Christmas!