Christmas in May. Why Not?

So a couple months ago my SIL Shelley told me that we had a package of Christmas gifts coming from them via "slow boat" and it finally got here.  I had actually forgotten about it until I saw it sitting on the front porch.  Now, I am not one to enjoy delaying gratification when a package is staring me straight in the face, but for the sake of my husband (who has once before been disappointed by my inability to wait to open a gift) I held off until he got home.  I'm not even sure if we ate dinner first, but Tim got everyone lined up on the couch and they took turns blindly reaching into the box to pull out the surprises.

Now, I did mention that these were initially intended to be Christmas gifts, but ultimately Tim decided that with all the ambiguity of where we will be living and that we would in essence be carrying this box with us wherever we went like a time bomb waiting to explode, we would open it now.  I did not protest.

What Micah pulled out, I was so excited to see!  Shelley had made a cloth doll for each of the girls.  They are super cute.  Micah's has short hair and Eden's has little pig tails.  The girls just "oohed" and "ahed" over these "cute" dolls.

Elijah was next (see Micah carrying her baby...she didn't put her down for a long time) and he pulled out a couple packages of candy.  

One package was of gummy hot dogs and the kids ate those up rather quickly.  The other package was of individually wrapped chewy candies.  The front of the package pictures something that reminds me of sea urchin, though it appears to be more like spiny coconut.  Eden loves the candy, or so she says.  The rest of us aren't too fond of it too much, to put it lightly.  It turns out it is durian candy.

Wikipedia says that durian is known as the "king of fruits" in Southeast Asia and is distinctive for its unique odor.  The edible flesh emits a distinctive odor, strong and penetrating even when the husk is intact. Some people regard the durian as fragrant; others find the aroma overpowering and offensive. The smell evokes reactions from deep appreciation to intense disgust. The odor has led to the fruit's banishment from certain hotels and public transportation in southeast Asia.  Most of us are in the "overpowering and offensive" boat.  Ick, blech and spitooey!

She's still not letting "Micah" go.  I think she's actually suffocating her, but we won't tell Micah that.

Micah's doll, Micah, and Eden's doll, Eden, are kissing sisters already.  They pondered for seconds on the fabulous names they gave their new babies.

Our 2 Edens and 2 Micahs.  Who would have thought?

Now, I didn't intend for the whole post to be about the girls and their dolls, but they did sorta steal the show.   My favorite part of the package was the batik Christmas stockings that I will assume for now that Shelley made for all of us.  The boys each got a large Indonesian flag.  Each of the kids got a motorcycle license plate with their name on it, and we got one with SVOBODA on it.

Let's see...oh there were some goofy t-shirts that they sent...one of them says "Ridicule" at the top and then "C'mon girl, I just want to play hide-and-seek" at the bottom.  There was a "Mr. Tickle" a "Mr. Confuse" a smile face that said "I agree" on top and another one with something about neighborhoods on it.  They made us laugh for sure.  The kids loved them and wore them to school the next day.

I think that was all the goodies that were sent and it indeed felt like Christmas in May.  Thanks so much to uncle Phil, aunt Shelley and Nadia for doing all of that for us!  I wish we were as creative and thoughtful for them...then again, they know what's here in the states and none of it is near as interesting or meaningful as what they send to us, so again, thanks!