Christmas Day in Fiji – Life is a Journey

Christmas morning was almost like at home. It was odd having no tree to put presents under but the girls found a place to hang their stockings and Santa was kind to enough to visit us here. I got up around 6.30am and next up was Christy at 7.30am.

She quickly roused everyone else out of bed for present opening.

They didn’t get a lot this year in physical presents but tickets to see Annie from Nan & Pop and tickets to the Harry Potter exhibit and a night in Sydney from us (all co-ordinated to be on the same weekend).

After presents we got dressed and went to have breakfast at the buffet again.

Today I had a strawberry smoothie shot – actually I had two :-). And there were chick pea patties today. Of course, I had some of the rye bread and a pastry.

We’ve really enjoyed the live music during meals. Today we had Christmas carols.

Christy had to leave during breakfast to finish having her hair braided.

Then it was time to go watch for Santa’s arrival at the beach. The girls (bottom, right of photo) went down to sit in the water, and you can see Santa right near the reef line.

He arrived via kayak, after a big walk along the reef line (poor Santa), and handed out lollies to the kids.

Such a fun idea. But I have to wonder what the kids(used to a fat, white Santa) thought of this black Fijian one.

While we were there our old neighbours found us. They are currently living and working in Fiji and stopped by on their way to a Christmas lunch. I haven’t seen them in many years so it was lovely to catch up and I know Mum & Dad really enjoyed the visit. Kevin spent the time giving i-pad lessons to their daughter :-).

When they left at 12.30pm we headed for the pool and scouted out some lounges in the shade.

We went straight in for a swim, then read…

while waiting for lunch to arrive. Today I had a BBQ wrap, it was chicken but they made it vegetarian. And OMG it was delicious. I’ll definitely be having this again before we leave.

After a few more hours of swimming, reading, trying to sleep, and an ice-cream, we went back to the room where I showered and got ready for tonight (including makeup!!!) and enjoyed a cup of tea and a magazine. We didn’t see much of Christy today as she spent much of it with a new friend.

We had our turn down service early today (I assume due to limited staff).

And at 6pm headed to the Sundowner bar and grill for our Christmas dinner.

Loved the special Christmas cocktails – how cute are they?

The table was set beautifully.

We took some photos just as the rain pulled in.

I don’t know why Kevin always looks so unimpressed. I promise he is having a good time.

He looked a bit cheerier when his Santa’s Kiss cocktail arrived.

The first course of our four courses – bread. Yummy. The lighting is very dull EVERYWHERE indoors here in Fiji so you’ll have to excuse the dark photos.