Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, but today is still Christmas in our house.  Our Christmas decorations (minus the tree which we took down a few weeks ago, and the wreath which came down today) are still up, but that isn’t what I mean.  Benjamin and Liam each received another Christmas gift today.

The down side to having things mailed from the US to Austria is that many of them take an absurdly long time.  My mom sent a package in mid-October, intended for Halloween, which we didn’t receive until almost Thanksgiving.  My sister sent a post card the first week of January that just arrived today (although several that she’s sent since then had already gotten here).  We ordered some things from a US company and had them shipped in mid-October — they took so long to arrive, and then to get through Customs, that they were sent back and then reshipped to us — they still haven’t arrived.  And, the gifts that my dad, stepmother and sisters sent in mid-December just got here today.  The plus side to all of this is that we get to continue celebrating Christmas until at least Valentine’s Day.

We opened up the package after nap time and both boys were excited to unwrap their gifts:  kites!  Benjamin has been asking for a kite for himself, and one for Liam, since August.  Benjamin “flew” his around the house (with Dan’s help) and Liam sat on his (which he thoroughly enjoyed).  It was really fun to open up some new Christmas surprises, complete with snowman and candy cane wrapping paper.  The boys were so excited, and it was so fun to still have a little unexpected Christmas celebration left (I knew they were on their way, but I was beginning to worry).

Now that the boys are in bed, I’m going to dig out the construction paper and glitter and make some Valentine’s Day cards and decorations for them for tomorrow, but since it’s still Christmas here, I won’t feel so bad about the fact that the glittery hearts will go up right next to the Christmas decorations on our windows.