We woke Christmas morning to some excited kids.  They were filled with so much anticipation.

They saw that Santa had indeed made it to Oman and found us in the hotel….

but the pile of presents was quite small.  They each had just an item or 2 to open.  This made nobody happy, and we suddenly saw a lot of sour looking faces from the girls.  After the few minutes it took to open the few presents that were there, I shared an e-mail with them that I had received from Santa…

and the picture that was attached..

At this moment, this appeased nobody.  Christmas fail.  Oh well.

There were a couple happy campers anyway..

We ate some breakfast and time seemed to ease the disappointment for Kelli Jo and Zoey.  They started getting excited about the presents waiting for them in Bountiful and decided to just have a fun day in the sun again.

Zoey wanted to go in with the boys and take a little rest.  Kelli Jo and Ava would be the only ones to take part in the most bizarre visit from Santa known.  There was a chair made special for him on the pirate ship.  The 2 resort turtle mascots were there and took part in everything.

As we were standing in line Santa came strolling in holding on for dear life on the back of a camel..

When camels lower themselves to sit, they drop to their knees and Santa nearly took a spill over the hump of the camel he was riding.  As the extremely tan 5 foot 1 inch skinny Filipino Santa was lead to the pirate ship by the turtles, the helpers gave him the mic.  He wanted nothing to do with it and let out a very half-hearted and quick “Ho Ho Ho” and quickly returned the mic.  All of this was just too funny to ignore and we were both laughing out loud.  Chris was doing a play by play in my ear which everyone around heard and laughed as well.

Santa’s reindeer camels..

Kelli Jo and Ava with Santa (whom Kelli Jo figured to be a fake) and…. a turtle of course.

After this, it was more playing in the sun.  Ava was content most of the time in the kiddie pool.

Kelli Jo and Chris playing water polo

After the sun went down the girls played in the Kid’s Zone doing some Christmas crafts while the rest of us spent some time shopping at the Omani Heritage Village.  We then ate dinner and watched The Santa Claus before hitting the hay after one of the most bizarre Christmas Days that will never be forgotten.