A pretty damn festive picture for the desert, don’t you think? I can’t believe I am in 60 degree weather, in #TheMillenniumFalcon and looking at snow on Christmas morning… I would have never imagined I could have a #WhiteChristmas out here… Wow!

The #Ravens were out celebrating… it definitely felt like Christmas…

There was this nice stillness in the air… Like the world had stopped for this special holiday…

Christmas has a weird and very distinctive feeling to it… Maybe its all of the anticipation that has built up over the weeks, which finally gets to relax and enjoy all we have worked for…

Or maybe its the fact you get to be with family and get to focus on them solely for the day…

But yet I had neither of these and it still felt like Christmas to me… I was shocked at the intense Holiday Spirit I was feeling considering I was away from family and I had to work until 4pm…

Tracey and I put out cookies and milk for #Santa… I know, it’s cheesy but we wanted the full Christmas Eve feeling on our first Christmas together…

Tracey also got me a letter from Santa with a link to a video of him talking about the Holidays, a map of his scheduled path and an official certificate from Santa saying I was on the ‘nice list’ this year… lol! It was an awesome present!

I was quite the Christmas baker this year…

I made sugar cookies, egg nog, sausage rolls and rum chocolate balls… There were a lot of people at #StovepipeWellsVillage who were spending #Christmas away from their families… Tracey and I spent a lot of time and energy to spread the #ChristmasSpirit… We showed #ChristmasMovies a couple of nights a week, where we would have treats for everyone to eat…

A lot of us got together on #ChristmasEve, in Josh’s room… We watched #It’sAWonderfulLife as we got drunk on #eggnog and filled our bellies with #SugarCookies and #SausageRolls… There wasn’t a dry eye in the room when the famous scene with #GeorgeBailey running down the street, screaming “Merry Christmas” played… I don’t think I ever felt closer to the people I work with than in this specific moment… The movie meant different things to each person and conjured up different memories yet it had the same effect at the end… You could feel the heaviness of memories in the air, as everyone tried their hardest to stifle their tears… It was a lovely Christmas Eve because we shared this amazing tradition together, even though we didn’t really know each other outside of this job…

We were like the #MisfitToys in #RudolphTheRedNoseReindeer… All stuck on one Island together for Christmas… Far away from family… Far away from civilization…

Tracey and I were up at a pretty decent time… We had #ChristmasStockings to open and we had to go to work early for the #Christmas rush… I wore my #NationalLampoonsChristmasVacation shirt which has all of the emotions of #ClarkGriswold during the #ChristmasHolidays… lol…

I got this really cool #R2D2 #ChristmasOrnament in my stocking!

It may be the only ornament on the tree but it looks pretty damn spectacular… lol…

As you can see, Santa ate all of the cookies… And drank the milk…  Don’t ask me to explain the cookie crumbs I have on my shirt… lol…

Now, we are only allowed to open our stockings because #TheTravelingMac made it imperative that we celebrate Christmas like the English do… I had to keep some #tradition alive even though I couldn’t be with my English family…

And we got to open one Christmas present and this is the one I opened… A very nice cup for my coffee in the morning with a political statement… Tracey knows me so well…

Work was absolutely nuts… I can’t believe how people act when they don’t get what they want… There was a buffet in the afternoon… Tracey and I just had to serve a limited lunch menu up until the buffet opened… I just can’t believe how many people complained because we had limited options on the lunch menu… A few times I had to remind them that it was Christmas… God our culture has gotten so self absorbed and selfish…

But mostly, the people were kind and generous… It only takes a few #Scrooges to muddle up everyone else’s decency and kindness…Tracey and I were out of there by 4pm…

We quickly hurried home to open presents… What an amazing Christmas this was… It was completely different from any others I had celebrated in the past… It was unpredictable and exceeded my low expectations… Because remember folks, ‘no expectations…’ It’s the key to happiness in life… When you don’t expect anything, everything positive that happens becomes an instant, welcomed surprise…

Merry Christmas and Have a Happy New Year!