Christmas Party at Filomena Spa

A few weeks ago we received an invitation to attend the Christmas Party at Filomena Spa. The same place I had my five-hour spa treatment for my birthday a few months back. It said -Save the date for December 23rd and bring a present so Santa can give it to your child. What a great idea, I thought. An opportunity to meet the locals.



Delicious appetizers were served. Some pastries that resembled biscochos and chocolate cookies were among a few that I tried. They were very yummy.




Champagne was served.



And she cried when she saw Santa! She didn't want a present all she wanted was her Daddy and Mommy....She was terrified!



Mingling at the party.



Happy again away from Santa!



It was a fun party. I met a girl from New York City we chatted in English. She has been living in Split for 6 years now. Her husband is Croatian and she is originally from Washington State. We exchanged numbers and promised to get together for coffee after the Holidays.


I took a minute and asked one of the hostess if I could schedule an appointment for a classic massage she said of course you can. Next Tuesday I will be back for some pampering. See you then!

New Christmas Tradition

All week my mother-in-law was reminding us that this coming Sunday we had to take Isabela to have her picture taken with Santa Claus at the local mall . I thought, "yeah finally I can make Christmas cards!" Sunday came around and Isabela was in jeans. Alright, let me take you back to that Sunday morning.....

I wanted Beli to wear a dress with her shiny black shoes well she had other plans. Not only did she refuse to wear a dress and the shoes but she also made it clear by throwing herself on the floor and arching back and crying at the top of her lungs...sokee,sokeeeeee..(her word for sock) that she didn't like the knee high socks with pretty pink flower that I had purchased just for this occasion. So after trying 3 different outfits we, I mean she finally settled on jeans and a t-shirt. Sorry grandma!

We showed up at the mall and to our surprise instead of finding this roly-poly red-suited man,



















We found this guy!


We were confused. But where is Santa Claus we asked ourselves. Unfortunately Isabela was only interested in the candy not in taking a picture with the nice gentleman, but can you blame her?









We visited the next mall in hopes of finding the "real"Santa Claus. No luck there either, so we instead took a few pictures of the Christmas tree.






After that we went to my in-laws and what do you know? There were presents under grandparents' Christmas tree waiting for Beli to open them. Davor asked his Mom, "but it is not Christmas yet, what is going on?" She said "today is St. Nikolas day, December 6th is the main day of gift giving. "Umm I don't have any presents Nada", I said. Nada replied, "oh, don't worry we just do it for kids!"


Opening her presents.

Needless to say, I was confused by this tradition so I did a bit of research and found some information about the true story of Santa Claus, click here to read with me as I find out where Santa Claus really came from!

OK, I admit it is a long story but it all began in 1821 in New York City with a poem called "The night before Christmas." That is all I will say, as I don't want to say too much for those that still believe in Santa.