Oh, The Magic Of Christmas!

Christmas Eve—our tree is all set up and ready for the special day.

We do not have a fireplace. Our mantle this year was our window sill.  Since Santa was bringing a whole bunch of chocolate (from what I was told), I couldn’t hang them from our stocking holders as the radiators would melt all the chocolate. Thus, the stockings had to go on the floor….waiting for Santa.

It is surprising, but on Christmas morning we got some much needed sleep! Katya and Alex got up at 6:30 and did their annual sorting of gifts ceremony (and moved them from our playroom where the tree stands to the living room where we have a place to sit). Robert and I rolled out of bed at 7:00 only because missionaries from our church were coming at 7:30 to have Christmas breakfast with us and so they could Skype their families (they can only do that twice a year—on Christmas Day and on Mother’s Day).

This year I put kids’ Christmas ornaments for 2013 in their stockings. Mark and Alex got wooden German ornaments.

No, Mark did not get gum as his Christmas ornament. That is my kids’ super special treat…that they eat in one day. That’s why I don’t usually buy gum unless we are travelling.

Katya’s beautiful snow owl ornament bought in England. British have A TON of Christmas ornaments available! So pretty!

Here is Alex with his stocking.

And here is Katya finding out her socks cost me 50 cents on clearance. Oh, I knew she’d love them-haha.

Mark’s big present—Octonauts. This British cartoon series is very cute and educational—all about sea creatures. Both Alex and Mark like it. Mark was asking for something with Octonauts, but never in his wild dreams did he think we’d get him the whole house, oh, sorry…it’s an Octopod (pronounced with a very British “o”)!

And for our tough girl—Rebelle bow. She LOVED! It matches her pajamas. Later that day she decided to get some more Nerf Rebelle stuff and spent some of her Christmas money on ordering it online.

Alex’s main gift was this MP3 player.  That’s the only way he can fold and put away his laundry—if he is listening to some kind of music on an MP3 player or an iPod.

And just to prove to Mark that Santa IS real, he got a wooden spoon that he asked for-haha.

And one of his favorite gifts—a hooded towel to use after his swimming lessons.

I received a few gifts, too many, so I cannot remember them all.  This book was one of them-I really wanted it, actually.

 

And Downton Abbey calendar of course.

I also got an iPod dock for the kitchen, which I really wanted.

Oh, that reminds me I need to schedule my massage this month—Robert got me a certificate to a spa in Oundle. 

I went for quality rather than quantity this year, so Robert got an awesome metal detector (don’t laugh), a game that he loves and that I still have never played “Ticket to Ride”, a few clothes, and a piece of land in Scotland that gave him a title of “Lord Watson”.  Yeah, I am creative like that! I was so excited about that last gift that I could hardly wait till Christmas…it’s by far the most creative gift I have ever given to Robert. He loved it as well!

Here are the missionaries—the guy on the left is Elder Jentzch (Elder Schnitzel according to Robert who has a hard time remembering his real name) from Germany, and the one on the right is Elder Schwen from Utah. They loved my healthy food! Even ate my Rockin’ Moroccan soup and a salad with pumpkin and pomegranate seeds. Elder Schwen said he grew up with that sort of food because his mom cooked vegan food all the time.

And this is British Christmas weather. Sunny and warmish.  I’m telling ya, the grass is always green here.

For dinner we wanted something simple. After a junkie Christmas breakfast made of sugary cereal and then lunch with crepes (whole wheat, but still) topped with fruits/nutella/maple syrup, you’d think we’d manage to eat something healthier for dinner. Nope, we had a variety of delicious British sausages from the local butcher, Yorkshire pudding, green beans and mash.  We got to open our Christmas crackers—just a fun thing for kids. You get a tiny prize after it pops, and Robert, out of all people, got a comb-haha.

As you can see we had a wonderful Christmas at home! Overall, our whole break from December 21st till January 6th was one big relaxing vacation with lots of book reading, playing outside and movie watching.  It is nice to stay home sometime.