More Christmas....

Just thought I'd share Kendra's present from Aunt Sissy: Kendra promply declared: "Hey, I need to take this to school and wear it. I want people to leave me alone!" Yep - she's a piece of work.

Below - note the organized piles of presents? This was done before "Mom" got into the living room to take the picture she (I) takes EVERY Christmas - the one with all the presents "around" the tree.

Basically, this was the year that Christmas was our of our (Bart's & my) control. They had been cooking up a "surprise" for us for months in regards to Christmas morning. It was a sweet and wonderful surprise but I think most of you can get a kick out of the following timeline:

• 6:45am - Rachel wakes up and proceeds to "see" if Kendra is awake yet. Amazing how Kendra happens to be awake when sister says "hey, are you awake yet?"
• 7:10am - Rachel says "Hey mom, are you awake yet?" I was not. And gave instructions that we not be disturbed until 7:30/40. Aren't we mean? But it had been a busy Christmas Eve and we were tired!
• 7:35am - Rachel checks again only this time she's carrying a tray. "Merry Christmas" they both yell as they patiently wait for Bart and I to manage sitting up in bed. And serve us breakfast in bed! I typically don't eat until about 30min - 1hr after waking up - and ALWAYS after a coffee. So the croissant and grapes I was staring at were not too appetizing but I figured I could get them down after the coffee which was also on the tray.
• "Um - girls, could you nuke my coffee, it's kinda cold?" They leave to nuke coffee.
• Look over at Bart who is valiantly putting down a mouthful of Special K and declares it to be "a bit soggy - I think it's been sitting for a while."
• The girls return with my piping hot coffee and we gush about how wonderful this is and thoughtful and all that stuff. We then ask "So - when did you make breakfast?"
• "Weeeeell, we got your breakfast done by 7:00 but you weren't up yet. So we woke you up but you wanted to sleep longer. So we waited. Do you like it?"

We absolutely loved it - and we ate it all including soggy cereal. And I didn't even freak out at the fact that while our breakfast was "cooling" and they were waiting for their lazy parents to wake up on CHRISTMAS MORNING!!!!, they completely sorted ALL of the presents into nice little piles. Like a couple of little accountants. No idea where that comes from.

Sometimes it's just hard to keep up with them!

I mentioned we spent Christmas with friends in the mountains. Kendra declared D to be her sledding buddy and off they went. We had a bit of fun on the sledding hill until Rachel and N got into a bit of an accident and there were tears, etc... Everyone ended up fine and Rachel has a beautifully colored goose-egg adorning her left shin.

I think I've mentioned that Swiss refridgerators are a bit small - and most freezers are smaller (usually deli-drawer sized at the bottom of a fridge). So this is what you do when the temps are down and you are having Christmas at your house. Old fashioned refrigerator!Our fireplace decorated with cards!

While one would not typically hang cards over a working fireplace, we have candles in ours instead of fires (and the place is cement so the fire danger is LOW). We call it our funky fireplace and yes, the flat was built in the early 70's.

I show you this as a Thank You for all the cards we receive. Holidays can feel a bit off when you don't live near family. They feel even more off when you don't live in your own country - try getting your tongue around "Frohe Weihnachten." So thank you all for sharing the Season's Greetings with us!