Christmas

We made cookies for Santa, thanks to the mix Grandma Nett sent. Pre-packaged mixes really don't exist here. (There are a couple recipes we have that call for dry salad dressing mix (including Grace's favorite meal) that we can't find here, so we had our friends from Germany bring some from the American store there on base.)

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care?

I didn't think the kids would mind, but that Grace just has a great memory and asked on Christmas Eve where our stockings were. It was decided that Daddy had the biggest feet and therefore the biggest socks for Santa to stuff, so we taped (ha!) his socks to the mantle with care.

 Rob made a fire that we enjoyed with our hot chocolate and selection of Christmas biscuits while we wrapped the night away.

 And of course, we watched White Christmas

All ready for Christmas morning!

The kids went to bed great! We could hear Grace shushing Ruby and telling her to go to sleep so Santa could come. It was really cute. Until 4:30 that is when Grace got up for the first time. She ran in to wake us up and tell us that Santa had come! We told her to go back to bed until at least 6. This happened about every half hour until 6 on the dot when we finally dragged our tired selves out of bed. Opening presents was so fun and everyone was so happy with the gifts they got. Grace was especially excited to get her own camera - a real one!

 The girls were really excited to get scooters. All the kids around here have them so they can keep up with their parents walking everywhere.

 Ruby was pretty excited to go out for a scooter walk...

 until it was harder than it looked and she fell a few times.

And ended up looking like this when she got back:

 

 Which is why we have a new rule that you're not allowed to wear white or tights while scootering :)

(Update: Rue has quickly improved her skills and is a fantastic scooter-er now. I've even taken the girls into town on their scooters and they didn't hit anyone or anything (I may have threatened them with their lives if they did...). We love to scooter now!)

While the kids were out scootering with Dad, I finished up Christmas Dinner. Aubrey and I decided to do a traditional English Christmas dinner and I roasted a duck! It was actually quite delicious and turned out well. We ate it to the bone! We also had yorkshire pudding, stuffing, sparkling drink, potatoes, cranberry sauce and gravy. Delicious!

 

After dinner we did our Christmas crackers (that we got from Harrod's!)

It was a fun and very merry Christmas! We love being able to have great friends to share this adventure (and split the cooking ;-) ) with! We also got to Skype with our families across the pond. What a wonderful Christmas! We are very blessed!