Christmas Eve morning, Cassandra went downstairs to check out if Santa had paid a visit during the night, and yes, he had!! Remember that here in the US he comes the night before Christmas Day, so we are always a little bit worried that he won't remember that there is half Swedish children living in this house. By coincidence (or to prove a point to Santa?) Cassandra had even put on her Swedish pajama! The question always comes - does Santa know that this family celebrates Christmas on Christmas Eve??? But Santa knows - and paid us a visit (like every year) one night early! Perfect for Santa to "test drive" the sleigh with a short stop here before taking the long trip over the pond to Europe!
The stockings were filled to the brim with candy, little presents (chewing toys for the twins and Silly bandz for Cassandra), ornaments with their initial as a keepsake and little gingerbread man candle holders for all three of them. Benjamin and Isabella thought it was very exciting with the wrapping paper and the big commotion so early in the morning.
While the babies checked out their new toys and Cassandra was reading one of her new books, I made the typical Swedish porridge
"Tomtegrot" for breakfast. It takes time, as I have to make it from scratch. No finished product to buy from the store in a plastic tube just to warm up, unfortunately...Cassandra was allowed to open one present under the tree and she choose one from Santa. It was a pack of seven Fairy books and it even had a Diamond ring charm that came with it! Santa did good!! Before the evening she had finished at least four of them!!
Tomtegrot breakfast!
For lunch, we had a small smorgasbord with a few Swedish Christmas dishes. We had deviled eggs with shrimps, meatballs, small sausages, herring, baguette, crackers, cheeses, smoked salmon, breads and with that we drank Julmust! A soda that is only available at Christmas (and Easter...but that's beside the point). So yummy! Well, me and Cassandra think so, my husband is happy to pass! Somehow, I missed taking a picture of our buffet, but at least I got a picture from the babies on the table watching us eat! Next year they will be able to eat with us!
After the buffet, Chris put the big ham into the oven to get ready for dinner later on. Then we spent the afternoon trying to get a good connection with my brother over first msn and then Skype. Well, we always seem to have some problem, but this time my brother had a power support problem the whole day. Sometimes the stove would work, but not at the same time as the dishwasher, the tree would keep blinking and in some of the rooms there was no power at all...not really ideal and where to find an electrician on Christmas?! Anyway, after a long time, they were able to download Skype over the mobile computer so we could chat and see each other, well the most interesting for them was of course to see the babies.
It was great to catch up with them, and also with my youngest sister and fiancee that were there as well. Later while Chris was busy in the kitchen making Christmas dinner ready, the big ham, potato gratin with beans and corn, I fed, nursed and put the babies down for a nap. When they woke up a little bit later, they were in a great mood for some Christmas pictures! Here are a few - enjoy!
My beautiful children!!! I love you!!!
Here the twins played a trick on Cassandra - too funny! Isabella was pulling on Cassandra wanting to kiss her and while Cassandra turned to Isabella - Benjamin took the opportunity to pull the hat off Cassandra's head!! It was so funny and we all had a great laugh about it!
Step 1 - getting the big sister's attention..
Step 2 - hold on and kiss her while....
Step 3 - brother pulls the hat off!!
Hahaha - you got me!!
Here big sister just pulled his hat off - making him smile at the same joke...
Dopey??
Of course in Sweden at 3 pm you would watch Disney on TV. I think that pretty much every family are doing this as a tradition. The question is normally "Do you open the presents before or after Disney on TV?". We didn't get to watch this of course, but as you see in the picture above - who needs to see it on TV, when we have a copy of the cutest of the seven dwarfs here at home!!
MERRY CHRISTMAS - GOD JUL - FROHE WEIHNACHTEN
After dinner, which was delicious - so good that I concentrated on eating and not taking pictures again..we finally got around to open the rest of the gifts under the tree. Pictures from this will follow in another post later here on the blog.
