Christmas Eve Morning

Ben was the one that woke us all up around 8 am. "Santa was here!!" "Wake up, it's Christmas!!"I had not really thought that they would sleep that long, but he surprised me and I was very thankful for that. I had a pretty bad night with Bella that woke up many times, and we all needed some more sleep. Santa probably thought that the kids would have a hard time to wait all the way until evening, so he left them each a present by their door.

A good one too, especially for the little ones as Ben was overly excited to find his number one toy on Santa's list "The Hulk" and Isabella had wished for frozen toys, remember? So she found the doll "Anna" from the movie "Frozen" in her present. Perfect for them to play with throughout the day!

Cassie got herself a nice new make up bag with owls which she really liked.

After running out in the living room to see what Santa put under the tree, the kids soon realized that wow, What about the stockings??? Checking them out, they soon found that he had filled them up too to the brim, atleast on the kids stockings...

Many little gifts that Santa thought was perfect for the kids. A Christmas book with Winnie the Pooh, a Christmas movie, hair clips, crayons for the bathtub, little notebooks and pens, coloring sets with Princess Sofia and The Turtles. Cassie found a Dance game for the PS3 and both girls had a necklace in their stocking from the movie "Frozen". 

The girls with their new necklaces. Cassie got "Elsa", the big sister and Isabella got "Anna", the little sister from the movie "Frozen". Put together, they make a heart.

While the kids were busy playing and checking out their new things, I got busy in the kitchen making the traditional rice pudding for breakfast that we always eat on Christmas Eve. Or "Tomtegrot" as we call it. A Swedish dish, that we as kids used to eat in the evening, but here it fits us better to eat it in the morning. Chris has grown to like it too, Cassie loves it just like me with plenty of cinnamon and sugar on top, but Benjamin and Isabella will need a few more Christmases to get used to it I guess....

Breakfast table

Cassie really enjoys it, and I guess if she wouldn't have, we wouldn't have continued this tradition after moving to the US. We do skip the almond that we used to find in it as kids.

After breakfast, when we were cleaning up and also Skyping with my parents, the kids got eager to open up another present. Good when there were plenty to choose from, and the kids had a hard time to pick just one...

Ben opened a gift that he liked, a Batman belt with plenty of cool stuff on it. 

Flashlight, radio etc. 

With a little guidance from me, (who recognized the shape of the gift boxes), Isabella opened up the sister "Elsa" which was perfect as they now could continue to play all day.

Cassie just picked one present that Santa brought, and it was new bedsheets for her bed. 

They were in her favorite color, aquamarine!

He's On His Way...

We were lucky to actually receive a second message to the kids from Santa. So that the kids could go to bed happy knowing that Santa would find them. I thought it was very sweet, enjoy!

 

I Heard Something Stirring....

You know the commercials where you see people enjoying a glass of wine, watch a festive Christmas move, with everything in control and everything finished in time the night before Christmas? Well, not here. Not ever. As always, I was the last one in bed, running around like a manic to try to put the finishing touches to everything, making sure that the patio door was open so that Santa would find his way in. The kids had earlier spread the magic reindeer food (oatmeal with sparkles) out in the backyard, so that the reindeer would find their way. As we don't have a chimney in this house either, it's important to help Santa out to find his way in..

I had cleaned and put away, making everything perfect for the next morning. The kids took forever to fall asleep, and when they finally were, and I was done, I was so tired. It was way over midnight and I just wanted to sleep. Already lights out, I heard something, and sure enough, after checking the living room to make sure that nobody else found their way inside at night, I was met with this sight! Santa was already here!! I had just missed him! The kids sure would be happy the next morning, I was happy to now be able to look the patio door and turn off the tree and go back to bed, after sneaking another bite out of a cookie that Santa had left on the plate..

Santa's Message For Isabella

Santa's Message For Benjamin

Santa's Message For Cassandra

T'was The Night Before Christmas...

Just before bedtime, the night of the 23rd (as we celebrate Christmas on the 24th), when Santa's cookies and milk was placed on the coffee table next to the carrots for the reindeer (and a secret gift for Santa from Cassie...), I got the kids to sit on the sofa to wait for a special surprise. I had to wait a little bit longer than I had wanted, as Chris was away on a Christmas party from work, and had a hard time to get away as fast as he wanted to, as they were doing the "Secret Santa" game where they give gifts or steal gifts from each other. I wanted the kids in bed early, as I still had a few things to take care of here at home, so I was eager to get them to see the surprise.

The surprise was just as wonderful as last year, and I loved to see the reactions from the kids and see their faces, see the magic! What was the big surprise about? Well, Santa himself had sent a special message to each child to let them know if they had been good or bad and it was really wonderful to see how well he knew the children too. Here are the pictures of the reactions of the kids, and I will post the messages here separate for each child. It's really worth watching, they are all different, and Santa speaks directly to each child. We love it and more so, the kids love it!!

 Isabella get her message played for her!

Exited big eyes can't wait to find out if she made it to Santa's nice list or not!!

Santa had a special message for Benjamin aswell!

Cassie was eager to find out what he had to say about her this year!

  Someone just made the nice list!!

Catching Up

It has been awhile! I don't know how some of you have found the time to update your blogs during Christmas, here at home, there has been no time at all. It's been crazy intense from morning to evening, and then the kids have been mostly so excited, that they haven't slept good either, which has brought out even longer hours to put them to bed. The evenings have been gone, and I've been too tired to start anything around 11pm to load pictures, or catch up on the blog.

To top it off, I came down with a pretty bad cold and sore throat at Christmas, and I've felt like I just been ran over by Santa's sleigh to say the least..with all the 36 hooves from the reindeer trampling me one by one...Yes, I know, there is normally only eight reindeer pulling the sleigh: Dasher, Dancer, Prancer and Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen. But try to tell my kids that. According to them the most famous reindeer of all, Rudolph, is always in the front, foggy night or not...

So I've not been on top of things, and even if I have wanted to just curl up on the sofa under a blanket or just go back to bed, that's not really an option at Christmas, or not at all here at home, where the everyday life has to go on with mommy sick or not. I have though, started to read and catch up on some of yours, and I will here in the following days try to catch up on my own as well, so bear with me, it will be a lot of posts about our Christmas coming up!!

But I think I rather try to get it out there now before New Years, as then no one want's to read or hear anything more about Christmas right?!?

How have you all been? Have you had a magical Christmas? Filled with fun, love and good times? I sure hope you have had a very Merry Christmas and that you are/or have been enjoying time with family and friends! We have had a great Christmas, but more of that later!!

Update: This is now the third time I try to post this, and I saw that a lot of you had tried to read an empty post here earlier...sorry about that. I have no idea why some posts don't save and load the way I wrote them, so annoying as I'm eager to catch up anyway...

To Sit Or Not To Sit In Santa's Lap...

Yesterday Saturday, I took the kids to another activity here in town. Probably the last one, as we've been doing a lot of things, and I need to get the house together here at home now the last few days before Christmas. This time, I took them to a for us new library here in town. We are normally very happy with the library here in the Foothills, but the last couple of months, it's not been like it used to be. New staff and priorities have changed. No toddler time at all, and we used to go twice/week, no activities on Saturdays and they used to be so great. Such a shame, and we miss all the fun that we've had there.

BUT, I happened to find out that this other library in town was having some events going on and I thought that we'd try it out. It was a success!! It was great! The kids got to decorate ornaments, write letters to Santa, do all kind of crafts and eat cookies. In the end, Santa paid a visit.

The Santa was great too, not rushing the kids to take a picture, but taking his time to talk to all the kids, asking them what they wish for Christmas, laugh with them, talk softly with the shy and scared ones. It took time, and we waited over an hour, but it was worth it in the end, as he at that time still was very patient, and the kids reacted accordingly! Isabella hasn't dared to sit in any Santa's lap or even talk to them, and here too, she said no no no, I'm not going to sit in his lap. Of course she didn't have to, and she stood by his side instead. Ben was quick to hop on up in his lap!

-Do you want to tell Santa what you wish for Christmas??

Ben: I wish for a big Hulk, Santa.

Santa- A what?? 

Ben: A big HULK!

With a little help from me, I explained to Santa what it was, and then he knew..

Santa- Aha, so you like the Avengers?

Ben (now happy to hear that Santa knew who they are!!)- YES I DO!

Santa- And what about you little girl, do you want to tell Santa what you wish for Christmas?

Isabella- I wish for Frozen toys.

Santa- What do you wish for? Frozen toys???

Again with a little explaining from me, he understood that she meant the characters from the Disney movie "Frozen". It can't be easy to be a Santa these days to keep up with all new movies and characters that comes out! :)

Cassie got to hop on up in his lap to for a picture, and of course he asked her too what she wished for.  She was very modest in her wishes, wishing for a Moxie girl. The other kids in her age all asked for phones, computers, clothes etc. Santa probably thought that it was nice to hear that even kids in her age plays with toys sometimes and not all about electronics. Of course, she didn't mention all the things on her list, then it would have been some electronic wishes there too...I thought it was nice to hear that the one thing she did ask him for wasn't one of them!

 

Then it was time to go, and Santa handed out candy canes and said Goodbye and Merry Christmas. Isabella waved to him, and he asked for a hug, and to my surprise, Isabella ran up to him and gave him a big hug. I had already put my phone away, so I had to quickly get the pictures before she left his lap, and therefore they are a bit blurry and the flash didn't go off, but still, I'm glad to have it on picture. That she overcame her shyness and dared to sit in his lap, and even more give him a hug!!

Big hug for Santa from Isabella!

Gingerbread Cookies

Today, there were several things on the agenda, that needed to be done, and then of course with only a few days left before Santa comes, we still had some Christmas business to take care of! So after laundry, cleaning, taking a trip to the airport to pick up our friends family member, when they are out of town, continuing to the library to check out more books for the holidays and most importantly, make copies and print out some information that Cassie needs for her Science project that she needs to work on during the Christmas break. Yes, no break without work here...

She has a lot of classes and tests that she needs to do online, and then there is this big science project that needs to be finished in March, but they need to give the teacher the first pointers after the break, The big Question, and how the project will be put together. She needs to present the plan the week after the break, so she has already started. Actually, she started a long time ago, gathering information and checking out books from the library. The more information, the better. Of course, there is plenty to find online too, but sometimes it's just better to have some good sources too.

Finally home in the afternoon, the little ones were not really up for it to make cookies, but I really needed to get some done, as the days are going by fast now. With a few meltdowns, a lot of warnings and a lot of loosing my cool from my side, we got the cookies made. BUT, even if it's crazy one minute, it's great and super cosy the next and with the Christmas music on loud, everyone singing along around the table, we did have a good time too! And even if it's not very convenient with cookie dough and flour all over my hands, I had to take a few pictures as these moments are great for photos. Cassie has been around for awhile now, and knows what mommy likes, so while I was getting things ready in the kitchen, she had helped the little ones change into matching red shirts and hats to add the little extra to the pictures! Of course I like all the pictures, but I really think that some of them came out really nice with the kids!

A lot of cookies were made, and I still have a lot of dough for another session. The fun part of decorating the cookies we had to leave for another day, as it was getting late and into dinner time.

Now I'm ready for the sofa, it's nice to sit in the living room, with only holiday lights lit in the house. To light some candles, have the smell of the tree and the smell of cookies lingering in the house...Christmas can come - we are ALMOST ready....