Christmas Dinner & Family Pictures

When Chris came home from work around 1pm, the kids were happy to get to open another present under the tree. We had spent the hours in the morning on the phone, skyping with family and friends. Ben got himself dressed and came out with a tie, handsome boy!! Here are some of the pictures:

Santa had read his list good - A batmobile!

Isabella opened one of the presents from us, 

which had a sheet set for a big girl bed with Frozen theme - ofcourse..

Which she loved!

Cassie choose the perfect gift to open, and without even directions from me, she choose the NuMe Magic Wand haircurler!

Couldn't have come at a better time, as she wanted me to help her to get ready and curl her hair, but the hair curler that we have is not that good, her hair is very thick and long and it takes forever to do it. I had to run to the store for a few last minute items that we had forgotten, especially the Gruyere Cheese for the potato gratin. So I didn't have time to help her until I came home and had the gratin in the oven. This wand turned out to be just as good as we had hoped for, it will take some time to get the right skills, but did she get beautiful curls just with the first try!!

Then it was time for Christmas dinner. We had made a ham and potato gratin, beans in bacon wraps, corn and stuffing. We also had Swedish meatballs and pigs in a blanket as we all love them!

Ready for dinner!

Main course, Ham with a brown sugar/honey glace.

After dinner, the kids got more and more restless and wanted to get to the tree where there still were plenty of presents to open. Before, I of course wanted to get a few pictures of the kids, and the kids smiled right away and looked extra cute just to get it over with I guess, as the presents were waiting!

Pretty girl with pretty curls!!

Christmas kisses!

Gosh, how I love these three!!

We even managed to get the tri fold up to get a family picture by the tree! It needed a few takes to make sure everyone understood to look into the camera!

Family Picture Christmas 2014

The last picture, both Ben and Chris were closing their eyes, 

crop them out of the picture, and I got a picture with my favorite girls and I.

Then, FINALLY, it was time to open the rest of the Christmas presents under the tree! More about that later.

Christmas Eve Morning

Ben seemed pleased to see that Santa had been stopping by during the night, and even if Isabella had already had a peak much earlier in the morning, she was still happy to see that it wasn't just a dream!  They noticed that Santa didn't finish all the cookies, but had had big sip out of the milk, and he made sure to take almost all pieces of carrots with him!

They soon remembered that he might have left something in/by the stockings too! And he had! It was too cold to sit by the big glass doors, so they took the stockings with them to the sofa instead.

Ben got really excited to see that Santa knew that he wanted a book from the movie 

"Big Hero 6"

Glitter Eyeliner and colored pens

Isabella got busy emptying everything from her stocking an building a big pile of chocolates and gifts next to her!

Make up brushes!

"What? Is it what I think it is??"

Look at her eyes! Too cute! A Frozen watch!!

Avenger chocolate stocking and Avenger watch for Ben!

With so much chocolate, Santa made sure to put a new electric toothbrush in each stocking!

A Frozen book

Santa's leftovers..Isabella asked if she could finish the star cookie or not? We normally say that we only share food with family, and she quickly added, 

"Mommy, Santa is almost like family right?!"

We also have as tradition, that the kids may choose one gift under the tree to open first thing in the morning, and as Chris had to hurry up and leave for work, we soon moved over to the tree for them to choose one.

Ben choose a Story book with his beloved Superheroes, from Mommy & Daddy, 

which he started to read right away!

Isabella choose a big present from Cassie, which had lots of pink girly, princess things inside.

This is how happy she was for that gift!

Cassie choose a present from Santa, which had a new outdoor volleyball inside!

A new, cool volleyball with Leopard print on it! Santa got this one right!!

After this, Chris really had to hurry to work for a few hours. He was supposed to be off, but as there was a lot to finish off before the long holiday weekend, and the 24th isn't really a holiday, he had to go in to the office and finish a few things up before coming home at lunch time. 

While the kids read their books, I got started on our breakfast tradition, Swedish rice pudding, or "Tomte grot" as we call it. Cassandra and I love it, Chris has learned to like it, and the little ones didn't want to even try last year. This summer, they tried some at my brother's house, and liked it - a lot, and have been asking if I really would make it for Christmas or not. So nice to share this Swedish Christmas breakfast together with the kids, still pretty early in the morning, with candle light and Swedish Christmas music on in the background! It was the start of a - God Jul!!

'Twas The Night Before Christmas..

...the night before Christmas Eve that is. In our family, we have always celebrated after the Swedish tradition of celebrating Christmas on December 24th. So, what most American children do on the night of Christmas Eve, we do one night earlier. As of our family tradition, the kids get ready with their baths, get into their Christmas PJ's and then there are a few things that needs to happen before they go to sleep.

• They have to spread the magic reindeer food out on the patio for Santa's reindeer to find a good spot to land. We have done this since Cassandra was little, and we mix oats with glitter for the reindeer to see the shiny food in the dark. This year we didn't have to mix, as the kids got their reindeer food in cute little bags at my husband's Christmas party at work. Especially as we don't have a fireplace and Santa's sleigh therefore won't land on the roof top, we make sure that they get a good landing strip outside of the patio, leaving the patio door unlocked, so that Santa can sneak in that way to fill the stockings and place the gifts under the tree.

Not too cold to go outside before Christmas in just a tank top at night, 

tonight we have almost 30 degrees less than that night..

Making sure that the whole outdoor patio is covered!

• After that, it's time to put a few nicely home made and decorated cookies on a plate and put a glass of milk next to it at the coffee table in the living room, next to the tree. We also add a few carrot pieces for some extra snack for the reindeer. Some add sellerie too, but as we don't want to make the reindeer eat something that we don't like ourselves too much, we stick to carrots!

• When that is done and taken care of, it's time for me to see if Santa himself has sent me an email with special messages for the kids. And to all our relief, he had!! This has been a tradition since we moved to Arizona, and I hope that Santa will continue to make these video messages for the kids in the future, as they are so special and the kids love them! I will try to download the messages here for especially family to watch, but here are some pictures.

First one out was Cassandra!

Cassandra made it to Santa's nice list!!

Next in line was Benjamin!

First page in Santa's big book about Benjamin!

Ben could hardly look at the screen when Santa put Ben's special book in the machine to see if the light would turn green or red - nice or naughty! 

He made it onto the nice list - and released a big sigh of relief!

Last, but not least, it was time to watch Santa's message to Isabella!

Santa had a picture in his book about her, explaining a very special day from this year. 

Her first day in Preschool!

Then, the excitement before she too made it to the Nice list!

After all this excitement, it was time for bed! I was the only one awake for awhile, as Chris had to go to bed early too, going to work early in the morning for a few hours. I was watching something on TV, had to quickly check on Isabella, and when I came back out in the living room just before midnight, Santa had been there! Great, that meant that I could just add the gifts from my husband and I to the kids, and then look up the door and go to bed. I would have gone to bed earlier, if I then would have known what time Isabella decided to wake up and have a peak to see if Santa had been there...

I went to bed after midnight, and Isabella woke me up at 3.45am, when she already had been in the living room to check! I didn't reach the cord to turn off the tree, so I left it lit during the night, and due to this, Isabella had light in the living room, and went for a look. Without light, she wouldn't have dared to, but now, she happily reported that he had been here, and wasn't it time to get up soon?! I had her next to me for about an hour, with no sleeping, and then I took her back into her room, stayed with her there and then finally she fell back to sleep, and me too in her room. Close to 7am, Ben pushed all the bedroom doors open with a bang and declared it time to "GET UP- It's Christmas!"