What a wonderful Christmas it's been--despite no extended family and no white stuff! Last night, friends invited us over to enjoy a traditional English holiday feast complete with roast beef (which inevitably makes me think of the Grinch's roast beast), Yorkshire pudding, brussel sprouts, and roasted potatoes. Yum. The not-so-traditional part consisted of extras like grapes, salad, orange rolls--and the trifle for dessert. Double yum.
Between the two couples, we have eight children! So after dinner, they performed the nativity play for us. Hans played Joseph,
Ralph doubled as a sheep and as Herod, 
Rhiannon provided the "three wise camels,"
Liesl served as videocamerawoman,
I snapped photos, and Greg hosted our friends' toy creche--courtesy of their youngest child.
What a sweet almost-end to the day! Once home, the kids rushed to open Aunt Margo's pajama packages--a beloved tradition now--then more or less scurried off to bed with few complaints. Our own Christmas miracle! 
Ralph woke us a few hours later, too excited to sleep any longer. Unfortunately for him, 7:00 was our pre-arranged, set-in-stone wake-up agreement time, so he suffered a wee bit. Oh, but it was worth it! Just check out Hans' face as he raced down the stairs this morning. In their own ways, his siblings' faces matched.
Ralph woke us a few hours later, too excited to sleep any longer. Unfortunately for him, 7:00 was our pre-arranged, set-in-stone wake-up agreement time, so he suffered a wee bit. Oh, but it was worth it! Just check out Hans' face as he raced down the stairs this morning. In their own ways, his siblings' faces matched. 
Everyone desperately needed long-sleeved shirts and Santa came through. Even Greg got some new shirts from all of us. I heard him telling his folks over the phone that it'll be a nice change from the trio of winter shirts he's worn these past 6 years. Hmmmm . . . Good thing he's a physicist. I'm deep in the middle of a fascinating book, memoirs of the last child born in MacBeth's castle, called "A Charmed Life." 
Hans constructed Lego creations all day (he's determined to be a Lego designer when he grows up), Liesl's been loading Ralph's new iPod and Rhiannon's new iPod touch with music from their joint library (she got a camera), Ralph's been playing Wii (a year-old gift) games, and Greg's been helping everyone. Me? I've been talking on the phone with family, downloading photos, sending them, writing this, reading, and making the boys' blankets that should have been finished this morning. Luckily, they took it all in stride.
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