Christmas morning!!!! The kids woke up around 7 AM and didn't seem in too much of a hurry to get down stairs though. Grandma was downstairs waiting for them though snapping pictures as they came down. Santa Claus had come, ate his cookies and milk and left some "prezzies" by the fireplace and filled the kids' stockings. The big present the kids got was an easel with chalk, markers and paper.
Addison and Harrison both got Disney songbooks and CD's from Daddy!!!
Santa brought Harrison some of his first duplo blocks.
Santa also brought the kids a collection of Harry and His Bucket Full of Dinosaurs books and read along CD. (It's become a favorite for our kids to watch on TV and now with Harrison getting a few dinos for Christmas, we've got the real life guy living in our house now.)
Addison got a little senorita dress from Emily and Gemma that they bought in Mallorca while they were on holiday. I saw these when we were in Barcelona and thought they were so cute.
Emily found some way to get me a Pampered Chef apron as I love to cook and LOVE Pampered Chef. I guess only consultants are able to get these but I've had a wonderful consultant I've worked with and Emily got a hold of her to help her out.
The kids got Kevin this year's style of Leicester Tigers CAT rugby shirt. Also I ordered a travel coffee cup with their picture on it so he had a decent cup to bring back and forth to work with some cute faces on it.
This year I made a very special gift for Addison. I had my old Cabbage Patch Kid that I got when I was about 5-6 years old and thought it would be fun to give to her this year. I made some new clothes for the doll - two dresses, a pair of overalls, a nice shirt and bunny rabbit fleece PJs.
We worked pretty fast once we got back to get a nice photograph we took of the Matterhorn printed and framed for Mike and Sally to take back with them so they could have an instant reminder of their wonderful European holiday.
Kevin went all out this year and got me the most beautiful skirt outfit from Monsoon along with some tall boots!!! It is a very European look and I finally had a fun go out outfit. He also got me the purse (wallet) that matched my handbag (purse) that he got me for my birthday. I also got a Bose iPod speaker so that I could finally enjoy that iPod we bought just before we moved to the UK.
Addison had only one thing she had been asking to have for Christmas and it was a jump rope or what they call a "skipping rope" here. Funny thing is that Santa brought her a bright yellow jump rope, but Grandma Sue sent her a princess one and Auntie Crystal sent her a froggy one so she ended up with not one but THREE jump ropes. Then all she could talk about was jumping rope with Grandma Sally.
Addison of course found out how fun it was to open presents and kept looking for more and more to open. She even found ways to help Harry open some as well. Addison certainly loved everything she got and even love everything Harrison got as well...she found some interesting ways to play with them as well. She introduced Harry's dinosaur to his new drill. Looks like she could be an animal dentist some day.
As I worked on getting our dinner put together, Addison played with her new PlayDough Octapus toy with Grandma Sally.
We attempted to have a bit of a traditional English Christmas meal. I prepared the turkey with bacon wrapped on it and also sausages with bacon wrapped around them. But then we had our American stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, crescent rolls, and cranberry sauce. I did make a sticky toffee pudding and Eton Mess for dessert which are very English and Mike didn't believe me that they were because they tasted so good!!!
After dinner we Skyped Sally's sister and brother in law and then my mom and dad so that they could watch the kids open their presents from my side of the family. The kids were pretty tired so we let them go and put the kids down for a nap. Then Kevin and I called them back when my sister turned up at my parent's house so we could watch them open their presents. It was kind of like being home, but not really. It was great that we did get to see them somewhat on the distorted pictures through Skype, but frustrating since our connection was so poor.
We rested and just enjoyed the rest of our day and evening with Mike and Sally as they were packed up and ready to head out Saturday morning back to the States. We had a most wonderful Christmas and it was great getting to have family with us. I'm really glad we did it at least once, but there really is no place like "home" for the holidays so I hope we get back to Iowa next year.
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