Christmas Day was a lot of fun. We woke up around 8:00 am and all filed into the living room at various intervals. The kids were very patient as they always recreate the Christmas story with the nativity set they have. I don't have any pictures of it because I was video taping it. It was quite funny, but too long to post here.
Jode asked me to take pictures because they are usually all opening presents and forget to take pictures, so I did ... and I did ... and I did. There were a lot of presents to open.
Hugs all around. My favorite part was actually watching the child who was giving the gift because they looked so nervous and anxious and wanted to person who was receiving the gift to like it SOOOO bad. I think it's a great lesson to learn that giving a gift can be a great feeling too.
There were seriously so many gifts that I can't even tell you about them all. Lots of jewellery for the ladies, books for the kids, scrap booking things for Ashtyn, clothes for Craig, Lego for Jack, and old Christmas movies (remember Rudolf, Santa Claus is coming to Town and Frosty the Snowman?).
After the gifts were opened we started putting them to good use. Here's Ashtyn using her Sketching supplies ...
and Jackson putting together one of his Lego pieces (this boy even sweats playing with Lego!)
and Craig started working on the Christmas dinner. Ok, Jode helped some, too, but Craig did most of it (right, Jode?). He bbq'd the turkey and made 3 different kinds of stuffing (Stove Top, homemade stuff from scratch and vegetarian).
While we waited for dinner to be ready and our guests to arrive, Ashtyn sauntered over to me and asked me to massage her feet. Well, that got the ball rolling and soon it was Jackson's turn and then he surprised me and even gave ME a massage.
Because living overseas means that a lot of people are away from home over Christmas, there were many people to celebrate with. Some of these people are from the States, some are from Edmonton and some are from Holland. It was a great time of fellowship and eating.
Because living overseas means that a lot of people are away from home over Christmas, there were many people to celebrate with. Some of these people are from the States, some are from Edmonton and some are from Holland. It was a great time of fellowship and eating.
