merry merry

Here are my little elves taking a break from poking each other's eyes out. You never know when Santa might be watching.




Last night, Christmas Eve, we went to the in-laws for dinner and a grandparents-grandchildren gift exchange. I wore my 'Grin and Bear It' t-shirt, practiced acceptance and survived just fine. Sure made me miss spending Christmas with my other far-away family, though. Oh well.

Today we celebrated REAL Christmas with just the four of us. Boy11 couldn't stand the suspense and opened his big gift from Santa last night while Boy14 waited until this morning. Mr. M and I decided not to do presents this year, because, really, don't we have Enough Stuff already?

Obviously not, since I just had to buy myself this little Christmas pillow.


Makes me smile every time I look at it. In fact, I think I may leave it out all year.

A big thank you to Canada Santa for coming through with these two characters.

Their bellies were filled with waaaay too much pocket money for next summer's vacation.

Cookies were also in good supply.

Most German families who celebrate Christmas have one of these Lichterbogen in their window from the first day of Advent until around January 6. I love the way they light up the darkness. We leave ours on the most of the time.




The boys did a great job of decorating the tree. Here are a couple of my favourite ornaments. I made them when I first moved here and had a lot more time on my hands than I do now.




And this is our angel tree topper, also made by me many, many years ago. Regardless of whether you celebrate Christmas or not, she's here to share the universal message of hope, peace, love and joy that we all deserve to have in our lives.





We're about to sit down to a delicious turkey dinner with all the trimmings - homemade cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, green beans wrapped in bacon etc. etc. etc. And despite the stuffing haters living in this house, I made stuffing this year, yes I did! Bread stuffing with celery, onions, pecans, dried apricots and cranberries and lots and lots of sage. And yes, thank you, I will be eating it all myself. They have no idea what they're missing. Stuffing, dressing, whatever you want to call it, December 25th just ain't the same without it.

Merry Christmas!