SKIING

Off to skiing in Austria tomorrow with Curt, kids, Curt's parents and his sister, Lisa. Very excited. Lisa, Curt's dad and T will take the train while Curt and I will drive with Mia, Ali and his mom. Just about packed up but have a few more things to get together so must run as we want to leave tomorrow morning (not too early so we're not too stressed).

I'll update again in the New Year once we return back to Budapest.

Happy New Year to you all! xoxo

HO HO HO - Santa Came

Merry Christmas!!! From our family to yours.

As we are busy with visiting family, lots of presents (all already opened) to look through, play with and assemble as well as food to be eaten, I will make this a short post with some fun photos.

The wait is finally over and the big day is finally here. The kids seemed to have to wait forever for it to arrive. Lists were made and sent to Santa ages ago. December was filled with attempts to be as good as possible in order to earn as many goodies as possible. Curt and I have been trying to excercise more often than usual in order to gobble up all the cakes, cookies and sweets that friends have been dropping by. This is the first year that Terence and Emilia have either made and bought (with their own money!) gifts for Curt and I. Both of them even managed to wrap their gifts without any help. They did extremely well with double the amount of wrapping paper and tape necessary but to us it was perfection!

Earlier this week, Curt's parents and sister Lisa arrived from the US. We are happy to have them here with us but sad that their luggage with their clothes have yet to arrive or be found! We are still holding out hope - especially for them to arrive before our Austria skiing adventure on the 27th of Dec (for one week). Fortunately we were able to pick up a few essentials for Curt's mom and Curt's dad fits into Curt's clothes. I'm sure they'd still be much more comfortable with their own belongings.

The extra Santa's helpers has been fantastic! We hope that they'll be able to visit next X-mas too. Since their arrival, we have had many visits from friends, eaten a ton, taken lots of hikes with the kids and 4 dogs (we have an extra one visiting), built fires every day, eaten more, watched movies, listened to carols, played charades, eaten more, etc.

Christmas Eve consisted of a fun day at home with an evening of tracking Santa's path through noradsanta.org (with Google Earth). The kids were very excited to watch him and his reindeer get closer and closer.

They went to bed somewhat easily on the eve of Christmas. Terence fell asleep quickly but Mia and Ali had difficulty. They both had very long naps during the day and the excitement was a bit overwhelming for them both to fall asleep easily. Mia kept saying she was scared of Santa and when Curt went up with the video camera she confessed that her fear was that she was only going to be left coal as she was often naughty this year. Curt told her that Santa would hear her confession (think we're getting him a bit mixed up with the big guy) and probably understand. For those of you that know Mia, she is very dramatic and emotional. Always keeping us on our toes as well as entertained.

Anyhow, back to the toys... Here is a glimpse at what our day has been like so far.

The tree after Santa's visit.

The girls woke up first (at 7:30am) followed by Terence about 20 minutes later.

After most of the pressies have been opened.




The next photos are from Christmas Eve.

Our dog, Blue, protecting Terence's stocking (they were laid out instead of hung as they are huge and easily fall off their mantle hooks)



T laying out cookies, apples for the reindeer, milk, a letter to Santa and scotch (still being poured)


Ali giving Nana hugs and kisses before bed.

Our three angels* in their new Christmas pjs from Nana and Papa.

* They have had many non-angelic days in the last few days. Maybe they've been together too often and need a break...