Showing posts with label christmas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label christmas. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 3, 2018

Early Christmas

Due to our trip this year to Vietnam, we celebrated Christmas a bit early. We had our Christmas celebration on December 18th (also on Robert's birthday). Our departure to Hanoi, Vietnam was on December 20th at 3:30am on Emirates flight EK394. So technically we had to head to the airport at about midnight on the 19th.  This made December 18th our best option for an at home Christmas celebration.

Christmas was lovely and, as always in Dubai, feels a bit strange in t-shirts and shorts. I had put up the tree this year before Thanksgiving which I have never done before but as we found a lovely large artificial (slightly white to give it a snow dusted appearance) tree, it was easy to do without all the maintenance of a live tree. 

With all the kids now knowing the 'truth' about Santa and his magic, the presents started to pile up under the tree in the weeks and days leading up to our Christmas celebration on the 18th. This heightened the excitement and made it all easier and more fun to celebrate early.

The hardest thing for the kids (mostly Ali and Mia) was that I didn't allow them to wake up on the 18th and open presents right away - as we always do on Christmas morning. Part of the reason why was it was still a work day so Curt left before they all woke up. I did my usual 'mom' activities and hit the gym then finalized shopping for all the food items, breakfast treats (knowing they wouldn't wake until late morning when I was due back home), and last minute holiday necessities (including a few last minute stocking stuffers I had forgotten).

When I returned home, I only heard a bit of shuffling from our trio upstairs so they were all treated to a special breakfast in bed. I wish I had taken pictures as their breakfasts were all served up on Christmas plates and included all sorts of yummy foods that they all loved including some delicious fresh fruits, freshly baked croissants and donuts (from Baker and Spice) and for Mia her favorite avocados. She can eat avocados all day and night. 

Normally on Christmas morning I make home made cinnamon rolls but with all the travels I had been doing and about to do and Christmas presents still to wrap and dinner still to prepare, the Baker and Spice treat seemed like the perfect breakfast treat and they were all very happy!

Curt returned home at about 4:30pm with the last of the presents that just arrived via post. Phew, that was a close call! I was still at the dentist with Ali (really not a normal 'Christmas day') but made it home just after 5pm to do a quick 45 minute packing job and dinner preparation. 

Dinner consisted of amazing grade 11 wagyu steaks prepared by Curt on the charcoal grill, mashed potatoes, broccoli, green beans, tomato salad and home made dinner rolls. We all gobbled it up and the kids were bouncing around ready to open our presents before we even had a chance to clear the table.

We decided to leave our dessert of homemade Angel Food Cake for after our present opening. 

Below are some of my favorite photos of our tree and the kids. In the next post (may work out to be previous post as it's been a while since I blogged), I'll post a few more pics from the day. 




Monday, January 18, 2010

Ali's French School X-mas Performance

In the same week as her Hungarian school performance, Ali had her French school Christmas performance on stage for the moms and dads. It was during work hours so Curt couldn't make it but I was there with my camera.
She was so shy on stage it was adorable. You can see her peaking out from behind her classmates. I think she was desperately trying to spot me and it looks like she did but it's hard to tell.


Below I tried to zoom in but it came out a bit blurry.

Here's a short video to show how they came out




Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Christmas Shows

I'm just getting around to our last week of school's Christmas productions. Actually, only Ali performed on stage....TWICE! She performed with her new French school and also with her former Hungarian school. They miss and adore her so much that they keep inviting her back for all the special events. They even held most of the rehearsals on Wednesday knowing that Ali didn't have French school on Wednesdays and could easily join.
The actual Christmas show was on a Tuesday but I let Ali play hookie from French school so she could be there all day and then attend the 4pm performance. I took Terence, Mia and Ali's best friend, Molly, from French school at 3pm to watch her. It was adorable! They were so proud of their new venue equipped with a curtain! In the past they performed in a school but they've never had a curtain...

The Heidi Ovoda nursery has 4 groups from the age of babies until they go to school at 6 or 7 years old.



Below is after the production. Each kid in the show presented their parents with a gift. Ali was so proud to give me her adorable hand and foot print. Then, she was thrilled to see Molly! Thanks to Molly's mom, Kim, the girls both had beautiful purple party dresses that they were proud to wear (and match).


A few short videos.


Friday, January 8, 2010

Thanks Nana, Papa and Aunts / Uncles

We just received the last of the 3 boxes from all our Clements (and Leal and Hering) family members. Thank you!
The girls LOVE their nightgowns! It was a huge bonus that they were already prewashed and ready to be worn right away. They smelled great (the ziploc bags helped keep them fresh in the box) and the 3 of us agreed that their smell reminded us of .... Nana! What a special gift that was!!


Of course they loved all their presents (including the book from Paula which came in the 3rd box) but the card making kit is proving incredibly useful!
And the games are all fantastic!
THANK YOU!
x o x o

Saturday, December 26, 2009


After the gifts have been opened
After the tree is gone
After the carols have faded
May the happiness linger on
Merry Christmas from the Clements Family in Budapest
The below photos were taken at 5am - after Santa's visit. I couldn't sleep so I camped out on the sofa waiting for the kids to wake up. They finally came down at about 7:45am...


Greta (11 1/2 yrs old) above tried to stay awake with me while our other 2 dogs snored on...

The stockings all stuffed


The tree was surrounded by presents - including a Barbie bike for Ali.


Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Our Nativity Sets

All 3 kids loved helping me put out our nativity sets back in early December. I've collected quite a few over the years. They loved matching each little Baby Jesus to his Mother Mary. It was very fun.



November Bedroom Tree Decorating

Back in mid-November the kids got their bedroom x-mas trees (fake ones) all set up and decorated. I failed to post Mia's tree decorating process until now. I have to look and see if I took any of T's tree. If I didn't get any while we were decorating, I'll make sure to get a shot of his tree in his room as it's also really beautiful.

Anyhow, Mia and I did it together one afternoon. Ali must have been at a friend's home as I remember she wasn't there and we wanted to surprise her with it. Plus, sometimes these tasks are much easier without Ali. Mia is sort of a neat person and gets frustrated with Ali when she does things like puts 4 ornaments on the same branch (she did this with T's tree).

The above photo is without a flash

The girls tree is covered with girlie colors and ornaments. Lots of sparkles, purple and white feathers, glittery strands and purple lights. They go to bed every night with it (and nothing else) on and it looks beautiful. Curt or I always sneak up after they are asleep to turn it off as x-mas lights scare us.




Friday, December 11, 2009

More Tree Decorating

The photos are absolutely endless. Unfortunately we've been so busy and I haven't had a lot of time to upload the photos or update our blog. In the last month Curt has been to China and Geneva and will return again to Geneva this week. I've hosted a number of dinners, parties, cocktails and am now finished! Other than Christmas and our upcoming Austrian ski holiday, we are going to try and chill out a bit. This week I do have 2 more Christmas get togethers and on Monday, Dec 21st is our last one. Then, we are home, home, home for a week.

Today I returned home from work at 6:30pm to find Mia with a fever of 104.4 degrees F (40.2 degrees C). She is now fast asleep next to me. Tis the season I guess. So far Ali and Terence are okay. Terence is amazingly always (knock on wood) healthy! He never, ever gets sick... Ali has had the chicken pox and also an on and off again runny nose but overall she's been pretty good and only missed a few days of school since the beginning of the school year.

The kids are busy with their own Christmas parties and events. Today Terence had a 3 hour party with his tennis club. They did a gift exchange, played games, had a disco and ate endless amounts of cake and sweets. Tomorrow Ali has a Christmas party from 4pm with her old nursery school. She'll actually sing and perform with them ;-) Then on Thursday she'll have a French school Christmas performance. Mia has a party with friends on Wednesday... Friday will be their last day of school for the term. That means grades are coming home this week!! I cannot wait to see them. I've met with both Mia and Terence's teachers last week so we'll see. We definitely don't have an overachieving geniuses in our home but I think they'll be fine schoolwise.

Okay on to more photos of the tree trimming party... These are snaps of the actual tree trimming activity!




Due to the challenging height of this massive pine tree, the guys had to pass the lights from our second level down with hockey sticks and pool sticks... I even got a short video clip.





Once the lights were up, everyone else could join in with the hanging of our ornaments. Only a few got broken in the process... Only one that was sentimental from a trip to Brussels a few years back. I have a few friends living there so maybe one can pop into the amazing Christmas store in downtown Brussels and find a replacement.





Every one pitched in! The kids really enjoyed the tree trimming part this year...





Everyone was in charge of a different set or box of ornaments. It was a huge group effort!




We had to bring in the ladder to reach the middle of the tree!



Thanks to Kasia, we enjoyed some sparklers after the tree was all decorated. All age categories loved them!



Wednesday, December 9, 2009

More Poses with Ole St Nick

I'm very glad that I convinced Santa to make an appearance at our party on Sunday evening. He was very popular amongst all the age categories...

Here are some of the Move One families

Left: Jasna, her husband Dejan and their 1 yr old Tijana

Right: Jon Harman (this is the amazing guy who has taken over my job running our Relocations Division. Thanks Jon!), Szilva and their 2 sons: Aidan and Lucas


Left: Carl, Wendy and their two kids: Tyler and Bailey

Right: David, Shannon and their two: Colin and Lola

Now on to the couples of Move One


Jay and his wife, Aasta.


Paul and his fiancee, Anne-Marie

Erik and his wife, Zsofi

Robb and his girlfiend, Greta

Ian and his girlfiend, Kyra


Greg and Carl (collegues not life partners)

Kasia

And, the Move One babies and children...

Colin

Bailey and her brother, Tyler. Not sure why I don't have one of Tyler on Santa's lap but at least I have this one. Think he may have jumped up and down too quickly.

Tijana was not very please with big scary Santa

Nor was Lola (below)


Brothers Aidan and Lucas. You can tell Aidan just had a birthday and opening presents was second nature to him. He sat on Santa's lap the longest as he started unwrapping immediately.
And, Matyas whose father, Tibi, skipped the sitting on Santa's lap part...