Christmas 2006

It hasn't seemed so much like Christmas since the weather in Budapest has been so mild (particularly compared to our last two Toronto Christmases) but our home filled with decorations all month, the lights up around the city, and the Christmas Elf coming to our house everyday to remind the girls to be good helps us remember what a wonderful time of year this is. We also enjoy the many nativity scenes (around the house and around the Christkindlmarkts) reminding us of the real reason we celebrate. In Hungary they don't put up the Christmas tree until a day or two before Christmas but we boycotted this Hungarian tradition and Heather had the house decorated by beginning of December. Our house is perfect for Christmas decorations because the living room and family room are painted a deep red and the dining room a deep green. Perfect for Christmas, not so perfect the rest of the year, so we'll take advantage of this during the 4-6 weeks out of the year that we can.
After church yesterday (a one hour Christmas program) we delivered a few gifts to some friends before returning home to finish cooking Christmas Eve dinner. We traditionally have Beef Wellington, which was a little simpler this year because we decided to purchase the puff pastry vs. making it from scratch (last year Heather spent a week rolling that out over and over again...not worth the effort). Heather's dad arrived from New York around 5:30, (sooo great to have him)surprisingly without any delays or lost luggage (surprising because he flew through London). After a nice dinner we continued our tradition of reading Luke 2, which Katie sat through very well...Ashley not so much. Katie then began a rendition of the Christmas story utilizing her Fisher Price Little People Nativity Scene until Ashley swept in, stole the angel, and ended what started out to be a promising narration. We also continued the tradition of opening one present on Christmas Eve, which, still unnoticed by Katie and Ashley, always seems to be pajamas. This year Julia and William sent them matching Christmas pajamas. At that point we were all tired, but since Heather's dad had brought most of our gifts that we ordered back in the U.S., we had most of the wrapping still to do, so we put the girls to bed and worked until past midnight.
Fortunately for us the girls still are not 100% comprehending the entire Christmas thing and don't wake up any earlier just because it is Christmas. Unfortunately for us, this is still around 6:30 every morning, so not much benefit derived here (although I guess it could be even earlier on Christmas morning once they figure it out!). We walked them down to the family room where Katie got tremendously excited and, as usual, Ashley just mimicked her, not quite understanding what all the excitement was about but dancing around like Katie evenstill. But once she sat down and saw all of the presents from Santa, Mom and Dad, their grandparents and Aunts/Uncles, both of them understood what was going on...presents! Katie and Ashley got way too much stuff (and for the fourth consecutive Christmas we pulled back a number of presents for the next event, since we had obviously overestimated their stash). Katie got a new bike from Santa and Ashley got the Dora the Exporer Casa and a number of Dora paraphenalia and furniture. We then proceeded to a breakfast of Eggs Benedict and caramel pecan rolls. We go to Prague tomorrow, so the rest of the day is for relaxing and doing nothing.