Christmas!

Christmas gets split in my family--generally we spend Christmas Eve at my sister's in Springfield (about 30 miles north of us) and then Christmas Day at my house.  This year, my mom, who lives just a couple of miles away, really wanted to have Christmas Eve at her house, so I bowed out of hosting and decided to let her do it.

Christmas Eve, we traditionally have seafood, meat being against the rules in the Catholic Church on Christmas Eve and Advent Fridays.  This really only applies to my sister any more, but the tradition has stuck, and in its way is a nice one.  My mom made a big pot of crab curry soup and shrimp cocktails to begin with, and then fish for dinner.  The rush was on a little bit because I had to be at the UU to sing for Christmas Eve Service at 7:00pm, but my sister was battling traffic to get down in time for dinner.  So the family was undergoing some changes in the way we do things as well.  Still, everyone made it on time and we enjoyed our meal.

After dinner, Mom had decided all the kids would help decorate her Christmas tree.  This basically involved the four younger children dancing, singing, jumping, screaming, and pushing each other around while Ine decorated the tree!!  Still, they did a really nice job decorating!

It was nice for us to spend the evening at my mom's, and it was kind of nice to not have to worry about the kids ripping up my house for a change.  Still, I hope to host again next year!

Here are some other photos from Christmas Eve dinner:

Ine makes everyone happy!

After dinner and decorating, I left for church, and in short order, my sister took Ine, Dot, Leah, and William to the UU for the service.  It was a nice time, quiet and free for contemplation about the Christmas season, and the choir I sing with was in excellent tune, which was just a delight for me--I got to sing for my family with a lovely group of people I really like.

After the service, I took Leah and Ine home to get ready for Santa.  This is markedly different than how Ine is used to celebrating.  In her family, they open their gifts on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day is just for being together, enjoying a dinner, and that sort of thing.  My parents would never let us open presents on Christmas Eve, so I am not letting my kid do it either!

We commenced preparations by having the girls hang up their stockings.  This was also new for Ine, as they do not do stockings in Belgium.  My best guess is that this is because they do the Sinterklaas ritual with the shoes, which we Americans do not, so perhaps the stockings would be overkill.  But the stockings are my favorite part of Christmas morning--seeing all the little treats Santa leaves in them is always great.    I even managed to find a stocking with an I on it for Ine, and so she hung that up while Leah put up her Santa stocking.

Earlier in the day, Leah had made a picture and a letter for Santa, and we put out the traditional milk and cookies.  I had been given a copy of the Downton Abbey Christmas CD as a gift, and we played 'Twas the Night Before Christmas as read by Jim Carter (AKA Mr. Carson), and Leah was so delighted by it, she wanted it played twice.  Ine had never heard the poem before, so it was nice to share it with her as well.

Then it was time to try to convince Leah to go to sleep!  But actually, it was well past 9:00 by that point, so she was ready to sleep. I tucked her in, and she was sound asleep within about 20 minutes.  We could hear her snoring her little head off.  It was hilarious.  So I started to bring presents downstairs, and Ine fled to her room.  I asked her a question later on in the evening, and she said she didn't want to come downstairs, she just wanted to see it in the morning, so that was her plan--she stayed tucked up in her room and it was a surprise for all when they emerged Christmas morning, and there was Hagrid surrounded by gifts.

Santa even left an inflatable of himself behind.  Unfortunately overnight, disaster struck, and Leah woke up with one eye swollen shut, so I determined we needed to go to the Emergency Room, but she was darned sure not going without opening her presents and eating breakfast!  So we charged onwards.

It was a really fun morning of opening gifts.  The girls started with their stockings and then moved on to all their other packages.

Ine has a very slow and deliberate way of opening gifts, which is a stark contrast to Leah's kamikaze method of destroying everything and sorting through it later.  I barely stopped Leah from opening Ine's main gift from me, which was a Kindle Fire tablet (sorry, Hilde & Johan! I had to spoil her just a little bit).  Another fun gift I gave Ine was I went on Facebook and asked friends to send me postcards, as Ine collects them.  I tucked the postcards in a Post Secret book, and it was creative and fun at the same time!  Because Ine can't bring a ton of 'stuff' back to Belgium, I also gave her a trip as a gift--we are going to go see where The Hunger Games movies were filmed in Georgia and North Carolina, and take archery lessons.  I'm really excited about that.  Some of my friends from far afield also sent gifts to both girls.  My friends Mike and Lesley sent Ine a Hunger Games necklace and a Smurf on a swim block, and my friend Charlene sent her a USA calendar. 

When the main presents were open, there was one gift left, which was in conjunction with Ine's parents.  Before we were matched with Ine, I had gotten Leah and I a trip to Disney World as her big Christmas present, and I asked Ine's parents if they would be able to chip in for Ine's park passes so she could go too.  They happily agreed, and so I wanted to give the girls the trip as their big Christmas gift.

Instead of just wrapping a book about Disney, I decided to send them on a little scavenger hunt for clues around the house.  The first clue was under the tree and directed them to the refrigerator, where the next clue was hidden in the freezer.

They went around the house like that until they found all 6 clues, and the cards read "February 23-26 we are going to Disney World!"  I had hidden "Disney World" in my closet, propped up against some Disney friends and books that Leah had, so when they opened the closet, they were greeted by Minnie Mouse and her pals.

Ine kept saying "really!? Really?!"  She was happily surprised, and I was happy that her parents and I were able to make it work out!

After that excitement, we sat down to breakfast--I made a quiche and apple fritters.  Then I finally had to take Leah to the hospital.  It was after 9:00 by then, and Ine and her family wanted to Skype on Christmas morning, so this was the perfect opportunity for them to do so for as long as they wanted while Leah and I sat at the hospital.  Yay!

Then it was time to pack up and head north to my sister Judy's.  There were more gifts to exchange, lots more fun with the kids running around, and a fancy dinner.

Reading Love Lists from Leah

One of the things that Leah and I did for everyone was to make "Love Lists" for each person--a list of things that Leah loved about each member of the family.  We saved Ine's to take up to Judy's so that she wouldn't feel embarrassed when it was just the three of us.  Some of the things Leah loves about Ine are that she is pretty, she has yellow hair, and she laughs a lot.  Ine didn't want to read her list outloud, so Judy did all the reading for the whole family and it was a lot of fun, laughter, and tears as we shared what we love about each other.  I hope Ine will treasure her love list and know how much we care about her!

Because my mother's family is from the UK, we always have a traditional English Christmas dinner of roast beef, Yorkshire pudding, and trifle for dessert.  We also played Racko, which was a game I really enjoyed when I was younger and which I gave Ine for Christmas.  She said she didn't want to play, but my sister told her "too bad!" and she eventually really got into it and won. 

After dinner, I took Ine, Leah, and Dot up to Washington DC to see the National Christmas tree.  I think half of DC had the same idea--parking was non-existant and there were just TONS of people there.  It was quite a scene. 

Unfortunately, it was quite cold and the little girls were quite tired, plus people were REALLY pushing and shoving us around.  But all in all, it was a nice trip.  The little girls fell asleep on the ride home, and Ine and I enjoyed a 'silent night'.  I don't go to see the National Christmas Tree every year, but I do enjoy it when I get down there.  It's really lovely.  Maybe next year, I won't go on Christmas night! :)

So that was our Christmas!  We survived, Ine didn't seem too terribly homesick, maybe a little bit down, but overall, she handled it quite well.  This is typically a very difficult time for exchange students, but I have only seen her get weepy once when she got some cards from home, so I've been very proud of her. 

Next blog I will cover from Christmas to New Year's--we did some fun stuff!  Stay tuned.