Merry Christmas, Fab 5 and the final Ornament Challenge Photos...

First off...MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! I hope that everyone is having a fabulous holiday! I know that we were up early with the kids and that presents were open in mere seconds (Okay...minutes) and then it was pancakes for breakfast. Blaine and I have now moved on to champagne and the final installment in the Harry Potter movies.  A definite lazy day ahead of us as the kids are busy on the Wii.

So...where should I start? I owe a few final pictures of ornaments - so I think I will start there.

Day #21 - Our beautiful peacock. I love this ornament and the photo does not do it justice.

Day #22 - Leonardo da Vinci. We picked him up after seeing "The Last Supper" in Milan.

Day #23 - Cheers! Um, yeah...no explanation needed.

Day #24 - A slice of pizza. This is usually our Christmas Eve tradition - which may seem funny to some. But, on a typical Christmas Eve we have pizza and snacks and watch movies. It's just what we do!

Day #25 - My American Santa. He's new this year to the collection and was picked up at Silverado a few weeks ago. He's just beautiful and his colors are quite vibrant.

Moving on...Fab 5. I think this will be a slightly extended version as I haven't done a Fab 5 in about 10 days. There's been lots happening in the last few weeks leading up to Christmas - which has made the time pass quickly.

1. Grayson's Concert. Yes, my youngest joined the choir this year. I had quite the little laugh when he first told me he was joining in the fall, but we had a chance to watch his holiday concert and the littlest dude did a great job! (All the kids did!) 

2. Impromptu Cocktails. After the choir performance, we had an impromptu get together with a few friends. Some drinks and snacks and lots of smiles before everyone headed their separate ways for the holidays.

3. Jingle Run. The PTO at our school sponsored a Jingle Run - which was a lot of fun! Kids ran 1K, 2K, or 3K and everyone received jingle bells and cookies and cocoa. Some kids even won prizes for costumes! It was a nice event during the final week of school and had a lot of participation.

4. Grayson's Fairy Tale. Grayson's class has been studying fairy tales, myths, and fables. Each child had to practice re-telling a fairy tale as if they were directing a play with the students in the class being the actors. Grayson was chosen to re-tell his fairy tale before his Christmas party and I was so happy to be able to see him. He has always struggled with his writing, but he did a magnificent job retelling the story - he spoke clearly, and remembered all the parts and directed his actors well.

5. Classroom Christmas Parties. Both boys have fantastic teachers this year and fantastic room parents. They each had wonderful Christmas parties that involved Secret Santas and lots of food.

6.  Dinosaurs. We took the boys to see the big dinosaur exhibit which has been here in Poland for the last few weeks. Both boys gave us some grief about "having to go" see this, but once we got there and they could see how large they were and watch them move - well, they were impressed. (And it's getting harder and harder to impress them!)

7. Hangar 646. Manuela invited us to join her crew at Hangar 646 during the first week of break and the boys had a blast! Grayson decided he needed to try the ramp and after working up the courage to finally go down, he conquered that beast! He's already asking when we can go back! Caleb had great time on the trampolines and particularly enjoyed being able to dunk!

8. Christmas Eve. We had the pleasure of spending Christmas Eve with the Wagners and the Grahams with Aimee and Troy acting as our fabulous hosts. That's one thing about the ex-pat world, even if you're far from family, friends are always close at hand - especially at the holidays. We had a wonderful evening with great food and beverage, good conversation and lots of laughs. 

9. Christmas Morning. We told the boys they couldn't get up until 6:45 a.m. and sure enough - they arrived in our room at 6:45 a.m. Even though they "know" - they've had plenty of Christmas spirit this season and were sweet enough to let Blaine and I open the presents they had purchased for us first. Then, they dove into  their presents like wild monkeys. But, we did good! Everyone was happy - new headphones for Grayson and Nintendo DS games, a GoPro for Caleb and Wii games, plus a bunch of other stuff. There was lots of smiles and happy boys who repeatedly thanked us for all of their gifts - which makes it worthwhile. (Blaine and I skipped buying each other presents this year because what do we really need? We will surely buy things in London and I'm much more excited for the travels and things we will do than any present under the tree at the moment.)

So there you have it! It looks like it's a Fab 9 for this week. We will spend the rest of Christmas Day drinking and eating (Isn't that what everyone does?!)  and then head off to London tomorrow morning. We have a packed week ahead of us and I'm sooooo excited!! Get me outta here!

Once again, Merry Christmas everyone!! The blog will return post-London!