Christmas Parties

We just returned from Christmas Carolling and then a lovely time of hot chocolate, mulled wine, and Christmas sweeties at a friends' house. The children are all sleeping, Hannah is snoring away; I actually tried to get a video of it since it is very loud but it didn't turn out. We have been getting into the "Christmas Spirit" by attending lots of Christmas parties, doing Christmas baking, and finally, tonight, by carolling with friends. We even went to see the reindeer in Princes Street Gardens on Thursday but alas they had already left for the North Pole. Fortunately there was a great playground there to curb the disappointment.
So here are a few pictures of some of the Christmas parties we have attended.

We were able to go to the boys' school to watch some of their Christmas party and see Santa hand them a gift. Benjamin was sitting right in front of Santa and so he was too quick to get his picture taken. You can see him off to the right of Santa in the picture of Alexander getting his present. They both love going to school but are now loving being home all day and getting to play outside with their friends ALL day. I told them yesterday that they were outside longer than the sun was! We went to run errands and left at 10am, came home, they played outside with their friends, came inside for maybe 20 minutes for lunch, then went back outside ALL afternoon until 6pm when I finally dragged them in (almost kicking and screaming) for supper. So 8 hours outside. Sunrise was at about 845 am and sun set around 345pm. So 7 hours of sun. Strange huh?! Anyhow, all that to say they are enjoying themselves. Hannah and Jacob also spend a good deal of time outside but have to come in whenever I do so they can't stay out as long. They too enjoy themselves and we have some great friends here who love to come and play with Hannah and Jacob.



Hannah and Jacob and I attend a couple of different play groups in the mornings when Alexander and Benjamin are at school. So last week we had our final meetings of the playgroups and one had a great Christmas party with Santa. Santa was handing out gifts to all the children and many of them were crying and/or clinging to their moms when they went forward to get their gifts....Not Jacob! When his name was called, he jumped right up (literally jumped!) and went forward to get his gift. He was pretty excited. He was actually so fast I didn't even get a picture because I wasn't ready fast enough. Hannah went up as well but had to hold my hand while she went. And as you see in the picture, Jacob followed behind as well! They were pretty cute.


Here are Hannah and Jacob (to the right by the slide) amongst all the children at playgroup.