He made it!  All the way to Zambia!  “I heard him, you know,” says Eli.  “Look, he ate his cookies!” says Jake.  They were mint brownies this year.  Who could resist a plate full of mint brownies?

Eli and Jake woke up not much earlier than the usual time, around 6:30.  After a week of Eli laying around the kitchen floor asking “when is Christmas?  Is it tonight?” we were ready for the 5 am wake-up call.  Dreading it sort of, because we’d been awake until almost 1 am, cleaning up after our party and then hoping it would never end by finishing off the gluhwein.  But there is something magic about child energy on Christmas morning :).  “How does Santa DO this???”

Look at those long legs!

The funny thing was that the boys didn’t even notice the tree.  We spent about an hour just going through the stockings, where they found dinosaur soap from Oma and Opa, and cold pack critters from Mimi and Dede.  There were also candy canes and coloring books and Fritos from Uncle Paul and Aunt Jaclyn, keeping the Drinking Bird from Santa company.  Opa, the drinking bird is for you.  I always loved that.

We got started on presents but were soon distracted by all the many fun things we found!  So distracted that we quit opening presents and started to play.  Their special gifts from Santa this year were a City Bus (“Just like Uncle Paul and Aunt Jaclyn at the dinner, remember?” says Eli)

and a Land Rover with a horse trailer (“Let’s name the horse Muffin!  Because he’s cute like a muffin!” says Jake).

All those presents pooped us out, so we took a break for Christmas Breakfast.  Huevo Rancheros, mmmm……

That is a corn tortilla, topped with eggs poached in fresh tomato and green chili sauce.  It is our new favorite breakfast!  This is what happens when we have to make all our own food.  We get bored, are forced to try new things, and thus a new Christmas tradition is born.  Although it doesn’t have to be just for Christmas, if you come visit we will make it for you too!

Did we mention the legos?  There are more than two boys here who love legos….

For the rest of our day, we went biking, went swimming, and eventually made it through the rest of the presents.  We visited the Bennetts for a little Happy Hour, had some of the best leftovers ever from our dinner the night before (did I mention I baked a brie with brown sugar and pecans?), and then settled in to watch Star Wars.  It was pretty much the most perfect Christmas we could hope for.  We keep our expectations pretty low without our families around, so maybe that is why the holidays always end up turning out nice.  Traditions involve people too.  New rituals are sort of our only choice.