Well X-mas has come and gone and it was really not that bad… My mom and Alain arrived at about 6pm, my dad arrived at about 7:30, we all talked, laughed and there was no tension at all.. I think the situation was a bit awkward for Alain when my dad arrived but they hit it off pretty fast and the awkwardness left quickly… Xavier, before going to bed, wanted to leave cookies and milk out like in the Santa Story… so Simon helped him do that… The kids went to bed by about 8:30 and then our super started….
We had an entrée of cheese and freshly baked bread (I made 3 loaves of sourdough) , Lobster and escargots and then fondue with a side of my spinach salad with Maggi dressing (garlic, maggi, oil, vinegar, pepper) bean sprouts and cashews…
By the time that we were done we were too full for dessert… (I had made an Apple Crumble)
My dad went to bed first, then Simon and I, then my mom and Alain. Before going to bed Alain places the half eaten Cookies and empty glass of milk, left out by Xavier next to the tree so that he would see it in the morning.
In the morning, Colin woke first and we stayed in bed until Xavier woke up and came into the room… then we quickly headed out to see the presents under the tree…
One of the presents, the Thomas Train, was set up under the tree by Simon the night before, and that got Xavier’s attention more then the other presents. We all sat down, coffee in hand, to watch them open their presents and Xavier wasn’t even ready to start, happily playing with his Thomas Train. We asked him to look at the presents and to give them to the person to whom they belonged… It was very surprising when he got to a present that had my name on it… examined it a few seconds and then said…
“dats… um…dis is for mi-si-sa (Melissa)” and handed me the present… We all couldn’t believe it… he recognized my name!! He also recognized his name and Colin’s name… and the presents that didn’t have a name he knew were for Simon…
I love the way that my kids open presents… unlike other kids that I know that just rip into them, Xavier takes the time to open each present slowly and gently, plays a bit with the new toy and then goes to the next present. Sometimes, he didn’t even want to go to the next present to busy playing with the ones he opened previously.
The kids got tons of toys from us, clothes from my mom and grandma. Simon got cologne, a 1.2 Kilo container of Cashews, 2 DVD’s (that he bought as a present from me 😉 ), Chocolates, 2 shirts and a sweater. I bought my mom her Pajama (every year we buy each other Pajamas). I got my pajama, chocolates, a “Roll O Puzzle”and a Sony Flash 1GB MP3 player that Simon won at work…
X-mas day was a lazy day, my Dad left first, then my mom and Alain, needing to get ready for their trip to see his family in “Les Iles de la Madelaine”
We ate the leftover fondue from the night before like we do every year… the kids got to have fondue also which was a hit with Xavier for at least 20 minutes…
I made escargots for myself and Colin wanted some and loved them… so he ate at least 4 of them… Simon and Xavier wouldn’t even taste…
By 10pm we were ready to go to bed and decided to tape the 6 feet Under episode…
Well…here are some pics…
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BTW… this is a great article about Santa and how to keep the magic of Santa without Lying… and this is what we have decided to do…
However, as much as we talk about the story of Santa, Xavier is convinced that Santa exists… so I feel good that we are not lying to him and he is the one using his imagination…
