Christmas 2015

Practicing for my photography class

Gaver 15

First updo

Victoria-5

Isaac & Josh

The men

The women

US

My group shot for the photography class

This year's gingerbread house stayed up!

Brussels

Brussels Christmas Market



Christmas Night

Christmas 2014

It was a lovely Christmas! My best one in Belgium so far. It was fun because Mateo was into it. He still didn't fully grasp the concept, because he kept saying he wanted to "go to Christmas." But I understand why it was confusing, because we had a few weeks earlier our family Christmas and then at school they had Christmas, but for me-and-my-house, we open gifts on the 25th, even though I've discovered most of Europe does it on the 24th.

My good friend, Ruth, visited and was such a help! We hosted Christmas Eve at our place. Couldn't done it without her.

Christmas Day was relaxed. I think Mateo slept really late. Like 10:00. Liora was up, but taking her first nap by the time he was downstairs. We ate breakfast casserole and then we had Mateo open his stocking. He was thrilled to finally get the toys he'd been pulling out for a month. We sent him upstairs with the cars and we ate some junk food and opened our stockings. Fun times with the selfie stick.

I was wondering how long it would take Mateo to realize and finally he did, that all the presents were ready to be opened. Liora was then up and we slowly opened up all our gifts. Ruth brought a whole suitcase full of goodies! After the gifts it was, of course, time to eat again. Leftovers (apple cheesecake...). I insisted on having a family photo. We planned on going to the Brussels Christmas Market, but it was really windy, so we were dragging our feet. Liora was taking her 2nd nap, so we decided when she woke up we'd go. I had planned to eat raclette at night, so there was no rush.

However, we got a text from our friends in Brugge asking if we wanted to go there. Sure! Why not? It was very pleasant. First visited at their house a bit, then went into the city. I decided it was the first time I was ever outside on Christmas day! We are always inside and then have visitors or go somewhere to eat. It was a nice change. I also ate a delicious snack from the Christmas market. Since then I've made it myself. Calorie bomb!

We tried not to make the night too late because of the kiddos and hubby had to work. Oh, throughout the day we skyped various family members.

Boxing Day Ruth and I braved the city traffic, shopper, children, cold and we visited Gent. The Christmas market once again. PLUS it was the start of sales.

Family Christmas

I guess I didn't post about our Christmas last year. It was voor herhaling vatbaar (a nice phrase in Dutch that means 'acceptable to be repeated'). 

We once again went to a nice restaurant with a giant indoor playground. If we see the kids only for food and presents during the 5 hours, it's a good thing.  We are with 10 adults, 1 teenager, 9 children, 1 toddler and 1 baby. 

This year we took family photos, which I think should be a tradition!  The great thing about having it at a restaurant is that there is no preparation or clean-up stress for anyone! Since we drew names for the kids' gifts, that was also less stressful.

I tried to put up different photos than I put on Twitter or FB. Enjoy.

12 if you were trying to count. Unfortunately 3 are still in Canada!

Christmas

I am happy for everything we were able to do this year. It was a nice Christmas. I did not worry about all the things I didn't do (like a Christmas DAY post).



8 of 11 Belgian grandkids-Family Christmas

Gent Christmas Market with friends

Christmas Eve at our place

YUMMY food



Handsome Son-Mom decided the holiday called for a tux

Fun with wedding veils and animal masks

Toys!

Ladies Christmas Coffee

Some nice photos with the kids

Some cute ones with the baby

Christmas morning

Excited about CANDY

Thanks grandma for all the goodies!

First photo with the new lense

It's Christmas Time In The City...

And in the villages...I finally finished decorating on Friday. Here are some of my favorite views.

Baby's First Christmas

The Christmas photo I would have liked for cards. This was taken at a restaurant in NJ with a wonderful view of NYC.

* Present from mommy-a puzzle with him holding my "Baby's First Christmas" bear*

*Santa Baby*

For the holidays I once again fled Belgium for the US of A. Hubby and baby joined. Not only were we away, but we got to see a lot of my family. My mom met us there (New Jersey) for almost a week, my sister was there the whole time, we stayed at my great-uncle's and my grandma was there. An hour and a half away lives my great-grandma and some more relatives. Baby boy is the 1st 5th generation, so it was a big thing for my great-grandma to be able to meet him.

Christmas day was pretty low key. We skyped with Washington, Canada, California, England and Belgium. We ended up doing presents around noon, then ate. It was a big deal for me, because I was halfway in charge of the meal-a scary task! I have never cooked a turkey (thankfully it was just an 8lb breast!) and I don't remember if my grandmother had. She is vegatarian, so it is not something she normally does :) We used the instructions on the packet, common sense and some experimentation and I thought it was delicious! As well as the gravy which was also a first for me.

Next year we are talking about meeting up in Florida :)