New Years Eve

We had a quiet celebration at home.Just the two of us and a bottle of Champagne. It was a very wet and windy night but there were plenty of fireworks to see from our window. We had a second new year when it was 12o'clock in England and we watched big Ben followed by the wonderful fireworks on the embankment.

HAPPY NEW YEAR .

Emilie stays the night

Emilie has been asking to stay the night at our apartment for ages she remembers staying with us in England in the silver princess bed. She came over with her Barbie bed, story Cd's, teddy, princess Barbie and Ken and goodness knows what else and made her self at home. She had a lovely time and is planning her next visit. Poor Frankie is most put out and now is asking when can he bring his Bob bed and he did miss her terribly and had to sleep in her bed.

Abigails Birthday

Friday the 29th was Abagail's birthday. We popped round in the morning with her present and the children had a late Christmas surprise from Trisha. In the evening we all went to Gulliver's a local Italian restaurant for dinner.

Boxing Day

It always feels a bit low on boxing day so we always have little gifts after dinner called tree presents which are just a little bit of fun. Abigail once again cooked a superb roast beef dinner some thing I have had trouble with since moving here. After dinner Amelia & Marc and the big kids went home where they set up Nathans train and Marc's scalelectric. We stayed the night again so we could help with the clearing up on Wednesday.

Lunch & after

Abigail cooked a wonderful Christmas lunch we had 2 small turkeys with all the usual trimmings followed by Christmas pudding of course. Some of us had a little nap after. The evening was spent playing board games once the little ones had gone to bed.

Everybody happy ?

What a lot we got I think every one was very happy with their Christmas presents. Aaron had bought gifts from Oxfam we had trees in Ethiopia Emilie had school dinners and to much hilarity Abigail had a toilet in Uganda.Abigail also had a karaoke game for the play station which we all loved but Frank was not amused nor was Romain. Its perhaps a good thing that I don't know how to link to video or you might have to listen to us too.

Stockings

The children were all thrilled to wake up to Christmas stockings and couldn't wait to see what was in them.It was 8.30am quite a civilised time we thought. Then when every one was dressed it was down stairs to see if HE HAD BEEN well he had and had left a whole sleigh full.............. We are really mean and make the children have breakfast and pour out the champagne very slowly while they look on getting desperate. Then they pass out the gifts to every one which we all open and show around before they have another one. Well it does make things last longer and anticipation is what its all about.

Surprise visitor

Its a Christmas eve tradition in our family that we have ham egg and chips for supper before we have all the rich foods of Christmas. Aaron and Anna had friends over to join them in England. Linda & Keith had the same in Bucks and we all enjoyed ours in Luxembourg. We had almost finished when the door bell rang and we had a surprise visitor the children were so excited to find Father Christmas at the door with a bag of nuts and sweets. Emilie and Frankie left him the usual mince pie but the reindeer got an apple instead of a carrot. Emilie got a special present in the morning as a thank you, a photo of Jake the dog now long dead but she wanted her own photo of him to keep by her bed.

Festive arrangements

Malcolm finished his jigsaw from Aaron he is going to get it framed so it can go in the loft room at Abigail's. Now he is feeling a bit better he has been getting on with his model railway. I made some green curtains for him which look really good. I also decorated the Christmas cake Avril made for us. We are off to Abigail's for a couple of days along with Amelia Marc Rhian and Nathan. Aaron and Anna are having Christmas in England with Anna's family .

Christmas Decorations & Birthday boy

Malcolm went to the hospital this week to see the urologist who said he has a serious chronic bladder infection due to his diabetes but he was feeling a bit better so we put up the Christmas decorations we used the old tree from England this year. The weather is beginning to get colder a snow is forecast so fingers crossed we have a white Christmas. Emilie has been poorly again and now its Frankie's turn what a lot we are. Frankie has decided he likes cooking and while I am taking Emilie to the bus stop in the mornings he makes my breakfast trouble was on Friday Malcolm had made porridge but Frank still insisted I eat the special K he made for me...............Emilie has been doing well at school she has German Tests that are quite hard so we said if she got over 55 out of 60 we would give her 1 euro per point and shes costing us all a fortune. It was Malcolm's birthday on Friday and he was very pleased with all his peasants he didn't feel up to going out in the evening but he met us for lunch on Saturday during our Christmas shopping trip.

Kleeschen

Emilie & Frankie were very excited to get their presents from the Kleeschen this morning. Emilie had a Strawberry Shortcake house and Frankie had Thomas the Tank Engine. Frankie was a bit miffed as he liked "the dolly's best" not that he wanted Emilie to have a turn with his Thomas of course.

Malcolm & Abigail feeling better

Well Abigail has gone back to school she is still not quite over her bugs but much better. Malcolm has been back to the hospital for more tests but he has an inflamed bladder so the doctor could see nothing and has given him more antibiotics and he has to go back next week he has been quite poorly but is improving with the new medicine. He has been doing more jigsaws. Emilie is getting excited about St Nicholas coming this week and she is going to start scouts on Saturday. Frankie is not sure what is happening but is sure its something good and loves his Christmas cards. Today I went to the International Bazaar with Amelia and Marc and bought some wooden tree decorations. Hopefully we will put the Tree up next week. The weather is unseasonably warm 10c today last year we had snow much more Christmasy still there is time for things to change............

There has been so much rain Abigail & Romain's garden is flooding and the new hedge will be lucky to survive.