O Holy Night

Right after my somewhat mopey posting about my lacking Christmas spirit, it arrived in the form of two packages. One from my parents in Germany and one from my bloggy friend Kimberly with a very special ornament I won in her giveaway.

The ornament reminded me of why this Christmas was so special. We were finally celebrating as a family.

The very next day I baked some Vanillekipferl that even turned out. Ben, of course, immediately memorized the look of every cookie tin we own and would point and screech for cookies. More often than not he got one. I am such a pushover!

On Christmas Eve we decorated the tree under close supervision. Surprisingly Ben did very good at not touching but only sniffing the tree. We watched my favorite Christmas movie, Love Actually, and realized that it will probably be inappropriate for Ben very soon.

Then after sunset the Christkind arrived and put the presents under the tree. We took Ben downstairs to see the tree and gifts. He immediately made a beeline for the presents and started unwrapping! I (aehem, the Christkind) had went back and forth on whether to get him something big, something small, or even nothing at all. I was convinced he would most likely not touch anything we gave him. I was under the impression that each set of grandparents would get him maybe one or two gifts and I caved and bought a few small items. For Christmas Eve he received several books, a CD, a cute plate, and a Xylophone from my parents. My best friend in Germany gave him a set of Playmobil - which I LOVE. I have totally been obsessed with Playmobil ever since I was a kid and am super excited that I finally get to play with it again. We got Ben some animal magnets, crayons, and Sandra Boynton books. Ben immediately took to the Playmobil, the magnets, and the crayons. Success!

After all the excitement of unwrapping we had our traditional Christmas Eve dinner of fondue with various homemade sauces, herb butter, marinated antipasti and some yummy wine that my parents had sent to us. I can't say Ben loved it, but he did get to play with his crayons some while we were eating.

After a very restless night it was Christmas Day. Ben was awake and screaming around 5:30 so we had to get up. I was extremly tired, had a headache from too much wine, and Ben was cranky too. Ben wasn't really surprised to see more presents under the tree and once again started to open them. His big gift from Santa was a cleaning set with brooms and a mop. Luckily he loved it! There was tons of stuff from his American grandparents and he quickly lost interest in unwrapping after he discovered the ball he was given. The rest of the day was spent relaxing and playing.

Overall it was a great Christmas and I am thoroughly enjoying the time between Christmas and New Years.