Merry Christmas!!!

We did our normal American Christmas where Santa comes in the middle of the night, even though he had made his visit to the Swedish Children around 3 pm the previous day. He left a nice bit of Christmas Cheer, and so did our far away family, who sent lots of lovely gifts that all made it on time! Thanks everyone! We may not have been there to enjoy the SwedeGirl's usual Christmas fan club, but you sure were with us in spirit.

Santa left a few presents under the small tree in Swede girl's room

The tree with all the goods Santa left

Santa ate the cookies and the reindeer ate the carrots we left them...

Santa Came! The Stocking.... She may be the only kid on earth who loves a stocking full of tea and bandaids. And of course all the stuff her Nan (I mean Santa) sent, her, as well!!!

The gift she wanted most, and got: The Roller Skates she told Nannie she wanted ages ago!

Thanks Uncle E!!! The Best Surprise, The Most Original Gift Prize goes to Uncle D and Aunt J, who made the great collage of my family of origin, in "A Yellow Submarine!"Awesome. Thanks Aunt J!!!!
And the most thoughtful and Christmas Spirited gift from Farfar and A, the Heiffer International Gift and World Wild Life calendar. She actually knows about Heiffer, thanks to the cool book we have called "Faith The Cow" about how it started. We were trying to talk about the meaning of Christmas, which is slightly harder to do in Sweden, where every one's needs are met. There are no concert fund raisers to pay for medicine for kids with leukemia, or soup kitchens (since everyone gets food), no homeless people (housing is a human right), and no toy drives for the poor kids because no one is that bad off. So we had been talking about poverty and Heiffer to try to talk about how lucky we are....A Big Thanks for making it a part of the Holiday!! The post-gift wrapping paper melee

However, with out the family cooking made by my parents, we are getting to be good at making things we never did- roasting turkeys, making gravy, pie crusts, mashed potatoes....we are starting to feel like real gorwn up now we are hosting and cooking for holidays.

The Family Christmas Dinner- Roasted Turkey with sausage and cornbread stuffing, broccoli cheese casserole, sweet potato casserole, masked potatoes, gravy, and pecan chocolate chip pie. And The Swedes!
BIL saying Cheese for the camera.... Gifts were appreciated by all...

SIL and BIL
The Swede Lil' Cousin and his Pappa