Our first Christmas Eve in France we found out that a lot of people here in France open their gifts on Christmas Eve, not Christmas morning. We had gone out to midnight mass in the vieux village of Mougins and then afterward stopped in to say hello to Pascaline & Nicolas, who insisted they would still be awake.
Not only were they awake, but their kids were awake in a sea of wrapping paper, playing with their freshly opened gifts!
Dave and I went home that night and stayed up for hours finishing wrapping the gifts. In the morning we were tired and cranky while the kids opened their gifts for 15 minutes at the crack of dawn, and then wanted breakfast. While we were regretting our late night, Pascaline & Nicolas and their entire family slept in after having fun ALL together on Christmas Eve.
After that, we were hooked. Christmas Eve was officially our new Christmas morning. This year we were happily settled into our warm house thanks to the new heating we installed last year.
We had a nice dinner all together around the kitchen table that Dave just sanded and varnished a couple of weeks ago. After dinner, we gathered on the big sofa in front of my computer and watched "A Christmas Story" and laughed while Flick got his tongue stuck to the pole, and when Ralphie beats the crap out of the fox-hat wearing bully. And who doesn't love Randy snorting his food like a disgusting little piggie?
Finally at 9 pm, the movie was over and the kids were dying to get to the gifts! But first, we decided to call Dave's family on Skype . . .
We all howled with laughter as the kids opened their gifts in front of the computer screen and Dave's brothers hooted and screamed with excitement with each gift reveal, shouting "I've always wanted one of those!" and "OH MY GOSH, You are SO lucky!"
Sam was very good at handing out gifts to be opened
And all our mouths dropped at least once that night!
Uncle Titi was especially jealous of Sophie's new sparkly "uggs"
But the biggest shock of all, which left my mouth gaping so wide I could swallow an elephant came when . . .
Sam opened the living room door and I turned around and saw this:
Dave, standing there with the giant map of Paris we found in the attic: framed! He had secretly gotten it framed, then hid it behind the house so I wouldn't see it. It's pretty hard to surprise me, but honestly, I had NO idea he was doing this. I was literally stunned speechless.
We have the perfect place to hang our new addition (Frankly, it's the only wall we have downstairs that is big enough (and just barely!) to hold our little treasure.
And Christmas morning, while the kids dug into their stockings that Santa left them overnight, Dave and I slept in until noon when we finally decided to roll out of bed and go downstairs and stare at the map while we ate French toast and southwest eggs. It was a very merry Christmas indeed!
Not only were they awake, but their kids were awake in a sea of wrapping paper, playing with their freshly opened gifts!
Dave and I went home that night and stayed up for hours finishing wrapping the gifts. In the morning we were tired and cranky while the kids opened their gifts for 15 minutes at the crack of dawn, and then wanted breakfast. While we were regretting our late night, Pascaline & Nicolas and their entire family slept in after having fun ALL together on Christmas Eve.
After that, we were hooked. Christmas Eve was officially our new Christmas morning. This year we were happily settled into our warm house thanks to the new heating we installed last year.
We had a nice dinner all together around the kitchen table that Dave just sanded and varnished a couple of weeks ago. After dinner, we gathered on the big sofa in front of my computer and watched "A Christmas Story" and laughed while Flick got his tongue stuck to the pole, and when Ralphie beats the crap out of the fox-hat wearing bully. And who doesn't love Randy snorting his food like a disgusting little piggie?
Finally at 9 pm, the movie was over and the kids were dying to get to the gifts! But first, we decided to call Dave's family on Skype . . .
We all howled with laughter as the kids opened their gifts in front of the computer screen and Dave's brothers hooted and screamed with excitement with each gift reveal, shouting "I've always wanted one of those!" and "OH MY GOSH, You are SO lucky!"
Sam was very good at handing out gifts to be opened
And all our mouths dropped at least once that night!
Uncle Titi was especially jealous of Sophie's new sparkly "uggs"
But the biggest shock of all, which left my mouth gaping so wide I could swallow an elephant came when . . .
Sam opened the living room door and I turned around and saw this:
Dave, standing there with the giant map of Paris we found in the attic: framed! He had secretly gotten it framed, then hid it behind the house so I wouldn't see it. It's pretty hard to surprise me, but honestly, I had NO idea he was doing this. I was literally stunned speechless.
We have the perfect place to hang our new addition (Frankly, it's the only wall we have downstairs that is big enough (and just barely!) to hold our little treasure.
And Christmas morning, while the kids dug into their stockings that Santa left them overnight, Dave and I slept in until noon when we finally decided to roll out of bed and go downstairs and stare at the map while we ate French toast and southwest eggs. It was a very merry Christmas indeed!
3 comments:
Sounds like a lovely christmas!
wow!!!! gave me chills!!!
lovely!!!
do your little ones believe in PereNoel??
:) It was so exciting!! No, sadly our kids don't believe. :( I force them to make a list for "Santa" anyway, and they're not allowed to say they know it's us, which is sort of silly, I guess, but it makes me so sad that I want them to play along.
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