Noel

We always try to keep Christmas magical whether it is just us with the kids the current norm, us visiting family in France the old norm that we are missing, or us with family visiting the exception but maybe the upcoming norm.
This year we hosted Christmas for the first time since I moved to the states. My in laws came to spend Christmas with us and the kids. It was great. Look we even decorated the fireplace with snow flakes and cinnamon ornaments. Thanks to my very patient mother in law who spent hours cutting the snowflakes with MEC. It was quite an operation.

We are hoping that the dark gray rug will survive our grubby feet

Our tradition is to have a fancy dinner on Christmas eve and Christmas day is spent playing with toys and lounging in our PJs.... Which means that usually on the 24th I'm running around like a mad woman, finishing the kids fancy clothes, going to the store to buy food and cleaning up. Of course B is there to help as well. This year finishing MEC's dress took longer than expected maybe because we had company. I didn't have time to really finish it note to self still need to serge the lining of the dress and finish the arms oops. MAC didn't want to wear his jacket so I didn't even bother finishing it.

Dinner was delicious! To munch on something while drinking champagne, I prepared gougeres, and had a cheese plate. For dinner, I made standing rib roast recipe courtesy of Williams Sonoma with mashed potatoes and a big salad followed by the deep dish apple streusel from the same source. The dinner was super delicious. 

I was trying not to panick when my husband and his dad left for the Apple store at 4:30pm to buy new iphones. Luckily they were back at 6pm and the standing rib roast while too cook for my taste was still moist and oh so delicious. 

The tradition after the kids are in bed is packing their gifts frantically while sipping some more wine in front of a movie. We chose to watch Fly Fishing in the Yemen since we could not find the subtitles for Les Intouchables. Both movies are amazing in different ways. 

All of this for two lucky lucky kids

Crud the house keeper is coming tomorrow, we have to clean

After brunching on homemade waffle with apple compote, drinking a ton of coffee we needed to get some air. Even though the weather was more Christmasey than usual we had to go spend some time at the beach. The kids shrieked in delight alternating scaring off the seagulls and dancing Gangman style. If you have a second-third grader I'm sure you are experiencing this new contagious disease. If you find a cure please let me know!

I hope you all had a wonderful day!