Stray Christmas photos

Not a family member





Bluet holds cousin Ruel

Christmas day

On Christmas day, the kids contained their excitement until 5AM, at which point they were briefly placated with stocking presents, and then, as soon as everyone was up, the wrapping came off all the presents as fast as possible.

Bluet and Ilona both got ear muffs for Christmas, which was just what they wanted






Then in the afternoon Abatha, Lila, Nate and Hamil turned up, and the party continued until it was dark.....(which to be honest was not that late)






Boxing day was also at the cabin, but the weather was so warm we could walk outside dressed like this, in order to collect some clay from the spring for a pottery session



And finally, here is everyone on boxing day, after Emily's Aunts arrived

Decorating the tree

Of course, the kids took decorating the tree very seriously, even if it was the second time they'd had the chance to do it this year (practice makes perfect!)

Here Bluet makes the star for the top of the tree




Here Ilona carefully places an ornament on the tree





And then we were perfectly ready for Christmas

Beach Week

As I mentioned, we arrived in Tampa on Sunday night. We drove for around an hour to Siesta Keys, where everyone was waiting for us. Of course, having been up for a very long time, the kids went straight from being asleep in the car to being asleep in bed. In the morning they were delighted to discover they were at the beach, in a house with a big swimming pool and small swimming pool, where they could swim all day with their cousins.

So swimming (interspersed with half price oysters) made up the first four days of our trip here. Then we took a 2 day road trip from Florida to Missouri, stopping overnight in Athens, GA. The kids were very well behaved throughout - I guess they like road trips as much as I do

On the way we saw a train laden with coal, presumably for Santa/Father Christmas to use to fill the stockings of all the kids who were bad this year. I told Bluet this, but she does not believe even bad kids get coal.

 Now we're at the Brunot farm, where soon we'll go choose a Christmas tree, and see the new baby cows

Running home

hello! we are in Florida, in the sun (more of which later). But here is a video of the kids walking/running home from the supermarket last weekend

Bunk Beds

For Ilona's Birthday, Bluet and Ilona some how came up with an arrangement between themselves whereby they would swap beds, so now Ilona sleeps on top and Bluet underneath. I think they plan to swap back on Bluet's birthday; this has surprisingly worked out perfectly

Here they are on Ilona's birthday in the process of swapping beds

Nuts cracked

On Sunday Emily took Bluet to see the nutcracker ballet in Geneva (the day before we stayed in Montreaux, more later probably). Anyway, Bluet loved it and here is her explanation of the plot

Ilona's birthday

Whenever we asked Ilona what she wanted for her birthday, she always said 'chocolate cake', so last Saturday we had a small birthday party with chocolate cake (and ice cream).

She told Veronkia she wanted a very large teddy (like Bluet has)






Then on her actual birthday on Sunday she opened presents from her family, and then we went out for pizza (at her request)



New pajamas with feet





(and ice cream)


We also found a Swiss department store Father Christmas. Ilona was not interested.


Then in the evening we had a bbq. It was dark so the kids got glow sticks