Christmas Eve
We sat down for the traditional Thai Thigh Christmas Eve dinner (ha) for our first Christmas in California. The kids set the table, and, on a whim, we all chose to wear nice clothes for the meal. Our neighbors, Melanie and Greg (Greg's the one who offered to help us move up three flights of stairs all day when we moved here in June just because he had nothing else going on that day), gave us sugar cookies with frosting and edible stickers as well as a non-dairy homemade chocolate mousse pie, which we ate for dessert.

The kids opened up two gifts each before bed (a night-before-Santa-arrives tradition Mick is unfamiliar with, but I'm trying to get him to adjust to): homemade pajamas from Mema and flannel sheets (moose, snowmen) from Grammy. Then the kids set out their half-eaten slices of pie (Santa didn't mind) and a carrot for the reindeer before settling in for bed around 7.

Christmas Day
The kids got up at 8 (very bizarre since they usually get up at 7, but perhaps the midnight bedtime two nights earlier after a visit with the Javadis was catching up with them) and we opened gifts for an hour. The kids came up for air a couple times, but played for the rest of the day with (1) a new house and Calico Critters kittens, and (2) a castle, knights, horses, dragon and troll. We think the kittens spent the bulk of the day bunked up in the castle with a dragon in a party hat patroling the premises. We also listened to Christmas carols and talked about the reason we celebrate the holiday.