Christmas and goodbye

OK, there we go, in English. I should be fine after 8 months speaking English almost non-stop. (But I'll still make mistakes sometimes)

Last couple of weeks flew by. Christmas time is always a busy time of the year, but I noticed that with kids and in a country where they really celebrate Christmas the traditional way, it will fly even faster!
We started at the start of this month with our chocolate advent calendar, every day after dinner one chocolate for each of us, yummy! 
Then there was Elf. Elf on the Shelf. Or actually, Elf on the vase, Elf in my room, Elf on the TV, Elf on the bath tap, Elf in the car, Elf on the Reindeer in Amber's room... He went everywhere. And just when we gave him a cookie because we thought he would be hungry, he broke into the Gingerbread house! Naughty Elf. But, it was fun, looking for him every morning.
Of course it was also Christmas time on school, so on the second last day of school we went to the Christmas Carol in the evening. All the parents, siblings and other family brought their chairs and picknick blankets to sit and watch the open air concert. All the classes performed a Christmas song, the school band (included Lara with her flute) played a couple of songs and the school choir sang some. It was so nice!

With kids around the house you need to be really careful and sneaky sometimes when you buy presents. So every now and then we had to tell the kids a little lie, we split up in the shops or we sneaked into our rooms to do some wrapping. Just give them a movie to watch and you'll be save :P
 

In the area are a couple of streets with nice Christmas lights. We took the girls out one evening to go and see the lights, it was amazing! And last Friday we were invited at a pre-Christmas party from one of Deb's friends (and her daughter is a school friend of Lara) which was really nice. A lot of food, a couple of chats and at the end I took Rhiana out again to see the Christmas lights. 
On Christmas Eve we had a nice dinner: surf and turf (steak and prawns) and in the evening they prepaired everything for Santa. The pillow cases ready in their rooms (Santa brings them presents under the tree and in the pillowcase in their room), milk and some cookies for Santa on the table, some water and a carrot for the reindeer and of course outside some glitters so that they can see our house from high up in the sky. All excited the kids went to bed, but if you think they would be a sleep soon you're wrong. R. was a sleep soon, but L and A were awake until midnight. That means that Santa had to wait until after midnight to bring their presents in their rooms! 
They already warned me that it could be an early morning the next morning. You can't let those kids wait too long. So I gave them permission to wake me up when it was time to unwrap. So... 6.40am... knock knock.. "Debbie wake up! Santa brought us some presents!! I have a desk and Lara and Amber got a new bike" (those presents were too big to wrap so they already knew). After some water in my face, I went downstairs (R. coudn't stop talking while I was in the bathroom to make myself ready, so excited she was! :D
Within 10 minutes all the presents were unwrapped. Santa was really clever cause he gave the girls mostly presents that they really need: new pajamas, bathers, towel, goggles, clothes, but also some pool toys, color in books, reading books, board games etc. They were happy.

The rest of the morning was full of preparing for the Christmas lunch. Family was coming over for a nice lunch, a BYO (bring your own) lunch, but of course Deb had to make some stuff as well. At the end we had WAY too much food, but it was really nice!! Look at the picture for the menu. Yum!

   
It was a nice afternoon, with more presents, even a delicious box of chocolate from Deb's parents, very nice of them!
Boxing day (second Christmas day) started at the beach! So nice, having a swim and we did some body boarding.

Very cool and I caught some nice waves. Back home we had to prepare for breakfast with other family. Toast, egg, bacon, hash brown (soort rösti) and mushrooms. Yum again!

In the afternoon I went to the beach again, with another au pair. The waves were big and I lost my goggles, but no one got hurt, so that is good :P The family had dinner with the grandparents (I didn't go), so I had a bit of quiet time, got myself some food from the MacDonalds and jumped in front of the TV to watch some episodes of Vampire Diaries. :)

And then, in between all the Christmas fun, there was also a bit of a down side. While we were counting down for Christmas, we were also a bit counting down for the end of my stay. Not excited, but a bit sad. I like to go home, but I don't like to leave this amazing family. I am definitely going to miss them!
Leaving means packing. Suitcase is full, a couple of things that I need to try to fit in my handluggage (just my little backpack :O ). I hope I will be fine. 23KG, no more. But, I know that I can get rid of some stuff in there if I have too much. But I will see that later, at the airport.
My flight to Sydney will be on Thursday morning at 5.20am. I'll arrive 7 hours later (have a stop in Melbourne) to be there for another 5 days. And then it's time to go back. Wednesday the 4th of January early in the morning I will land on Dutch ground again :)

But first I am going to enjoy my last two days here. Tonight we go out for dinner, tomorrow I have no idea what we're going to do. Probably spending time together, play games, cuddle, laugh and in the evening say good bye :(

See you all in a bit more then a week.. BYE!

xx