Christmas Day

Hurray for Christmas Day! As predicted, the kids woke up at 5-something and went downstairs to see if Santa had come (which he had, of course). They piled into their stockings and watched cartoons for a couple of hours ... there were several begging trips upstairs to try and rouse the adults so the present opening could begin. But last night there was much discussion about how to cook the turkey. We had been following Nigella's soaking recipe and her cooking advice is much shorter and hotter than the Lewis family's traditional way of cooking... so there was much controversy over how to proceed. Here are Rhodri and Trefor looking uncertain as they get ready to stuff the big guy...
And then Rhodri expressing the success of the cooking attempt by following Nigella's instruction
Trefor is now a converted fan of Nigella!
I don't have any photos of the kids opening presents, but it was a truly exciting morning/early afternoon. Rhiannon got the double baby stroller that she had been wishing for from Santa, and Tryfan got a Hot Wheels Racetrack (which he didn't even know he was wishing for) from Santa as well as some Ninjago Lego. In fact, Tryfan got 3 Ninjago Lego things as well as a big Star Wars Lego thing and he was SO excited about them that when he opened the 3rd of 4 Lego thingies, he stomped his foot and put his hands on hips and said "I just cannot believe it!".
Here is the Christmas Dinner scene when we ate around 1:30pm.
Me and Nia
Rhodri and Taid
Then after dinner we (Rhodri, Taid, Nia, Bentley and I) went for a walk in the forest
When we got back from the walk we had some of the gorgeous Christmas Cake that Beryl had made. It was sooooo delicious. Here she is about to cut it with Sioned and Valentin and I watching.
So overall it was a lovely Christmas!

Christmas Eve

We had a fun day today with all the kids playing together and the rest of us busily preparing for Christmas! We had ordered a free range turkey from a local farm, so Rhodri and the kids went to pick it up in the morning. We decided to follow Nigella's turkey roasting recipe which I have just now located online here...So this is us setting the guy to soak in a briny spicy bucket overnight.
Here is a bucket view of the fella
Nain Beryl, Taid Trefor and Auntie Sioned arrived around 1pm and we had a good afternoon of catching up, drinking tea, going for walks in the forest and having treats.
But it wasn't too long before we broke into the cocktails -- here are Rhiannon and I mixing some Yule Mules. Of course, the kids had their own alcohol free version which was very special.
In the Gans Family tradition, on Christmas Eve we normally have chili. And seeing as how it was a lovely afternoon and evening, I decided to christen my new birthday presents of a portable fire bowl (thanks Mom!) and a cooking tripod (thanks Rhods!). So I set up shop in the back garden (close to the house, not down at the bottom of the garden) and cooked up this delicious Choc Chip Chili.. another Nigella recipe..
Then we busted out the Christmas headwear, put on the seasonal tunes and the fun began! I love this photo of Nain and Taid
Cristian trying to look angelic...
The 3 reindeer rascals
With Auntie Nia and lil' Valentin
And here is Rhods with Valentin
We ate the chili and then settled in for a bedtime song, story and a last check to make sure the stockings were hung up in the right place! Here is everyone singing "Sion Corn" which is the Welsh Santa song..

Of course, the troops carefully set out a plate of treats for Santa and his reindeer: cup of milk, a mini mince pie, and a carrot and bag of reindeer food for the reindeer. There were some VERY excited little people who went to sleep this night!

Gingerbread Construction

Our Christmas guests have started to arrive and the first thing we did (after the traditional jumping around craziness) was set out to construct and decorate the gingerbread house. Always a good activity! Here are Rhiannon and Gabi getting revved up for the fun
Deeply immersed in decorating
Here is the final product!
And the three muskateers, ready to pile into the goods. But we held them off for another day...

Family photo

After Rhiannon was done opening birthday presents (usually this is done after the guests leave and then thank you cards are written and distributed in following days), Danni took this family photo of us.

Rhiannon's Birthday Party

Rhiannon had her birthday party on Sunday 11 December and it was a huge success. There were about 14 kids there, including Tryfan and Oscar. We started with making gingerbread cookies (cutting shapes out stage) and then played several rounds of Musical Statues and Musical Bumps.
Then we played some Limbo games and another game similar to Hot Potato but with a bag of random clothes. So when the music stopped and you held the bag, you had to pick the top item and wear it. Here are all the kids lined up after the game finished.
We had some free play time, which ended up in mass waltzing! Jed (shown here dancing with Rhiannon) loved listening to the Nutcracker Suite and requested track #5 to get everyone dancing.
We did some more decorating of gingerbread cookies (the decorating stage) and then some more games and then cake!
Our friends Danni and Bryn and also our friend Lee stayed for the duration and it was so great having their help during the party. Good times!

Rhiannon turns 6!

Since I arrived back home after the kids were asleep, I didn't get to really say hello until Saturday morning on Rhiannon's 6th birthday. She opened presents right away and was thrilled to get a new cozy fleece hat, gloves and scarf.
I brought back a belly dancing outfit and some gold sparkly shoes from Dubai
But her favorite present was a real keyboard from Grandma Debi! She has been playing it nonstop since the first time she switched it on. There are so many fun buttons to push and beats to play with.
And so, at 6 years old, our Rhiannon is:

• Usually very happy
• Enthusiastic
• Outgoing and charismatic
• Very attentive to details, especially those overheard in other people's conversations!
  
• Good at including other people in play, especially other kids who are younger and/or more conservative/ reluctant than she is
• Good at tidying up when asked
• Good at singing and making up songs with her own lyrics

We sure love her :-)

December in Dubai

This week I had to go to a meeting in Dubai and it was such an awkward time to be away! I missed seeing Rhiannon in the school Nativity play and got behind on preparing for Christmas and all that sort of stuff. But it was good to do a little bit of traveling solo -- its been a long time! The scene in Dubai was quite different to the cold rainy England I left. Here is Burj Al Arab behind some other buildings - I did some sightseeing on the morning of my flight back home.
I also visited the "Spice Souk", which is sort of an alleyway with all the vendors selling giant quantities of spices and herbs. I did purchase 1 kg of enormous cinnamon sticks!
When we went on a team dinner on the last night of the meeting, all the ladies in the group got henna tattoos on our hands. Here is my hand:
So I left on Saturday night, Dec 3rd, and arrived in Dubai on Sunday morning to head straight out to our company's Training Center near Abu Dhabi. Sunday in United Arab Emirates is the same as Monday in the western world, so it worked out well for me to land and go straight to work. Then I was in Dubai (2 hr drive) for Dec 5th (nighttime) until Dec 9th (afternoon) when I caught a flight home.

Kristin and Eric come to visit

My brother Eric and his wife Kristin came to visit us at the end of November and stayed about a week. It was so wonderful to have them come, especially since Eric had been working in Nigeria for a month previous to this. We had a great stretch of days together.
Here are the troops with their lightsabers, doing jedi moves
As I write this it is nearly a month later so the vividness of their visit has faded, but it was really wonderful to have them here. Thanks for coming, guys!

Auntie Rebecca comes to visit

We've just had a wonderful visit from Auntie Rebecca (my brother Will's wife), who stopped in with us on her way home to Washington DC from a conference in Copenhagen. She arrived Tues night and stayed until Sunday morning and the whole week was great. Here we are grocery shopping with the kids and "Spencer Bear".
One of the many family meals that we enjoyed together (Rhiannon took this photo).
Being a little bit crazy (in a good way) with the troops as we dropped them off for a sleepover on Saturday night. Since this day was my birthday, Rhodri arranged for the kids to stay over at Sophie/ Oscar's house so we could stay out late and have some fun!
We went into Brighton for the afternoon and walked around exploring. I wanted to find a replacement flannel shirt for the one that Judy/ Joe gave me for Christmas in 1995 and has finally become no longer acceptable to wear in public. So I found a nice soft previously used flannel shirt for £5 sort of near where this cheesy photo board was.
The other thing I wanted to do on my birthday was throw rocks into the sea before sunset. I am not very skillful at throwing rocks but its just fun trying.
Me and Rebs, with Beaker.
We met up with my cousin Annie and walked around a bit more (dark now), then went for a swifty at a olde worlde pub and then we went for dinner at Jamie Oliver's Italian restaurant. So fun!
Our dinner reservation was at 5:30pm which was nice and early (and the time we normally eat anyway) and left plenty of time to not rush in order to get to the Comedy show at Komedia Brighton which started at 8pm. Then we drove home and got in around midnight. What a great birthday! Thanks Rhods for organizing everything :-)

Wakehurst take one

Emma and I took the troops to Wakehurst Place today because we both have family National Trust memberships now so its free for us. They have been here loads of times and have all the secret nooks figured out, so they showed us around and we had a grand day out. Here are Rhiannon, Sophie, Tryfan and Oscar:
We had a lovely picnic on the edge of a sweeping meadow surrounded by trees changing color. We were just out of the wind and the sun was shining, so the kids were able to get some direct sunlight onto their tummies.
There are lots of little surprises hidden throughout the estate including this fir cone with enough space carved out of the center for little people to climb into.

Full moon over the Ashdown

I went for a walk this afternoon just at dusk (the best time to go) and was so grateful to see the full moon rising over the heathland with these pine trees in the foreground.
I didn't have my normal camera with me so had to make do with my mobile phone's camera.

Visitors from another country

We had an exciting stretch of days when our former neighbors from Norway came to visit! Monica, Helge, Kristoffer and Joakim made a special trip all the way to Chelwood Gate just to see us. Rhiannon and Tryfan were very excited about their arrival and camped out in the driveway for over an hour until they arrived. I took this photo from the kitchen window and I could tell that they were waving at Grandpa up in heaven again :-) ...so sweet when they do that..
We actually had our friends Sophie and Oscar over for a sleepover as well this night, so with the multiple languages and the high energy, everyone was ready for bed by the time dinner was finishing.
Actually that is putting quite a positive spin on the evening (now that I am writing it a couple of weeks after the fact...) because Sophie was really not feeling well and eventually puked just before bedtime, then periodically through the night as did Oscar. Poor kids! It really wasn't a problem at all because we've had a lot of practice dealing with puke in the middle of the night and these kids were so brave! But we did feel sad for them because nobody can really replace one's Mommy or Daddy in these times.
On top of the puking, there was some awkwardness amongst all the kids because of the language and the shyness of not all knowing each other. But its good for them, I reckon, to experience situations out of their comfort zones.
The next day we went for Sunday Dinner at The Cat Inn in West Hoathley. We had a really great table that was in a little room sort of by itself. By this time, Kristoffer and Rhiannon had bypassed the language barrier (she doesn't remember too much Norsk!) and were laughing their heads off at their own jokes.
All kids into the bath! Bentley wanted in too but there simply wasn't room
Storytime with glazed eyes --- much better sleeping tonight compared with Saturday night!
Our lovely former neighbors stayed until Tuesday and that was just not long enough! But we will take what we can get and it was wonderful of them to come. Thanks you guys xxxx

Grandma goes back home

We stopped at the Old Dairy farm the other day to pick up some pumpkins (since we didn't grow any this year ourselves) for carving on Halloween yesterday. Grandma helped but the troops mostly wanted to carve by themselves. Fortunately i had a range of little saws and other pokey carving tools which were relatively safe to use.
Grandma Debi left today to go back to Santa Barbara, but before she went to the airport we did a timer shot so that we could all fit in the photo..
And here she is with the troops for one last cuddle:
It was really really great having her here and we wish it could have been for a bit longer. Thanks Mom xxx