.. but let me clarify - I DO NOT love spending half of Christmas Eve
night nor ALL of Christmas day sick as a dog!!! Yuck!! Luckily none of
the children got sick and I am finally back to feeling better. I have
even managed to keep everything down that I have eaten today...sometimes
it is the small victories that count ~ even if those victories are
crackers, toast, and a little bit of yogurt.
Anyway before I got sick, we had a lot of fun! We spent a couple of
days at Great Wolf Lodge playing, swimming and enjoying quality family
time .. it was great to get away for a few days.
We came home on the 23rd just in time to get ready for Santa and for
Christmas Eve. In accordance with Danish traditions, Santa visits our
home between the 23rd and 24th and Christmas Eve is the main celebration
for the holiday. This year we had some lovely friends to celebrate
with and it was also Jane's (our exchange student) first Christmas ever
so that made it extra fun and special too. I told her that she would
not be experiencing a truly "American" Christmas as our family follow
many of the traditions from my home country but I still think she has
really enjoyed December and all that came along ...especially the
presents and goodies from Santa.
As a true Dane, I really really love candles and many of our traditions
include lighting candles ... I just love the warm glow they cast off and
I enjoy every opportunity I get to put candles all around. Some of the
things we do at Christmas time includes lighting the "calendar candle"
daily. This is a special candle that counts ~ or should I say "burn" ~
down the days from December 1st through the 24th. Each day we burn one
little segment for that day counting down to Christmas Eve. We also
light our advent decoration each Sunday for the last four Sundays before
Christmas. Each successive Sunday we light one additional candle, so
first Sunday one candle is lit and on the fourth Sunday all four candles
are lit - it is beautiful. We also put real candles on our tree ... it
always freaks people out when I tell them that. But it is a
tradition that I gladly carry on and I must say that it is one of my
favorite moments of Christmas Eve when the all other lights are turned
out and the tree is brightly lit in the warm glow of candle
light.....and yes for those of you who wonder, my husband always has his
bucket of water handy just in case ;-)
All in all it has been a magical and beautiful December. The children
have enjoyed them selves and I love watching the joy in their eyes
although I must admit that this year I am a little sad to realize that
the "magic of Santa" may soon be reaching its end at our house.
To end my post ... I have a little extra Christmas cheer to share
because Christmas came early for me!!! A few days before Christmas I
received some very good news in the mail regarding my insurance and
coverage for surrogacy. Suffice to say that it sparked some extra
Christmas joy for all of us and we look forward to see what the new year
holds...especially on the surrogacy front.
Yay! Can't wait to follow your newest surrogacy journey!
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