Actually, turns out, you don't need cold weather and snow to get into the Christmas Spirit, it's all about who you are with - and the food! :)
We celebrated Julafton ("my" Christmas) at the Scott's place. They had arranged a huge Christmas lunch, for about 50 people - with all the traditional Swedish Christmas food you can think of! It was absolutely fantastic!
The mix of people was great, and they had decorated the house really nicely. All the kids were entertained by the new table tennis, and the Wii. (I mostly spend my time eating, yum, yum!) It was a great success!
Linnea wore the little dress she got as a Christening gift. We finally found the right occasion for it! Anyone recognize the material? It's from the same material as my bridesmaids dresses! (One of my bridesmaids, Kamilla, is also Linnea's Godmother) Isn't she cute! Here is a little slide show:
After the lunch, we went back home, to switch Santas with another part-Swedish family. As you know, according to our traditions, Jultomten (=Santa) actually visits in person on Christmas Eve to deliver the presents.
So, Nathan went to see the Cummings kids to give them their presents, and then Santa (Andy) came to our kids.
Lucas was very polite and friendly, Santa even got a hug - but Linnea didn't want to get too close. She did a little pose though in the end, next to Santa but in Mummy's arms...
Then when Santa left, Lucas said "Hejdå Adam's Dad!"... Hm... busted...
Our Christmas Eve wasn't done with that, oh no. We were invited over to the Morris' house for a traditional English (well, they are Australian) Christmas dinner. They too had made a super job in decorating, setting beautiful tables and everybody got fun gifts, and glasses (!) to bring home!
We were 20 people having a very nice time, feasting on another absolutely fabulous meal and playing a very entertaining Secret Santa game! (In the meantime, the kids had apparently been busy with their new toys and didn't go to bed until 22.00...)
Lucas was the first one awake on Christmas Day, and he was already downstairs when we heard him. When we came downstairs, he was standing in front of the lit Christmas tree in awe, of all the presents and everything!
We waited for Linnea to wake up, and then we opened all of the gifts, and spent the rest of the morning playing with them all - and building a lot of Lego..!
The kids got really spoilt this year (like every year...):
Lucas got the Lego Police Station, the Lego Petrol Station, a Lego crane-truck (?) and some Lego racers. He also got a mask, snorkel and some fins; a Doc Hudson car for his collection (the racing version); a little sleeping dog, a magnetic dart game, some Meccano, Jibbitz for his Crocs, a few things to hang on the tree, a stinger suit and a big wooden easel and a Astrid Lindgren Christmas DVD together with Linnea.
Linnea got a Little People-set with some dogs, a big wooden dollhouse (a combined birthday present) and a family, furniture and car to go with it; a wooden fridge for her kitchen; a boogie board, Jibbitz, a xylophone, a stinger suit and the easel and DVD earlier mentioned.
Big Thank You to everybody for all our lovely presents!
We had our Christmas Day lunch at the Yacht Club. It was really nice too, a set 5-course Christmas menu. Yum!
After lunch we had a swim and tried out some of the new presents, really nice!
Christmas Day was finished with pizza-dinner together with the Danes. We were all far too tired to cook or go out or do anything at all - but pizza actually wasn't too bad either!
All in all, we had a lovely first Christmas here in Brunei - and we hope that you all out there enjoyed yours too!
Merry Christmas to you all!
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