In memory

Last Christmas Eve we visited Nivelles for the first time and lit a candle for my husband's father in the beautiful collegiate church of Saint Gertrude. 
This year we thought it would be nice to go back and do the same. Sadly we had two more candles to light this year; one for my Gran who passed away in January and one for my husband's Aunt Maria who passed away in December. Gone but never forgotten.


This afternoon was spent gingerbread Christmas tree and biscuit decorating (as the kids wanted to leave these treats for Santa), making my traditional Christmas chocolate log cake and basically trying to keep the kids calm! We snuggled in to all watch The Polar Express (which we watched last year and loved). We discovered that our new Christmas tree decoration from Lapland makes the same sound as the bell in the movie (magical!). After baths it was time to see if Santa had sent his email. He had. I so love the age of my kids at the moment - I wish I could bottle up their innocence and excitement and keep it forever.
Then it was back downstairs so that they could arrange their treats for Santa and sprinkle some reindeer dust. Olivia had written yet another letter to Santa asking for that elusive real magic wand (I think this is the third year now so I hope Santa has a good response!) and Dexter had drawn him a picture.
The debate then began over the time they could get up in the morning. Olivia was  pushing for a 6.00am or earlier start. Daddy was insisting it couldn't be before 7:00am, so we finally settled on 6:30am!
They then went to sleep surprisingly quickly considering how excited they were.
Our traditional evening of constructing then began, well at least for hubby anyway who loves it! And the Christmas Eve movie of choice this year? Die Hard. Who says romance is dead?