School Nativity

At Nate's school he was part of the school nativity called, "It's A Baby".
He was one of the 3 Kings that visits Jesus after he was born.
His line was, "We have heard great news that a new king has been born. I bring gold."

                                            (Sorry about the blurry phone camera photos!)

Following the star!

One of the things I like about the schools here is that they teach the kids about all the religions that are found here. They celebrate all the holidays. Sam even did a school report on a religion I had never heard of before. They do focus on Christianity a bit more because it is a Christian country, and they are not apologetic about it. Nathan has come home from school a few times saying, Mom! 

They believe in Jesus at my school!" He also comes home telling me about he friend's religion, too. Love it!

 There was lots of singing, instrument playing, and dancing. All the Year 1 & 2 kids had a part to play. (Kindergarten and 1st grade - there are about 120 kids this age). They had many characters and songs that were thrown in for fun so that everyone had a part to play. It was so good and I was so impressed at the 120 kids that took part!

Letters to and from Santa

Although he is called "Father Christmas" here, he is also just as well known as "Santa". We had to get our letters in the post by 6 December, so that Santa had time to write us back! (He does that here if you know the right address :)

continued on the back...

Dallin had lots of fun with his 

 Posting our Letters down the street from our house. 

Cold and windy day!

Dallin was a bit embarrassed

Christmas Trees and Mistletoe

We've always had an artificial Christmas tree so I was very excited to get a real one this year, like I always did as a child. I wanted my kids to have the experience of going to a tree farm and picking one out.  On 5 December we headed out.

Nate wanted this one, just a tad too large for our English house!

Our space is limited, so we got one that is just a bit taller than us. It is a Nordman Fir that has super soft needles and it doesn't drop them very much! My perfect tree! 

We also bought some real European mistletoe.
Looks a little different from American mistletoe.
Sam loves it.:)

I was there too :)

We don't have a rack on our car, so this is how we got it home.
Sam didn't sit like this the whole time, don't worry. Addy looks a bit tired.

We had enough mistletoe for two large bunches hanging in the house.
Sam loves telling us that he is standing under it!
We are going to have to watch this kid as he becomes a teenager!

Decorating the tree

We put it up on a small table

Kaylie's year to put the star on top. She doesn't like heights :)

Yay! I can get down now!

Christmas LEGO!

 I've talked before about how Lego has really taken over our house. They are one of my weaknesses! I've decided that LEGO and children's books(and most of you have seen our kid's library at home) are really the two things that I can't get enough of! They are just so cute! Anyway, we started collecting the Christmas village sets a few years back. I decided we would collect this village instead of the gorgeous porcelain one that I want, well, because the kids can't break the Lego one :)

 We didn't bring our growing village with us, so I bought this year's set (and last years, because we were a year behind). I also got a "free" gingerbread house and a Christmas train, so it ended up being quite a lot to put together! It is one of our traditions, and we all love it. It sure teaches the kids a lot about helping, taking turns, and patience! It took a few sessions of building to complete.

Addy is great at finding the pieces that Kaylie needs

Panoramic view of our dining room/office/coat closet(I miss closets!)

We put our village on the window sill of the kid's playroom. They can play with it and they do, daily. Did I tell you about the window sills in this house? They are actually like this in most houses that I've seen here. I LOVE them.
When I build my own house, it will have window sills this deep :)

Gingerbread House 

Toy Shop and village center with tree

Santa's workshop, sleigh with reindeer, and train

P.S. I put candles in all the windows, like I had in Colorado at Christmas, but it looks really cool. I wish I could take a night photo of it, but it wouldn't do it justice!