Christmas morning...

Actually Christmas afternoon here in Budapest. Its now 4 pm and Agi and I are happily recuperating from a long day that started VERY early this morning. We finally got the kids packed off to bed around 9 pm, after our Christmas evening ritual of opening the cousins' gifts (thanks everybody!) and reading the Christmas story from the BofM, Luke, and Matthew.

We then set about to the real work of getting presents out and ready. In Hungary nothing goes under the tree until the kids are off to bed on Christmas Eve. Helps with the Santa Clause story. THe older kids have been great about not spoiling the illusion for Ashton. HE very carefully laid out cookies and milk for the Big Guy (ironically enough, a Big Guy actually ate them not too much later...) and then looked around and mused worriedly about how Santa would get into the house without the benefit of the chimney. I let hem know we'd leave the porch door unlocked, and he was fine with that for 30 seconds. Then came the worry about whether or not he'd find the door. And if the dogs would attack him. And if there were enough cookies out. We squared all that away and got him off to bed.

We got the kids laptops for Christmas this year. I spent four hours upgrading programs and games to them after the kids went down. They really come in handy for their school work, and I was starting to cringe every time I let them near my Mac. A couple of months ago I found a REALLY CHEAP lot of 5 older IBM laptops (T30's), corporate lease-return models that had been refurbished after 30 months of business use somewhere. they came with everything the kids need for school (Office, XP, etc...) and Agi and I added a few bargain bin computer games to the mix. It was quite the surprise for them. We brought them out last after the other presents of socks, books and board games had been opened. And Ali's High School Musical stuff. She's outgrowing her clothes so quickly. As has Andrew.

We'd told Andrew last year that if he got his grades up to consistent 5's (our equivalent of A's) he'd get a laptop either at the end of the winter semester or the end of the year. I appreciated seeing him try so hard, and he did get close. But he knew he didn't quite get to the standard we'd set for him, so he was visibly disappointed as the semester ended and he realized he wasn't going to get a laptop. What sealed it for me was his determination to make even more progress in the second half of the year, in order to get the laptop by June.

The kids have spent the whole day thus far at the dining table playing with their new laptops, with the exception of Ali, who is upstairs rocking out to saccharin-ey High School Music Tunes blasting out of the TV.

At least my Mac is now safely preserved for another year or so.

Now we are facing the fun ordeal of hearing "High School Musical 2" tunes in our heads for the next 12 months. A small price to pay for happy, polite, well-adjusted kids.

We wish everyone out there a very Merry Christmas and wonderful new year!

best,

Aaron & Agi & Andrew & Aidan & Ali & Ashton