Christmas Holidays : Part 1

We started off the holidays by just relaxing. Yes , relaxing.  Being busy with after school activities and work , it was great just to have an extra lie in. Kids were happy that they could be in their pyjamas longer (If I remember right , they were in their pyjamas all day). 

Super heroes in pyjamas

Elijah had his first sleep over with his  non church friend. He had a fun time. I picked him up and we went to Ballorig (an indoor play area) directly. Other friends of Benjamin came along. They had a blast while Ellen (a close friend) and I just sat on the comfy couches , chatted and chatted away.

David did pretty well. Of course he couldn't have his morning nap in all the noise. But after feeding him lunch, he tried to nap a bit before another kid screamed near him. I realized I just need to go out more with him and if he misses a nap, I just need to find another time in the day for him to nap while I am home. The only other place he will nap other than home is the resource room in church. 

Bobby was on leave from Thursday onwards and he will be taking it off until January 4th. It felt nice to have him home all day.

On Christmas Eve, the boys and I went to the Kerst Wintercircus (Christmas winter circus)

at the Park Theatre. I have never been there and it was quite exciting to go. The circus show was also spectacular and the boys enjoyed it thoroughly. After that we made a rush to the groceries as shops would be closed on Christmas Day. I didn't have my list made yet. But I bought random stuff , in a way that these can be used for various mix and match meals. Since most of the day went with lazing around and good part of the evening at the circus, I had'nt prepared the batter for the Appam(Indian pancake with ground rice ) and not cooked the mutton curry. Naturally , I end up doing all this late in the night when everyone was asleep. These days I ended up going to bed well past 2am. But this was perfect time to do things well ahead and prepare peacefully without having to feed David, or have interruptions from the kids. I always feel guilty doing other things when the kids are awake. I rather play with them than do other stuff. But the compulsion to get things done overcomes the desire to spend time with them. It's worked its way into my New Year resolution.

Appam

Appam and mutton curry for breakfast

Christmas day, the mutton curry was ready and the appam was ready for making, without having to do anything that morning. The boys and Bobby enjoyed having Appam and mutton curry. It's quite traditional in  Kerala to eat appam on Christmas morning for breakfast. Or at least that's what our families eat.

We hurried to get ready for church and before leaving I popped the last night marinated duck and stuffings in the oven.  

Duck in the oven

The duck came out well with some delicious gravy and I had a simple carrot fried rice and salad to go along with it.  A chocolate christmas cake with vanilla ice cream sealed the meal.

The spread and the men

Wine for the adults

The kids and I

Big brother and little brother

We were so stuffed that we decided to have something light for dinner. So I made a quick pea and mint soup with some frozen bapaos. (Chinese dumplings with meat fillings).

Pea mint soup and dumplings

Rest of the time we managed to play board games and work on our Christmas puzzle. Last year we started a tradition of doing a 1000 piece puzzle during the holidays. It just seemed perfect to do a puzzle.