Christmas 2012--Our Top 25 Moments!

This Christmas season was full of lots of fun, laughter, friends and joy! They say a picture is worth a thousand words (maybe a million with the help of some captions!) so here goes....the Top 25 Moments of the Holidays 2012 (in no particular order!)

25. Petting the Fake Animals in Santa's Grotto!

Ben, Lyla and Chloe....I'm not sure they knew they were fake!

24. Wayne doing the Gangham Style dance at his work Christmas party!

No proof of the dance (although lots of phones were out!) but proof that we were there!

23. Picking out our Christmas tree!




22. The Return of Carlos (our Elf on the Shelf)


21. Having breakfast with Santa

Santa was in a big rush but Lyla didn't mind!

 20. Sledging without Snow!

Lyla and Chloe loved it!

Yay Riley! You ride the tubes down on a white surface that feels kind of like a toothbrush

19. Watching our big angel perform (Check out the video at Solo #1 and Solo #2 and make sure to check out the accent!)

Riley was the angel that visited Hawaii...how lucky!

18. Watching our little angel in her playgroup's Nativity

17. Wayne went to his 1st "Football" Match! Go Liverpool!


16. Enjoying American treats at RAF Lakenheath

We spent the night at RAF Lakenheath and bowled, ate and toured nearby Cambridge. Here  is Lyla enjoying her Baskin Robbins!

15. Our first ride on a punting boat!

We took a boat ride through Cambridge. It was cold and wet but very fun. Riley was disappointed in the size of the boat...I think she was expecting our cruise ship!

14. Spending time with friends on Christmas Eve

We went to a friend's house for some fun festivities!

How cute are they?

13. Singing Christmas Carols...especially "Santa Got Stuck Up The Chimney"

Lyla's favorite song this year was "Santa Got Stuck Up The Chimney"...She learned it in playgroup and taught us all the words! She was very excited to see the cake that our friend Brienne made for Christmas Eve! Amazing!

12. Making lots of different Christmas treats!

Melting Snowman Cookies...thanks GG!

Gingerbread men....thanks Grammy!

Riley made ice cream cone Christmas trees with her friend Zach

 11. Ice skating in beautiful Cornwall

Lyla loved it!

How lucky we were to get to skate with Truro Cathedral in the background! You'll get to see more of Cornwall in a future post...this is just a teaser! ( :

10. Opening many, many Christmas Crackers (and wearing our crowns)!

We love our crowns from the Christmas Crackers! And our random prizes too...you never know what you're going to get! Some of our favorites included nail clippers, a keyring, a notepad and a mini screwdriver. 

Still in our pjs for Christmas dinner. Shhh...don't tell!

9. Exploring Cambridge

Cold but beautiful!

8. Decorating the house

Riley helped decorate the mantle! Looked great until the stocking holders fell and beheaded the poinsettias! 

7. Christingle

Riley had a Christingle service for school and Lyla got to hold her own at Christmas Eve Mass. Do you remember what these are? Check out Last year's post

6. Ringing in the New Year with friends! Both girls made it up until midnight!

We celebrated with friends...Can you tell that the parents were having fun!?

Watching the Countdown in London in front of Big Ben and the London Eye!

5. Singing "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth"!

Need I say more?

4. Making cookies

Baking Christmas Cookies is not big here like in the US so we baked a bunch and shared our tradition! Yum!

3. Enjoying movies with friends

School break means lots of down time. Here we are relaxing with our friends on New Years watching Madagascar 3 and comparing notes on the Colosseum. What a life! 

2. Enjoying dance parties!

One of many dance parties! What a way to ring in the New Year!

1. Opening presents!

Christmas Morning!!

Lyla needed to stop and play with each toy she opened!

Riley prefers to check everything out first! She's been desperate for glasses but doesn't need them so Santa got her some fake ones just for fun! Turns out she wants to wear them to school because another girl got glasses and feels sad being the only one. Too sweet but is that against dress code??

Another fun Christmas in the UK! Thanks to everyone back in the US for the cards, gifts and well wishes! And thanks to our wonderful friends in the UK who made this a wonderful Christmas season that we will never forget!