Vivan loves it, and I think it's a brilliant idea. There are fun games, but it also teaches geography and has little features on each of the places Santa goes to. It was a beautiful day outside though, so we wanted to get the girls out of the house. The friends we had spent the weekend with told us about a store called Gastronomy Market that has some higher end food, as well as mango flavored Greek yogurt that Elena completely fell in love with. We decided to walk to the closest one and stop at the playground along the way. The walk was a bit long for Elena, but she lit up when we got to the playground. She and Vivi worked on conquering the climbing ropes.
We ended up finding the mango yogurt, but didn't have any luck with a good ham, so we went to our default, PriceSmart. Vivian has also been asking for an apple pie, so I made my first attempt.
It ended up looking a bit like someone had sat on it, but it tasted good, so Vivian declared it the best pie ever.
While I was busy cooking up dinner, the girls were watching Christmas movies and eating popcorn.
The got through the original (and really only in our household) Grinch as well as our family favorite, Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas. Then it was time for Christmas Eve dinner. Viv was so excited she started serving herself green beans before the rest of us even got to the table.
Elena is not a green bean fan, so she had ham and carrots.
After dinner, the girls got their first Christmas present, new matching Christmas PJs.
The next morning, the girls were very civilized and let us sleep until almost 7am. We got coffee and hot chocolate for Viv, and then we started with stockings. Vivian was very pleased with most of the items in her stocking.
Elena had asked Santa for bubble wrap, a candy cane, and a doll that looked like her. She was very pleased to find the bubble wrap and candy cane in her stocking.
After rooting around in her stocking for a while though, she said, where is my doll? We suggested she check the boxes, so she started with a promising looking one.
She needed some help from big sister to get it unwrapped.
As she moved the box around, she discovered that the doll blinked! She was thrilled.
There were lots of other presents too.
Viv got two different doll organizing containers, which she was a bit skeptical about.
She has since come around to the fact that they could actually be very useful. While I was making breakfast, she used her new lip gloss kit to create a berry flavor.
Jeff and Elena worked on reading some of her new books, but she was more interested in popping her bubble wrap.
The girls also had fun trying out their new game of Operation.
There had been a family wide request for Christmas pancakes, so I decided to give it my best shot. Historically, I have had issues with pancakes, but I decided to try a Bisquick recipe, and after one undercooked starter pancake, I was on a roll :-)
The pancakes and bacon were a hit!
We had accidentally ordered 30 eggs instead of 12, so, since I was on a cooking kick, I decided to cook up some more bacon and make a quiche. It turned out really well.
With plenty of food, we spent the day enjoying our presents and stopping occasionally to fuel up. Our Christmas fun continued into the next day, since not all our packages had arrived before Christmas. Also, Jeff was a little sad that he hadn't gotten anything in his stocking, so while he was at work, the girls and I went shopping.
They each picked something for Jeff, and he was happy with the results.
He had also brought home a box of presents from his mom. The two big hits were an instant camera for Vivian, and a Hatchimal for Elena.
In our toy ignorance, we hadn't heard of Hatchimals, but a little research showed us that they were an internet sensation. They start in an egg.
They make various noises and move around inside the egg for a while. I think ours was in its egg for about twenty minutes. Then, it starts to hatch.
Viv checked online, and we were allowed to help it out, so we broke off the shell pieces.
Once it was out, it made a lot of noise, and its eyes kept changing colors. Vivian was our head researcher on what it all meant and what it wanted.
After much feeding, soothing, and rocking, Elena put it to sleep.
We're still waiting on one more Christmas box, so the fun will continue. My big Christmas present didn't come in a box though. My present was Lasik surgery, which I had yesterday. I had to wear special glasses for the day, and everything was a bit blurry.
But today things are getting clearer and clearer. It's super exciting and a great Christmas present. Of course, our whole family's favorite present is travel, but we'll have to wait another week to enjoy that. For now, we're just relaxing in Bogotá.
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