We celebrated Christmas in Garmisch Germany in a nice hotel. We didn’t have room to pack our Christmas tree in the car, although we were tempted… Instead we spread the presents around the hotel ficus tree. When Elora woke up in the morning I asked her to wait in her bed for a minute until we were ready to open the presents, to which she responded, “Santa brought us presents. Wasn’t that nice of him?”
Here is a condensed two minute version of our Christmas morning:
Ollie was so busy playing with the ribbon, that he forgot to open his presents. Usually when he was about halfway through opening a present, Elora would come take it and finish the job for him. He didn’t mind.
Chris’ mom found some old McDonald’s toys of Nemo, Woody and Buzz, Monster’s Inc. characters and the Incredibles. She brought a big box of them for the kids to share, and they were a big hit.
Oliver liked his Little People Helicopter. The propellor is just the right size for him to hold on to and put in his mouth to chew on.
Elora got a huge pirate ship. Oliver got a small pirate ship. You can see which one is the favorite. It is very cool, with cannons that shoot, a treasure chest with treasure in it, wheels on the bottom so it can “sail” on the floor, and sails that open and close.
Here is Ollie playing with his Grampy.
And of course, the best present of the day – the boxes and trash. Ollie kept crawling back to them no matter how many toys we showed him.
Ollie and Elora got this neat frog tent. Elora loves to put all her toys in it and sit inside. Here she is eating candy canes for breakfast on Christmas morning. After eating candy for breakfast and buffet food for dinner at the hotel, Elora was sick for a couple days. Now she says, “Too many treats can make your belly hurt!”
The kids with their grandparents, underneath the Christmas Ficus.
Check out our picture gallery for more pictures of our European adventures as well as hiking trips in Utah and family photos.
