Christmas Day

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Geo: 50.29, 6.13

Well, I'm relatively sure that this is the first and last time that the kids will sleep past 9am on Christmas Day - a big advantage to the very late sunrise here!

It was strange to be away from family for Christmas...Matthew in particular was very concerned about whether it would feel the same. Maybe it was just that he was young enough to vocalise what we were all feeling....

We woke the kids and they bounded down the stairs to see that Santa had found them in Belgium. Santa brought the three of them an iPad mini to share - unfortunately, the sodding thing seems to be defective, and won't progress past the "blue screen of death" - back to the elves for fixing when we return to Brisbane. There were lots of other gifts - books and DVDs, as well as lots of gifts that we had bought them along the way.

After our traditional breakfast of panettone, we headed out for a walk. There was a problem with the water at the Mill, as the water had stopped running that morning. Poor Miranda and Jonathan had to convince a repairman to come out on Christmas Day! The water supply is from a well, using new fancy UV system to purify the water from the acquifier... This also had the effect of delaying Jonathan getting started on smoking and cooking the ham for lunch...

We walked to see the war grave of Eric - a US soldier, who, upon finding himself behind enemy lines, sniped and killed enemy soldiers for some time before he was discovered. And upon discovery, they found his body (shot dead) with another 4 or 5 enemy killed - he had stabbed them before they were able to fatally shoot him! They bred them tough back then! Unfortunately, Matt and Georgia weren't quite so tough, so only Steven and Tom made it to the gravesite.....

We then went for a drive, to buy some bottled water in Luxembourg - a pretty drive through the countryside, stopping for some crisps at a petrol station....this will be the Christmas lunch that the kids remember for years to come! We stopped at a cute church, that had slippery slide from the top to the bottom carpark...one of the boys thought it was for the disabled carparking!

Back to the Mill, where the water wasn't running, and a DVD in the afternoon, before finally...the ham! Well worth waiting for! It was completely unlike any ham I've had before - more like a saltier roast pork, and the meat was so tender that you could cut it with your fork! A resounding success!!!

But, for me, the best part of the day was seeing the kids open presents and hear the joy in their voices as we talked to family far away....we miss you all.

We walke

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