Action Lili

Disclaimer: Lili's mother does not approve of these videos.

When Alex & the kids visited in November.

Lili's list

A  little old school, a little cutting edge.

Christmas battle droids and cheeky loglets

Other highlights of this Christmas include:

The Lego Star Wars advent calendar sent to us by Oli's mum. Rumor has it, it includes a Darth Maul figure dressed as Santa. I'm sure Jesus finds this funny. So far we've had a bunch of vehicles, a Gungan warrior (Is it Jar Jar? Not sure.) and a battle droid ("Roger! Roger!"). Still waiting for the really good stuff...

And for the fourth year running our little Caga Tions have returned to be fed and kept warm at our house. Lili played at a friend's the other day and when she got home she expressed concern that her friend's Tió had already arrived but ours were still not here. We put some plates of raisins out on both balconies that night and in the morning, they had arrived, laying shivering in the cold, windy morning air.

They've been thriving since we brought them in. They gobble up everything we give them, mostly clementine slices, raisins, dried cranberries and cookies. One day they even stole a whole apple from the fruit basket and we found it next to them with little nibbles in it. They also seem to like reading. Almost daily we find they've 'stolen' one of Josie's board books and are looking at it together. Not sure if they can read English or if they just like the pictures. Unfortunately, they don't seem interested in playing hide and seek. Lili took them into her room, came out and closed the door and counted to twenty, but when she went back in they were right where she left them. I guess Tions can't be good at everything.

Presents from England!

We're going to the US for Christmas this year, but Yaya Lisa in England thoughtfully sent us some presents for an early Christmas. We thought we'd have a mini Christmas day before we left, but Lili had a different plan, and we like it.

Our first Christmas tree

We always spend Christmas at someone else's house, so we've never had our own tree. This year we wanted one!

This is a four-day weekend with Thursday and Friday off school and work. On Wednesday while Lili was at school Oli and I made a last-minute decision to buy the tree and accessories that evening after he and Lili came home from teaching an English class to some of her friends.

Josie and I met them up at a plaza near our house and we went out for a tree, some new lights and some more ornaments (Even though we never had a Christmas tree, we used to hang ornaments from our ceiling or on our lemon tree.) It was, of course the windiest and coldest night and Josie was teething, but at least the Christmas lights in our neighborhood were nice and Lili was excited.

We put it up the next day while Josie was napping. Josie didn't seem too bothered or excited when she woke up. She just shouted 'This?!' repeatedly at it.