For our 2008 Christmas we headed off to Antwerp as we were invited by Ingrid a
nd Tom to join them for the celebrations as they also had Emme and Lyn (Ingrid and Emme's mum) visiting as well!! What a full little apartment they had!
Our chosen style of traveling was by bus which when we planned it seemed like a good idea. We booked a night bus which left London in the evening to arrive in Antwerp early in the morning thinking that we would just sleep the whole way feeling nice and rested and r
eady to celebrate. Ha I hear you all say. Yep, I think we got THE worst bus in the world. We had a 4 year kicking our chair and pulling our hair on regular intervals as well as a teenager who continually stared at us (and no we gave her no cause to stare!). We also didn't think about getting on the ferry at Dover where we had to vacate the bus to go up on deck...then when we got to Calais, France we had to go through Border Control....this all happened between 1.30am to 3.30am. So I guess you figured that we didn't really sleep much at all!! But in saying that I was wide awake when Em and Tom came to get us, a friendly hug! It was just what I needed!
Our next three days were mainly a blur of talking, talking and more talking where in between we ate and drank and played games. In Belgium the main celebration/dinner happens
on Christmas Eve, however we did not have a tradition Belgian meal but an Aussie one!! Ingrid cooked up a delicious Turkey with all the trimmings including real, that's right, REAL cranberry sauce! We conc
luded the evening with desserts made by Lyn which are Christiansen traditions...and no wonder they were delicious! We ended our evening with calls back home to Aus. Our Christmas day started off slow with presents and breakfast made by Emme - I tell you these Christiansen woman are welcome in my kitchen any day!! :) For Christm
as dinner we were invited to Tom's parents place to have leftovers, of stew which is what they traditionally eat this time of year. The stew we had was deer stew with chocolate and wine I think...it was sooo good! And wine....all our meals were of course accompanied by alcoholic beverages :)
Boxing day we headed into Antwerp to watch 'Australia' at the cinemas...completely disappointed by the movie but we evened that out by treating ourselves to waffles..mmmm
We have ended our weekend on a high note. By heading to the open air ice-skating rink at Sommerset House. It was beautiful. Now I know ice-skating itself is not so beautiful...well not when your watching Liz and I attempt to skate gracefully around and around. But the rink is in the middle of the courtyard at Sommerset House and there is these lovely blue and green lights that made the ice glow and was therefore beautiful. What wasn't beautiful was the 150 other people we had to share the rink with...luckily we escaped without any collisions and we came off the ice after the hour without being knocked down OR falling down ourselves. HOORAY! 
Here is Liz and I celebrating our own Christmas before heading off to Belgium. We had so many gifts to open we thought it best to open them instead of taking them all on the bus! Thanks to everyone who sent them over, they were lovely, we had so much fun opening them!! And thank you to the people who sent us cards too!
