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Santa Grammie arrived on Thanksgiving weekend to surprise us with an early birthday celebration for Matt and Tyrian and an early Christmas for everyone. (We were going to be in Europe on the actual celebratory dates.)
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Chocolate cake for the Smyth Boys, of course!
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The kids admiring Techie Grammie's self-made musical card. Her theme for our march-to-his-own-drummer 16-year-old? Mama Cass' "Make Your Own Kind of Music"
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Lest we forget....
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Christmas in November.
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The ladies all got the memo to wear the same color scheme, leading to an impromptu holiday photo session.
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And Tyrian conveniently wore green to complete the Christmas motif.
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The next birthday celebration was held on board the Amaviola, docked in Budapest, Hungary. The North Carolina Engelbrechts used the family dinner opportunity to give their gifts to Matt and Tyrian.
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Then the crew of the Amaviola surprised Matt with a birthday cake on the eve of his birthday (it was our last night on the river boat).
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Tyrian, fearing he was next, ducked under the table. Fortunately, his actual birthday was not timely enough to be subject to early revelry.
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Finally, Matt's real birthday arrived on December 22. We spent our last breakfast on the Amaviola toasting him with mimosas and making sure he had all the bacon he could eat. Mmmmmmm, bacon!
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December 22 began with mimosa's in Budapest and ended at "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" in London. Happy 45th, Matt!
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December 24 began with our traditional birthday breakfast, on the road this year at Cafe Rouge in London.
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A typical Tyrian meal - Caesar salad and hot chocolate. It's pretty much Caesar salad morning, noon and night if he can. In honor of his 16th birthday in London, he raised his pinky to stir.
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Rum baba for dessert.
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Evya dressed to match her cherry ice cream dessert.
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Tyrian's birthday show was "The Comedy About a Bank Robbery."
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Tyrian chose a Korean restaurant for his birthday dinner. This restaurant was such a hit, the kids got take-out twice more during our week in London.
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We learned an advantage to having a Christmas Eve birthday. The bakeries are closing up early in the evening and they want to get rid of their cakes. So Tyrian picked out two birthday cakes for the price of one!
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They were beautiful, tasty and we had cake to last almost the rest of the week.
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Christmas morning in London. We used a vase of dried hydrangeas and a holiday wreath to stand in for a Christmas tree.
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We travel with a stylist to make sure the kids all dress in the same yuletide hue on Christmas morning.
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Tyrian realizing that his new, huge mug will hold abundant amounts of hot apple cider.
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Christmas snuggles.
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We went to Westminster Abbey for Christmas Evensong.
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Our scrumptious Christmas dinner at Monmouth Kitchen ended with Evya hugging our server in thanks. As we walked out the door, he came running after Evya to present her with a white rose.
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Home in Lafayette. On December 30, we tackled the Sixth Day of Christmas packages.
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What is warm and cuddly for a 16-year-old boy? A Sonos speaker.
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On the 13th Day of Christmas (yes, we needed an extra day this year), we were invited to a post-Epiphany celebration at Gra'Karen's and Grampa Pete's.
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But first, time to celebrate Matt's birthday with his parents.
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A rain hat!
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Twinsies!
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Then we celebrated Tyrian's birthday.
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Then, Christmastime again!
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We brought Grampa Pete spicy and sweet paprika from the Central Market in Budapest.
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Gra'Karen got ornaments exemplifying handcrafts in Bratislava and Budapest.
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A stained glass hummingbird to add to Christina's flower sculpture garden.
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A penguin card for our penguin girl. As Evya opened the final gifts, the sun finally set on December birthdays and Christmas 2016.
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