Having been awoken early by the receding sound of jingle bells I was checking out my email when Gu stuck his head out from his room, at around 7am, broad beaming smile on his face “Daddy, Santa maa lao”.
Turns out that sometime in the night Santa did indeed visit Stratton House and leave large “socks” by the children’s rooms, packed with books, toys fruit and snack food.
And it wasn’t too long before all the kids were up and delving through what Santa had given them all.
Small jigsaws were very popular; the girls loved getting arty with tinsel paint pictures and the boys love messing around outside with their baseball bats.
Me I just reveled in the delightful sound of fun and laughter and the ambiance of 10 constant smiles.
Before lunch the kids got to watch the Ice Age Xmas special DVD.
After a normal lunch some carried on playing outside whilst others watched another cartoon movie and at 2pm it was “Present time”.
Under the Xmas tree were many gift wrapped presents many of them numbered and the first round of giving came by way of a “draw”.
Nu was chosen as Xmas Fairy and attended the tree with the draw number pot. Starting with the youngest child, May 1 , each drew a number and was given the present with the corresponding number. May hit lucky first time round picking out not a number but a picture of a Rabbit which led to her receiving the huge cuddly rabbit donated by Li Li Tan recently.
Gifts ranged from cuddly toys, to books, from beautiful paperweight to toy cars and more.
Once the numbers draw was over each child got their main present from me and I’m happy to report that I appear to have chosen gifts that they are all happy with…difficult with any child let alone 10 
And this whole process was watched over by our special guest , all the way from Worcester in the UK, via the internet…my Mum…MaMa to the kids.
Zak really loved gazing at Mums smiling face on the TV.
You can get a feel of the day here with the photos below or by watching the video highlights of the day.
We had Xmas dinner at 5pm….and a good feast it was too…roast chicken with fried pumpkin and tempura carrots, cauliflower with turnip chips too.
A very Merry Xmas.
