Christmas – been and gone for another year!

So another Christmas has been and gone.

Sometimes I can’t quite believe that my little girls are big enough to have their own ideas about Christmas but they are, and they did. We are not big into Santa in this house. I have my reservations about the commercialisation of Santa and Christmas and Zoe is still petrified of the man in the red suit so I was somewhat surprised when they started to talk about him actually coming to our house!

The girls had obviously been collecting their own ideas about Santa and Christmas for a while, including the story of Saint Nicholas that we read, and they had very definite ideas of how it would all work. We made stockings to hang for Santa to leave some small presents and they made some presents to give to others. They left out a some cookies for Santa and a glass of water (because water is healthy!) picked some lettuce from the garden for the reindeer and left a bowl of water for them too. They talked about when Santa might visit, how he would get here, would he come in through the front door or maybe the back door? Would he leave presents for Muski too, or just them because Muski was too small to make presents of his own to give….

Our four day Christmas extravaganza began on Sunday with afternoon tea with various aunts, uncles, grandmothers and cousins. An obscene amount of sugar was consumed by everyone and the kids received a crazy amount of presents (though some were birthday presents for the girls).

After all that excitement the girls were up at the crack of dawn on Christmas eve (very unusual for my girls who sleep till at least 8am most mornings) wanting to play the ‘monkey tree game’ and draw with their giant colouring sheets. Which meant that by lunch time Izzy and the Baldy Boy were fighting so badly I sent them both to bed, and set Zoe up on the PC and had a precious few moments piece before my parents arrived. Nanny and Bobo bought heaps of delicious food and heaps more presents!

Then we ate and ate some more and then the girls opened their last advent box – which was a parcel not a box at Christmas PJs just wouldn’t fit in those tiny boxes! We coaxed the girls into bed and Nanny read to them while the Baldy Boy and Bobo put together the trampoline.. outside in the dark and freezing wind!

We sent Nanny and Bobo home, got Muski to sleep and started on the next phase… we hid presents around the house and strung ribbon between each one which lead finally outside to the trampoline. I crept into the girls room and decorated their walls with the bright stars wall stickers I won…. even doing it in the dark I still think they look ace and I hoped that the girls would notice when they woke up in the morning. Last thing, I remembered to eat the cookies for Santa and write a thank you note telling the girls to follow the ribbon to find all their presents… then I hit the hay!

As I suspected it was an pretty early morning wake-up when I hear Izzy yell ‘Zoe Zoe wake up fish everywhere!’ Yay, they saw the stickers! Then they ran out to the living room and the fun began. They needed a bit of help to really grasp the idea of following the string to all their presents but when they saw the string going out under the back door there was nothing that could hold them back… they raced out , no shoes or socks on, in short sleeves in the freezing cold, screaming ‘trampoline!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!’ It was ace and we’ll definitely keep up the tradition of the string next year I think!
They had a quick icy bounce on the trampoline first thing then another go later on when the sun had come out a bit, before we left for dinner at Grandma’s. We had a huge family breakfast of pancakes and croissants and fruit and a lovely nice relaxed morning, even getting everyone dressed and in the car ready to go on time. Then Muski did his best exorcist impression which required a change of clothes and for the vomit to be hosed out of his car seat. He managed another projectile vomit when we were almost there, and another and another once we got there but after a big sleep in my arms he woke up quite chipper, so even vast amounts of vomit didn’t put a dampener on our day.

Christmas Dinner at Grandma’s – more food, more presents!

Then yesterday dinner at Monnie’s – more food, more presents!

Thankfully today we are at home, enjoying the return of sunshine, jumping on the trampoline, putting up new swings and passing on old ones to Muski. We have stolen eggs from under the chook, hung monkeys on a tree, coloured, drawn, stuck, hatched dinosaurs, done puzzles, red books, planted seeds, played play dough, and generally relaxed and had fun thanks to all the gift givers.

Things will be a but quiet at the blog for the next little while as I work on a few things and also spend some time away from the computer. I will post some of the lay-outs and photos that became part of Christmas presents and maybe the odd photo or small post, but don’t any freak out if you don’t hear from me for a day or three!