It feels like only yesterday I was getting excited about December 1st rolling around and now suddenly a whole month has gone, a new year is upon us and Christmas is all but a distant memory.
I swear that December, despite being the same number of days long as any other month, is definitely the fastest one to pass.
It always makes me feel sad when another Christmas has gone by, as the year wait until the next one feels like forever (when in reality it will be here in the blink of an eye, if last year was anything to go by anyway!)...but to be totally honest, this Christmas hasn't actually been completely "Merry & Bright"...in fact if I'm totally honest it's been one of the worst Christmases I can remember in many ways, but I will talk more about that on another occasion - this post is not for that,
This post is to do what I've been trying to do for the past couple of weeks and focus only on the good - the happy memories, the smiles and excitement of the children and the good times we had - of which there were truly lots.
Our Christmas began, as it always does, on Christmas Eve Eve when we had our annual party for the family - I had so much planned for it and, despite a few inevitable Pinterest fails with the food, it all went well - the games were a hit with the kids, and we all had fun and ended the evening feeling festive and ready.
Unfortunately Christmas Eve didn't go quite smoothly and this resulted in us missing Church for the first Christmas in memory...I literally cannot remember a year that I didn't go to church on Christmas Eve and I really didn't enjoy the day without having that experience if I'm honest, it is a HUGE part of Christmas to me...but I salvaged what I could of the day and, despite the kids all coming down with horrible chest infections, I made a Gingerbread house with Tyne, decorated baubles for the tree with all 3 of them, and gave them their Christmas Eve box which they loved.
They gorged themselves on chocolate santas and we read their Christmas books - unfortunately they were very hyper and we didn't get around to watching The Snowman and The Snowdog like i'd hoped, but they went to bed excited in their little matching pajamas.
That night, Jon and I had the mammoth task of wrapping their presents...we had wrapped Noahs a few nights previously but hadn't had chance or free time to wrap Tyne or Sailors, so we spent HOURS doing it on Christmas Eve and didn't get to bed until 5 am...Tyne then woke up ready for the day at 6 am, so you can imagine how shattered we were!
He brought his stocking through to our room squealing with excitement about how Santa had been, we brought Noah and Sailor in and the three of them opened their little stocking gifts together in our bed.
Then we all headed downstairs, to more squeals of glee when they saw the living room where Santa had left their bigger presents - the morning was spent watching them open their gifts and delighting in the smiles of joy on their faces.
Even Sailor was loving it, opening gifts himself and seeming to completely understand what was going on...he enjoyed it more than Noah, who still wasn't that bothered by present opening this year despite being 21 months now.
The stand out favorite gifts for the boys were Tyne's Imaginext Transforming Batcave, his skateboard and his big remote control digger, Noah's baby and pushchair and his Sit & Ride Pirate Ship, and Sailor's Grimms Rainbow and wooden Walker.
Jon & I had our breakfast of Bucks Fizz and Cinnamon Pastries, while the kids had breakfasts of Celebrations and Chocolate Santas...and after a lazy morning watching the kids play and wrestling toys from their ridiculously secure boxes, we all got ready in our Christmas Day Best to head over to the nearby hotel where my parents had a holiday apartment.
We spent the afternoon there opening more gifts and enjoying a lovely Christmas lunch with my parents, sister and her children...the boys love spending time with their cousins.
That night, three excited and overwhelmed little boys headed off to bed and the next day we did it all again...opening the rest of the gifts they'd received from family members and then heading back to my mom and dads apartment for more fun with their cousins and another dinner....I loved dressing my little Sailor up in his traditional Christmas outfit, after all it was his first Christmas and he needed to dress for the occasion! ;)
The time between Christmas and New Year was spent playing with new toys and relaxing, and on New Years Eve we met my family at a local favorite restaurant of ours where we had a lovely meal - we arrived home around 11pm and put Sailor to bed, but Noah and Tyne both stayed up for midnight to see the fireworks and sing Auld Lang Syne.
If you'd like to see a little video of our Christmas highlights, take a look below.
I hope you and yours had a very Merry Christmas.
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