This year we were fortunate enough to have Adam home with us on Christmas Eve also, he's usually been asked to work Christmas Eve and in fact Boxing Day for the past few years in his part time job, but this year he had all three Christmassy days off and it was just really lovely. It felt nice to hang up our work-coats so to speak and just get to 'be' as a family and fully embrace in the magic of Christmas.
And it is so much more magical now that the boys are a year older than they were last year. Logan's one and a half and Ethan is three and half, I have a feeling that for the next few years or so, it will feel more and more magical and exciting as their understanding of it all grows and so too does their excitement (as well as ours).
We spent Christmas Eve taking funny family pictures in front of our tree as well as wandering around the garden center looking at decorations and walking through the grotto one more time finally soaking it all in after a month of feeling a bit like we were in a spin. We treated ourselves to cake - Ethan was adamant that he wanted the Malteser bite but I knew in the back of my head that he wouldn't like it. We let him have it anyway.. (he didn't like it, of course).
We also had a visit from the boy's Great-Grandad and his partner, we let the boys open their presents from them early - it was really lovely for them to see the boys playing with their new gifts. Logan received a new Thomas the Tank Engine toy that he could push around and that made noises, he spent ages just wanting to push it back and forth to whoever would be so kind enough to keep rolling it back to him.
That evening we didn't get the photo of the boys in their matching pajamas in front of the tree that I'd hoped for, we never got to watch The Snowman and The Snowdog all the way through either, but that's what it is to have an excited three and one year old and that was totally OK (although Logan was sort of taking advantage when he shoved his entire hand in to my Baileys then in to his mouth when I wasn't looking!). Instead we wrapped the last of the presents to each other, watched the boys run around the living room in front of the tree like Duracell bunnies, ate a homemade pie we'd been baked and prepared for the next morning.
Me with two blurry images either side of me as my boys dash off out of frame. These two never have time to stop, especially not on Christmas Eve. ;)
We left our mince pie, a glass of milk and a carrot out for Santa and his reindeers and then the boys went up to bed to sleep with their stockings on the end of their beds. I found out the next morning that that Cheeky Santa Claus took a photograph of himself on my phone in our living room, which made us all laugh, especially Ethan.
Ethan was so excited to find his stocking in the morning and so grateful too - he kept telling us how much he loved his presents and how happy he was. I don't know if he'd realised at that point that he had more presents downstairs under the tree waiting for him. We sat on my bed going through each thing in the boys stockings, Ethan asked me if he could have a little bit of his chocolate and then he shared it with us all handing us a bit one at a time. He was excited by two eggs he found which grew and hatched dinosaurs and Logan loved his new books, his new Audi toy car and his new Tomy eggs.
We all excitedly put our dressing gowns and slippers on before heading down the stairs to find a big delivery of presents from Santa underneath our Christmas tree. Ethan enjoys the unwrapping of presents the most I think - he loves tearing the wrapping paper off to reveal what's inside. He was beyond excited by everything he had and really grateful too, he soaked in every present before going on to the next.
Logan was happy in his own little world, playing with the things that his brother helped him to unwrap. Adam of course, received more Lego - a lot more Lego, god knows where it's going to go but he was very happy. And I also received some wonderful gifts, which I was so grateful for. We'd picked most of our own out, but Adam had also seen and bought a new Tuxedo Cats calendar for me which made me emotional because all of the cats on it looked just like my childhood cat who was poorly most of his life and was my little guy who slept with me each night and who I had a special bond with. I'll never forget him, so knowing Adam had picked out that calendar for me to remind me of him was the sweetest thing.
Daddy and his one year old Son, both happy with their new Lego and Duplo diggers! :)
After decorating our living room floor with ripped open wrapping paper and brand new gifts, we got ourselves some breakfast and tea and had a bit of a rest whilst the boys explored playing with their new gifts. Adam and I are sure we're getting old - we could have quite easily gone back to bed at that point, we were knackered. But it was time for a shower, a quick tidy up, time to pack our bag and head over to Adam's parents house for the day and night to celebrate Christmas Day with them and some of his other family.
To be continued with part two and a Christmas video very soon. :)
