I can't believe how quickly Christmas came and went this year - maybe it's a "I've got 3 kids and life is crazy" thing but it feels as though December 1st was no sooner here and all of a sudden - BOOM! - Christmas was done and its a brand new year!
I've felt that way for pretty much the entirety of 2017 though so it shouldn't have been a surprise - I think I'll remember 2017 as the Year That Only Lasted 3 Months since that's how it felt! I do hope 2018 takes it time a little more.
All throughout December I kept meaning to pop on and write a little update about all of the fun festive things we were doing because posts like that are so lovely as a Mum to look back on - but I simply never got the chance.
So let me take a moment to talk a little about our December now.
After visiting Disneyland Paris for their Magical Christmas season in November we were already well and truly in the festive spirit when December 1st arrived, and so we kicked things off with a visit to the local Christmas tree farm where the boys got to stroke a husky and visit with Santa's reindeers. There was also a lovely little Christmas market there which was nice to browse.
On December 13th we had our yearly visit to our favorite local Grotto at Otter Nurseries in Ottery St Mary - it's a bit of a drive from us but it's by far the best grotto experience I've ever come across, the children get to see the singing reindeer and explore the arctic circle before heading into Mrs Claus's kitchen to make reindeer food and then finally visiting Santa himself who spends a really decent amount of time chatting to them and giving them candy canes from his tree before their Christmas gifts fall down the chimney by magic!
Our next festive trip out was something we'd never tried before - a local Sail With Santa event which involved a little hour long Christmas party on a boat with a balloon modeller, face painter and Punch & Judy show and another visit to Santa included.
And finally on December 22nd we headed off to Dartmoor Railway like we do every year - in previous years we had ridden The Polar Express but it has changed this year to The Train To Christmas Town and we were worried about whether it would be as good but we needn't have been - if anything it was even better than previous years and we all had such a fantastic evening and left feeling well and truly ready for Christmas!
After our annual Christmas Eve Eve party on 23rd December (which I never manage to take photos of as I'm too busy hosting and organising games and food!), it was finally Christmas Eve.
I think I actually prefer Christmas Eve to Christmas Day if I'm honest as there's such a feeling of excitement and magic in the air, the children are just giddy and we have it all still to look forward to.
We started Christmas Eve off with the boys Christmas Eve box which was packed full of festive movies to watch, stories to read, an igloo to build and decorate, and lots of yummy snacks and treats as well as our new Christmas pajamas too.
They spent the day playing with the bits and pieces inside, and then at 4.30 it was time to head to the Christingle service at a nearby church. Our usual church is without a vicar at the moment so we tried somewhere new and were really impressed by how lovely the service was - the boys really enjoyed it, even if they were absolutely little monkeys! The lady in front of me was very entertained by their antics, and told me that she'd had three boys with similar age gaps herself...she reassured me that life gets easier as they get older which is always nice to hear!!!
After the service we headed back home quick sharp as we had some visitors coming to surprise the boys....they were coming all the way from Arrendelle!
Yes Elsa and Anna themselves managed to spare half an hour on Christmas Eve to pop in and visit the boys - they brought them a little early gift each (An Elsa dress for Noah of course and dress up costumes for the others too) and spent some time chatting and making Christmas Wishes. Noah was totally overwhelmed and rather starstruck while they were but has talked about nothing but them ever since!
After Elsa & Anna left, the boys had a bath, sprinkled some reindeer food outside and left a mince pie and some milk out for Santa (and a Parsnip for Rudolph as I forgot to buy bloody carrots!) before excitedly heading up to bed.
The next morning it was Tyne who was up first at a rather respectful 7.50 am which I was thankful for after not getting to bed until 4 am! They were all beyond excited to find that Santa had visited, and the morning whizzed by in a blur of wrapping paper and excited squeals!
We had a pretty lazy pyjama day this year which was really welcome, and the boys had plenty of time to play with their new toys before we finally got dressed around 4 pm and headed over to my mums holiday apartment for Christmas dinner and a family evening opening more presents.
It was a lovely day but unfortunately Sailor had started to get a bit unwell as the day went on, and by boxing day he was really poorly with a raging temperature that wouldn't go down with calpol - so instead of going to my sisters house for boxing day as planned, I ended up spending it in the childrens ward of the local hospital with a poorly baby.
Luckily it was just a viral infection so he was soon home, but it worked its way through all of us over the next few days meaning our Christmas break has been a little soured - but nevermind, there's always next year!
We spent New Years Eve at my sisters house having a take away, and playing some games before seeing in the New Year together and heading home just after midnight.
And just like that, Christmas 2017 is done! I hope you all had a good one however you spent it.
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