Christmas Day 2015

I’m sitting her still in shock that Christmas has been and gone for another year! All that planning and pre goes into one day, in what my mum claims to be the fastest day of the year, and I completely agree. I’d say I’m still recovering! My lounge looks like the Disney Store threw up in it but Little Miss is happily playing with her Doc Mobile Clinic and her Merida Bow & Arrows set as I write this. And hey, it’s only a month until I get to do it all again when she has her birthday!

Because I’m not ready to give up on all things Christmas just yet (well, my tree is still up…) today I’m going to be sharing some snaps I took on Christmas day. We had a really great time, and I’d say for the first time in years no one ended up in tears, now that was definitely a Christmas miracle in our house!

For the first year of LM’s life she slept for no more than 2 hours at a time, it was a nightmare. Then from 13 months onwards she stopped napping. Thankfully ever since then she’s been more than making up for her lack of sleep by sleeping from 7pm – 8/9am. Which is great for every day except Christmas. I was up from 7:30 as I knew my parents were planning on coming around early and yet I had to wake her at 10 to 9. I guess it was nice to enjoy my coffee and open Elsa’s presents with her. Elsa actualy loves opening presents but mainly because she loves the packaging haha. I had the TV on with the Christmas music channels and it was nice to just soak up the atmosphere before chaos ensued. Not that it was really chaos because LM isn’t that kind of kid.

She opened her gifts from Santa Claus first which were left beside her cookies for Santa plate. She’d asked for the Doc Mcstuffin’s Mobile Clinic and he’d also brought her a new Doc play dress from Closet Geek (use CHRISTMAS2015 at the check out for 20% off until January 1st), a Lambie backpack (which was my fav last minute buy from Primark, Stuffy and the Doc McStuffins Eye Doctor Set mainly because her main gift wouldn’t fit into her Santa sack but also because she had been extra good this year. Then she opened her stocking gifts which were also brought by Santa Claus.. it included pants, tights, socks, chocolates, a tsum tsum, a little Rapunzel lego set and some awesome Taylor Swift esq glasses! Then we moved onto her gifts from me. She mainly got books, a couple of dvds, clothes including some new cosplay style dresses along with the usual pjs, dressing gown and slippers, and of course a few toys. I bought her the Brave Bow & Arrow set, which I’m so impressed with, the detailing on it is beautiful! Lego, a tub and the Sleeping Beauty set. I also got her the Pop Up Olaf game and a Sleeping Beauty doll. I didn’t go over the top on toys because I knew my parents had..

At this point, we took a break so Little Miss could eat breakfast and I could tidy up a bit. In the meantime my parents arrived with my dad dressed as Santa Claus. This is one of my favourite traditions that has started since Little Miss and my nephew arrived. LM has always known it was her Grandad but for her, it makes it so much more special. It’s the one thing she asked to happen on Christmas day, well that and snow!

As Santa Claus my dad brought more gifts from him including her very first lightsaber (EEEEEE!) a BB-8 Top and some Disney Princess play-doh. My mum then got on the floor with LM and opened the presents under the tree which were all gifts from other people, including some from our friends in the US. She got more beautiful handmade dresses, books, more PJs, chocolate and a beautiful Wooden Tree House to go with the dolls house my sister got her last year. My parent’s had bought her half the Disney Store including the Frozen Fever dolls set, The Little Mermaid mini castle playset and some Disney Princess figures LM likes to take in the bath. They also got her pjs, slippers, books, clothes.. kinda matched what I bought really! What a lucky little girl! And I’m so blessed to have such wonderful parents.

After LM had finished opening her gifts and my parents had opened theirs, they headed home so I could get dressed. At 11:45 my sister collected us and we headed for my parents where we spent the rest of the day (and my photographs ended up getting a lot less frequent.

The kids each took some new gifts to play with to keep them busy at my parents and they also watched Big Hero 6 while my dad was at the pub and my sister, mum and I worked hard on the Christmas dinner. I made the starter and the dessert. My sister did the stuffing so we were all ready to sit down together at 1:30. This is the first year ever my mum has had a table we all fitted around. She used to have a breakfast bar meaning the kids had to sit separate at a plastic table, so this was basically a dream come true for my mum, she’s only waited 22 years for a new kitchen!

For starters I made the family favourite pear in parma ham with rocket, creamy goats cheese and balsamic glaze. Even Little Miss had some which I was shocked about.. she was a bit like Joey in Friends “Pear, good. Ham, good. Cheese, good” haha. For main we had turkey with trimmings. Which was delicious. My mum did so well for her first time cooking in a fan oven. For dessert I made mini Black Forest Gateaux in honour of my Granny. She loved Black Forest at Christmas but I knew a whole cake would be wasted as we’re always so full after the first two courses so I made bite size versions from scratch. We washed it all down with Prosecco and apple juice for the kids.

After dinner my mum and I took the kids around to my Nanny’s house. It’s her first year without my Grandpa and she had invited everyone to visit. It ended up being so nice to be with my aunts and cousins supporting my Nanny who despite the year she has had, seemed in good spirits. I’m so so proud to call her my Nanny.

Once we got home, my sister, mum and dad played Pie Face with the kids which was one of the funniest things I’ve ever witnessed. It’s actually the most ridiculous game ever. The kids wouldn’t even play properly for fear of being pied but it was definitely a life ambition to watch my sister and dad taking a pie to the face.

We stuck around at my parents until gone 6pm before my sister brought us home. I was exhausted and Little Miss even volunteered to go straight to bed! I took a hot bath before crawling into bed with all my Christmas presents I’d yet to open and a plate of turkey sandwiches, brie and crackers and a glass of wine. I’m glad I left all my presents (I say “all” but I didn’t have many) until the end of the day when I was starting to feel a bit flat and lonely. It perked me up seeing I had friends who cared and that my parents had bought me a few little gifts so I didn’t feel left out. I’ve said all along I didn’t care about gifts for myself anymore as I get so much please from seeing LM with hers, but I’ll admit it, it was still nice and I will be doing a post with my favourite things I received along with LM’s favourite things she received. So stay tuned.