We survived

Christmas 2010. I was wondering how it would all go, and overall I can say it went predominantly very well.

Christmas Eve we explained to the kids that we leave stockings out with our names on so that Santa can see who lives here, and that if you have been good then he leaves presents. They know the word Santa, and they know the word presents, and both are somewhat of a hit so it was all good. All the kids then snugly tucked up in bed before 7pm, same as usual, and then around 8pm santa started doing his stuff.

Although I don't think Santa went overboard, there were sufficient presents under the tree to make it quite obvious that "someone" had been, and when Lexi awoke in the morning, coming over to give me a cuddle (which she always does before doing anything else), I whispered in to her ear "do you think santa came?" to which she instantly leapt up screaming "SANTA" and ran to the tree with a grin from ear to ear, looking back towards me and back at the tree repeatedly.

Telling her she had to wait was the tricky part. Firstly Tabitha wasn't yet awake, and when we do things we do them as a family, so we had to wait for Tabitha. That was fine, Lexi agreed with that, grabbed a drink and sat on the sofa watching some quality programming on Nick Jr. Tabitha was up not too long after this, so I set her up with her bottle, she skulled that (as you do) and turned around to see the pile of presents under the tree. It was a tenuous little smile that followed, and she edged ever closer to the tree, turning around back and forth as Lexi had done.

And then I had to tell her to wait as well. Because even though the girls were up Mick was at work, so the present unwrapping had to wait until he came in. Theoretically I could have told them they could have opened the presents when they discovered them, but a huge part of the fun in Christmas is seeing the look on the kids faces as they open the presents, and Mick had every right to see that too, even though he had to (grrr on a mega level) work.

So Lexi and I decided that the best thing to do was keep ourselves occupied. Time to make the salad we were taking for lunch. Mango, avocado, bacon, sensational. And just as we were finishing up making that, Mick arrived and the timing was excellent.

First thing that was raided was the stockings. I say raided because no sooner had we said "let's see what is under the tree" Lexi had grabbed her stocking and started systematically removing the contents. We suggested to the girls that perhaps each of them sitting on their sofas may be the way to go. This of course had nothing to do with the fact that the contents of the stockings were almost entirely the same, save for variations - Lexi's finger puppet was Makka Pakka whereas Tabitha's was a Tombliboo and the like.

Tabith was quite intriguing to watch. She had removed her little finger puppet and seemed quite taken by him, until she removed a miniature chocolate bar. This little chocolate bar remained a permanent fixture in her hands for the next hour. The Mister Maker DVD was the only other item that peaked her interest, and those two items were stuck to her till we had to leave for lunch.

Lexi had shrieks of wow and oooooooh as she discovered more things in the stocking. Then it was on to the presents. Lexi ADORES opening presents. She opened all her presents, keeping an eye on what Tabitha was getting also. Santa chose to get the girls some things the same and some things different. Interesting choice Santa. Still, it is a lesson to be learned for the girls. Lexi is now learning that everything is not hers. When, later in the day, she was found opening Angus's presents she was told in no uncertain terms how naughty that was, and how they were Angus's presents, and how she is lucky that Santa doesn't come and take all her presents back. Mummy was ropable to put it mildly. I know she's 2.5 but it was Angus's first Christmas and I couldn't help being upset. Agh. There's always something.

Tabitha finally went down for a kip mid morning and we had to wake her in order to get her up in time to make lunch, which we were hideously late for, and arrived with everyone just finishing eating. Not ideal. I felt pretty ordinary about that and was quite close to just turning around and going back home because I didn't want to be a bother. But we were made to feel very welcome, and fought the driving rain to get the kids and bags into the house. I was saturated by the time I had made a few trips, literally dripping wet. Ah the joys of tropical weather.

So we all sat and had some lovely lunch. Lexi was as happy as Larry, anywhere food is Lexi is happy. Hollow legs. Must have. She could eat the same as a grown man and still ask for more. More? More pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeease. Tabitha stuck by my side. She is a little reserved in groups. She tends to shy away from people and just want to be with mum. This is widely accepted amongst our friends - they know that Tabitha is "precious" at times and know that she needs a little time to warm up to people. So when one of our friends approached her with the hat from a bon bon and put it on her head I knew it would end badly. As the hat, which wss quite obviously too large for a child's head, slowly slid down over Tabitha's eyes I could hear the whistle blowing and the temperature rising and the top about to blow....and by the time the hat had slid over her mouth and around her neck she had slid to the floor and was howling. Poor baby. So I removed the hat, picked her up and gave her the mummy cuddles she needed.

Lexi meanwhile was sitting at the table. Eating. Still. A full roast meal for lunch, then desert of jelly and ice cream. And then she spied the glass stocking full of M&M's, and someone else spied her spying them, so promptly upended the stocking to present Lexi with a veritable sea of M&M's and it was on. So my efforts to reduce the amount of M&M's that would make it to Lexi's stomach was to tell people how excellent Lexi's colour knowledge was and they could test it by asking her for a specific colour of M&M, which would then result in Lexi giving them the M&M they had requested, and that was one less M&M in her tummy. It worked for quite some time and the pile was reduced quite markedly, however she still ate more chocolate in that one half an hour period than she had eaten in the past 6 months combined. It's Christmas though, we can let these things slide.

Time ticked on, and with work beckoning Mick once again, and the knowledge of the car wreck that was our house post present opening still remained there to be cleaned, we bid the crowds our adieus and off we went.

Angus missed much of the Christmas hype. He chose yesterday to have a rather substantial growth spurt and so alternated between drinking absolutely enormous bottles and sleeping. As babies do. So he will be opening his Christmas presents today. Well, those ones that Lexi didn't get to anyway.....

I do love when there appears to be a "theme" with Christmas pressies.....this year it was a "cooking" kind of theme, receiving some lovely kitchen items which will be well used, including a new microwave (replacing the old one which I have had since 1997 and weighs the equivalent of a small adult) and a sensational cookbook. And my "secret santa" even inadvertently jumped on the theme bandwagon with a gift of a recipe folder (where you can put all your own recipes and clippings etc, brilliant idea). I did get a few other non cooking things, like a haircut voucher, which was much appreciated too.

And so the day ended, with all the kids in bed before 7, as per usual, and Mick and I polishing off the remaining mango, bacon and avocado salad from lunch with a perfectly cooked scotch fillet steak (if I do say so myself) and a gorgeous glass of 2004 red.

So today we will be taking down the tree, putting aside the Christmas things for another 350 odd days until it's time to do it all again, by which time we will have a 3 year old, a 2 year old and a 1 year old. The time it does just fly.