Merry Christmas

When I was little I believed wholeheartedly that real magic happened at Christmas.

 Actual fairy dust sprinkling magic that remained hidden the rest of the year. The night before Christmas I would spin around and around in my room until I fell over dizzy. Mainly because there was so much excitement bubbling up inside me that I literally did not know what to do with myself. I believed in Santa an embarrassingly long time. My face pressed against the glass of my bedroom window trying to catch a glimpse of the big man and his reindeer. Now I'm in my 30s I obviously know better. That, plus the fact that my mum once used the same wrapping paper for her gifts, tipped me off...
    When it comes to Christmas I've never completely lost that feeling. And now I have two little ones I'm reliving my childlike over-excitement. Isaac now four (as he likes to repeatedly remind everyone) got Christmas in a big way this year. Rather than 'wow this is cool' on Christmas day, he's been bubbling with anticipation since the Ist of December. He has never looked forward to anything as much as this Christmas. As for Santa bringing presents he is beside himself with excitement. There is a small part of me that is like 'really?! You're completely down with some funny looking stranger sneaking into your room in the night? You believe he manages to break in make it into very house in the entire world in just one night no question!?' Then I picture my small self spinning around until I fall and I'm like 'Hell yes! it's magic!' The other night I even caught myself scanning the skies for a flying sleigh...
    I like science. I like logic. I like truth based on fact. But there will always room in my heart for a little imagination, A little shall we say 'make believe'...

    Christmas Eve was a creative one this year. Starting with beautifully made pancakes...

   Then moving onto to some of this...

Watching Santa Clause the Movie obviously...

    Making Cookies for Santa...

    Check out awesome Pirate apron birthday present... 

    Yum.
Then we went to a Christmas Eve service at the village Church. Always a guaranteed feeling Christmassy maker...

    A walk though the village enjoying the Christmas lights...

    Putting out a little something for Santa and his reindeer...

Then off to sleep so the magic can happen...
    Let me just break you out of all this 'magic' to tell you how the night actually went. 2am Isaac woke up coughing (we've all had colds for a week now. I cant tell you how fun that has been in the run up to Christmas). Upon realising Santa had already been, he started singing 'Santa Clause is coming to town...' at the top of his voice. Impressed he hadn't ripped open his gifts we gently informed him that it was still the middle of the night. So he should really try and get some more sleep. Needless to say he sang until 5am. 5 Freaking A. M. Just as we had all fallen back to sleep our neighbors set off fireworks at 6am. What the...?! Who does that?! I was ready to commit murder, Christmas morning or not...
    Okay back to the magic. Blurry-eyed we opened our stockings which were of course awesome. Much cheered we raced downstairs to open all the presents under the tree as fast as humanly as possibly.

    Within seconds our living room looked like this...

    You may have noticed our affinity with the plaid PJ's. We heart them.
    Later in the morning Nana and Grampy arrived which means more fun stuff...

    Out comes the Mince pies and Mulled wine. Isaac dressed for the day...

If you are wondering where Lucas was he had to nap after the night of never-ending singing. Isaac somehow kept on going...
Tim rocked cooking wise this year. He nailed the Turkey, so to speak...

   I ate so much it hurt...

   I wasn't the only one...

   Then Christmas movies in the afternoon...

    An absolute classic...

Happy Christmas everyone...

I hope you had a little sprinkle of magic this Christmas...

4th Birthday...

On Saturday my firstborn turned 4! Everyday since his actual birthday he keeps saying 'am I still 4?' as if he's going to loose it somewhere. If he takes after me in anyway he probably will. He is way excited. And just like me he likes his birthday to last a whole weekend, a week if possible.
So that's what we did...
 It started on Saturday morning where we opened presents. We got Isaac a much requested kitchen as (and I quote) when he grows up he would rather be just like Daddy than a super hero. My regular readers will now that daddy is amazing at cooking.

As you can see little brother was equally overjoyed by present. Since it was a special occasion Isaac was allowed a chocolate cereal. Which was seen as the ultimate treat. Obviously I had a bowl myself. And when I say a bowl I mean three bowlfuls...

Obligatory balloon mess around...

Then Tim's family came over for a birthday meal. Which meant more cuddles with newest cousin...

a cake from Grandma...    

more presents...

Oh and a particularly exciting present was given from Grandparents...

Don't be fooled by this shot. It looks like he is riding forward but Isaac is having trouble with the whole peddling thing at this moment and keeps peddling backwards.

Which is why we aren't going forwards...

 There we go...

 On Sunday we did it all over again for my Parents...
Which meant more presents including his first ever digital camera...

Uh oh I think I've got some competition...

So here we have it, Isaac's first ever photoshoot. The boy's got talent...

Then on Monday (yep still dragging out the fun) he had a party with preschool friends at a soft play place...

 Which means another cake and even more presents!

More presents that he spent all day Tuesday playing with...

Btw I'm totally stealing this present when he's not looking...

Although he's keeping it real close...

So basically the downside of dragging out the birthday fun is that Isaac is now convinced that everyday until Christmas day is his birthday. *sigh* Anybody got some mummy energy I could borrow?...

First frost

I've been waiting not so patiently for this...

Lucas loved the frost...