After the last few years of having wild parties with friends and family around this year we decided we’d have a quiet one. This turned out to be a good idea with Emilie still recovering from an Ear infection, Josh being full of cold as well as us parents having the joys of said cold as well. It didn’t put a dampener on things though as we decided we’d have a bit of an extended film night and watched Coraline and G Force whilst eating New Years Eve treats from Tesco’s yummy but over-priced pick and choose what you want range!
After the films we sat down and played Pop Up Pirate and Buckaroo before the colouring books came out for the younger two and Dan played with Josh’s Indiana Jones Lego to while away the last hour or so of 2009.
Just before Midnight Dad went outside and setup the Fireworks, which this year consisted of 10 Rockets (one for each of the last ten years) and a monster rocket to celebrate the New Year with. We counted the New Year in and then started launching them all into the nights sky. They were actually really impressive; nice and loud and pretty too so a good choice there.
Everyone really enjoyed themselves but once they were done it was definately time for bed with the three very tired children as well as two very tired adults in need of some sleep.
It’s been a good 2009, 2010 will no doubt be even better still.
The house was strangely quiet this morning after the last couple of days of the kids being here and the quietness was broken with the sound of my phone ringing.
Strangely it was Josh (who never calls me, he is only 5 after all) who was ringing me to let me know how his Boxing Day party had been and to tell me what he was doing now which was playing with his Hot Wheels cars and playing on the Wii. It appears he found his Nana’s phone and decided he was going to ring me because “He wanted to talk to me as you’d said (me) that you can ring me whenever you want to”. Quiet a touching moment as he isn’t the most conversational on the phone at the best of times, was nice to hear his voice, shame it would be a few days till I saw him again!
Later in the day he rang me again to see what I was doing; which as it happened wasn’t a lot. I think he’d sneaked off with his mum’s phone this time as I heard her shouting for him in the background and got a hurried “Love you, Bye” before he went!
As you will know Christmas in our house is always a little different and this year was no exception. Dan & Em would be waking up on Christmas Day in Warrington and as usual Josh would, sadly, be in Wrexham.
Before going to bed on Christmas Eve Emilie did the honours and left Father Christmas a mince pie and a bottle of bulmers and put a bowl of milk and some carrots at the front door for Rudolph, she also wrote Father Christmas 2 letters one that she left by the mince pie and one that she left in her bedroom for him to find when he left her stocking presents at the end of her bed!
Dan & Em didnt wake up too early on Christmas Day infact it was 8am before they came into our room and declared that “Father Christmas has been and left us presents on our beds – can we open them?” A bleary eyed Mum & Dad sat up in bed and watched the 2 of them open their stocking presents. This was done in the usual record time.
Emilie then declared she was going downstairs to see if there were any presents in the lounge, by the noise that could be heard upstairs we guessed that there were, this was to be confimed a few minutes later by Emilie as she ran back intot he bedroom shouting “Father Christmas has been and left a massive pile of presents on the floor!”
We all got up then and made our way downstairs to see the massive pile of presents and true enough it was massive – and now for the unusual part instead of Dan & Em diving in and opening presents they simply said “we can’t wait until 5 when Josh gets here so that we can open our presents together.” Yes you did read that right, Dan & Em had decided that they didn’t want to open their Christmas presents without Josh and so they were going to wait until he arrived at 5pm – they can be nice sometimes!!
So we now had a few hours to kill before Dad, Dan & Em could leave to go and collect Josh from Wrexham, so we filled the time by doing some painting (Father Christmas had bought us some giraffes and mugs to paint, playing Lips on the x-box with Mum & Dad and eating a delicious Christmas lunch complete with sprouts!
Just after 3pm Dad, Dan & Em left to make the trip to Wrexham to collect Josh and Mum settled down on the sofa for a rest. Just before 5pm Dad, Dan, Em & Josh arrived home and then the madness began!
All 5 of us rushed into the lounge and the great resent opening began – as usual we were all spoilt and we all got lots of presents, so it took us quite a while to open them all.
Some of the more memorable looks of delight were generated on the opening of the following:
Daniel – iPod Touch
Joshua – Indiana Jones Temple of Doom Lego
Emilie – the discovery of a new desk in her bedroom
Mum – a platinum U2 disc signed by all the members of U2
Dad – all the A-team shows on DVD
The rest of the evening was spent playing with our new toys, including Dad who had a go on his new x-box game – Ride.
At about 11pm we decided we were all tired and so we retired to bed, happy but exhausted.
Today we only woke up at 9am and after quickly eating our breakfast we carried on from where we left off last night – playing!
Sadly Dan & Em had to leave at 12noon to go and see their Dad and see what Father Christmas had left for them at his house (we later discovered this was a phone & a new bike), this left Josh, Mum & Dad to build Josh’s new Indiana Jones lego sets. Dad built the Temple of Doom set and Josh & Mum built the other set – it didn’t take long so before Josh had to go back to Wrexham at 4pm he was able to spend a couple of hours playing with his new lego.
At 4pm Josh had to go and then it was just Mum, Dad & Holly left in a very quiet house!
We had a brilliant family Christmas even if it only lasted a few hours.
Thanks to all our family & friends who sent lots of presents for us with Father Christmas!!
Today as a big day for Daniel & Emilie as it was the day of their Christmas shows, but this year there was a big difference, instead of performing in the school hall they were performing on the bigger stage at The Parr Hall in Warrington!
Emilie’s show was the first show – Mum & Dad knew she was a shepherd in the show as Mum had had to source a shepherd costume at short notice. They didn’t realise that out of all the year 1, year 2 and year 3 pupils only about 20 of them had specific parts and the rest were in the choir – as usual Emilie had kept that quiet.
Emilie was a very good shepherd, and she performed her songs and shepher dances very well, she looked tiny on the big stage though!
After a short interval it was time for years 4, 5 and 6 to take to the stage – Daniel was in the choir for this show. The children all sang really well and it was a magical show. Grandad would have been proud of Dan’s performance of The Twelve Days of Christmas – perhaps one year they can do a duet!
Both the shows were magical – Well Done Daniel & Emilie.
This evening Mum & Dad have been to Wrexham to watch Josh take part in his in Christmas show. They were lucky enough to get front row seats but unfortunately they were sat on the right hand side of the stage and Josh was on the left – but he knew they were there as he saw them as he walked in!
Josh was in the choir so he sang lots of songs – the show was all in Welsh so Mum & Dad didn’t understand the words but becasue the show was the nativity they were able to follow what was going on. Mum came home singing “Blae mae babi” because it was a catchy tune, not becasue she knew what it meant!
Mum & Dad said Josh did really well in his show and they could see him singing all the songs with the rest of his class.
After the show they saw Josh and told him he was a star!
