Deck the halls with bells of holly…
There had been a lot of build up to our first Christmas as a family unit and thankfully, it lived up to and surpassed our expectations.
We are lucky to have four facets to our immediate family which means Christmas is always a hectic time and inevitably there are always a few people we can’t see over the break but look forward to catching up with soon (Pa Chris & Kaye, Nanna Freddy & Poppy Mick). But as wonderful as it was catching up with everyone, our favourite part of Christmas was early in the morning with just the three of us. Of course it was probably earlier than we might have liked, but it was an absolute joy to sit down with Ollie and let him rip into his pressies – as well as ours. In our almost one decade together, Nick and I had never had so many presents under our tree. Last year we didn’t even manage to put any decorations on the tree (I’d like to think it was because I was too pregnant to care) but it certainly puts a different spin on it when you have a little person to share it with.
I’d hope we didn’t go overboard with pressies but the best present of all was turning one of our spare rooms into a playroom for Ollie. Nick came up with the idea of a room that was completely Ollie proof (no electrical devices or furniture) and once the idea had been planted I was onboard and up late on Christmas Eve desperately sewing cushion covers. The room also held Ollie’s big pressie – his climbing frame – so now it is a total Ollie paradise. We are spending heaps of time in there, with Nick and I kicking back reading books while Obear plays with all his Christmas presents and intermittently clambers over us like the wiggly little boy that he is. I just wish we’d thought of it months ago.
Mid-morning we headed over to Nanna Carmel and Poppy Rob’s place for the big Christmas day. Ollie was definitely the star attraction amongst his Aunty Em, Hayley and Uncles Luke and Simon, despite his cranky mood. He was ridiculously spoilt by everyone with WAY too many presents, and had a great time playing with them all throughout the day.
Like most people, Christmas lunch was a feast of epic proportions with turkey, ham and roast pork gracing the table (there were also prawns but they may have been left in the oven for too long and therefore never lived out their Christmas destiny to end up in my stomach). Ollie had his first taste of turkey and loved sitting at the table along with everyone else and smiled and giggled his way through lunch (despite narrowly avoiding a Christmas bon bon novelty of a bag of marbles nearly hitting him in the eye). After lunch he joined the rest of us in the pool and impressed his aunties and uncles with his silky swimming skills that have been honed over the last few months of lessons.
Boxing day saw round two of Christmas – this time at our place with Grandpa Peter and Uncle Guy & Aunty Alicia.
Since everyone was well and truly turkeyed out we thought a good old fashioned BBQ was in order, followed by a post-lunch crash on the couch watching the Boxing day test. Ollie loved showing Aunty Alicia his playroom and Nick took similar delight in cracking out his new Christmas esky and filling it with not one, but two cartons of beer. Obear received a beautiful wooden set of skittles that he thinks is wonderful to chew on, as well as a picture book about items of clothing that Aunty Alicia thinks is his first introduction to “fashion”.
We hope everyone’s Christmas was filled with as much love and laughter as ours. The break is not long enough to share with everyone we care about so we look forward to catching up in the near future.
The only downside to Christmas being over (apart from the rapidly approaching return to work for me) is that it is no longer acceptable for me to continually play Patsy Biscoe’s Christmas album. This being the same album we had on high rotation as kids. I thought Ollie justified it’s purchase and I have thoroughly enjoyed singing along to it (badly) for the last 6 weeks. My personal favourite is “I want a hippopotamus for christmas”. Nick thought I was mad when I picked him up from the station on the first day and recanted the lyrics all the way home. But he, like our neighbours, have gotten used to it. Perhaps there is an Easter CD that I should be keeping my eyes out for?
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