People always tell you that it's children who make a Christmas - something that I was always slightly dubious of, being the big kid at heart that I am! Since leaving home I have continued to deck out every available piece of house, mantelpiece and shelf space to full capacity with christmas decks, garlands and fairy lights and have fastidiously written my letter to Father Christmas each year and left out a glass of sherry, mince pie and carrot for Rudolph (and yes, I have also eaten a bit of same said pie, carrot and quaffed the sherry each Crimbo morning when I get up stupidly early, whilst the rest of the house is sleeping, before I silently stuff Chance's stocking with some pressies so that I can act all excited and surprised to him that Father Christmas has visited, eaten and left gifts!)
However, this year has been even more of a pleasure. And I know this feeling will just get better each year as Kezia grows to become excited about Christmas and come to understand what the strange weirdy beardy man in red is all about! This year she was mainly bemused by all the singing (for a change it wasn't just mummy singing at the shops) and all the lights
caught her attention readily enough - but did she realise it was Christmas? No, just like the LiveAid song, she didn't know it was Christmas time at all ... Nonetheless, she enjoyed her first Christmas day, as she had her bath and then got to be put back into her christmas day pyjamas which had been bought especially for the occassion!
She had so many toys it was untrue - although, in true baby style, it was the wrapping that caused the most glee until mummy had to quickly take it off of her for fear of a nappy filled with soggy, glittery paper!
She was thoroughly spoilt by all and sundry - as were Chance and I!
Boxing day bought a challenge of it's own as Kezia's temperature soared up to 40 degrees centigrade (over 100 degrees farenheit) and she spent pretty much the whole day wanting to be held by me and just sleep. A call to NHS Direct later and I felt armed with all the information I needed to take care of the little lamb. Thankfully the next day she was back to normal with the temperature - just incredibly snotty and had a terrible cough. We could tell she wasn't feeling quite like her usual noddly self so we didn't dare take her out of the house and into the cold until the Wednesday after Christmas.
When we did take her out we took her to the snowdome so that Chance could have a snowboarding session - what a huge mistake that was! I realise a time will come when I will look forward to school holidays, but that time is not yet upon me!
The city centre was, quite literally, crammed. It took me 45 mins of driving round the car parks to find a space and when we got in there it was full of children of all ages running round. Nightmare! chuckle.
So Chance did his snowboarding sess and then we watched a full size puppet polar bear - which was amazing
It was all about highlighting the plight of the polar bear and the need to preserve the ice caps - but I think the children were mostly interested in the puppet. It did give the opportunity for Chance to show his comedic streak however, as the pretend keeper asked the children "Why don't polar bears eat penguins?" I heard a voice, which I recognised as belonging to best beloved, cry out "Because they can't get the wrappers off" but thankfully no one else seemed to hear - or they did a very job in ignoring him! Turns out that polar bears don't eat penguins becuase polar bears live in the north pole and the penguins live in the south pole - or is it the other way round?! As you can tell, I was
really paying attention!
A few Christmas pics:
caught her attention readily enough - but did she realise it was Christmas? No, just like the LiveAid song, she didn't know it was Christmas time at all ... Nonetheless, she enjoyed her first Christmas day, as she had her bath and then got to be put back into her christmas day pyjamas which had been bought especially for the occassion!
It was all about highlighting the plight of the polar bear and the need to preserve the ice caps - but I think the children were mostly interested in the puppet. It did give the opportunity for Chance to show his comedic streak however, as the pretend keeper asked the children "Why don't polar bears eat penguins?" I heard a voice, which I recognised as belonging to best beloved, cry out "Because they can't get the wrappers off" but thankfully no one else seemed to hear - or they did a very job in ignoring him! Turns out that polar bears don't eat penguins becuase polar bears live in the north pole and the penguins live in the south pole - or is it the other way round?! As you can tell, I was really paying attention!
As we all know, it started with Kezia's christening - the only child I know who was christened holding her sparkly slipper! It was a lovely day and we had about 40 people in total attend - so our lil house was pretty chocca!
nd grandpa's 90th birthday celebrations this month. And it was really lovely to have a reunion with the Gill and Hall factions of the family. They are such a cool and dignified group of people - as was evidenced by the photo that pops managed to get at the end of the day of two of his cousins asleep on the sofa with their little mouths wide open and snoring gently. How very ladylike! chuckle.
We all had a lovely meal in a local hotel and Kezia wore her best party
dress and Christmas party hat - and when the crackers were pulled she was adorned with the hairclip that came in her cracker (although truth be told, I'm not too sure she was that impressed!).jpg)
ance was at home and we rushed Kezia outside to give her the opportunity to meet her first snowflakes. As per usual for our gal she revelled in the moment and just seemed to enjoy the time with her parents acting like idiots and squealing!
to do our shopping. I had the bright idea the Wednesday before Christmas (day before Christmas eve) that I should go and visit the old folk in woburn sands and newport pagnell, so merrily got the car out of it's snowed in position 
on Church Avenue and felt rather proud of myself, especially as I am known for being particularly rubbish at driving in snow! But, my confidence peeked too soon and I was soon completely stuck on solid street ice at the bottom end of Church Avenue. No rocking or anything could get the car off of the ice and even resorting to using a small improvised shovel to chip the ice away from under and from behind the wheels still didn't allow me to move. So I had to phone mamma and pops to come and help me push it out! Talk about a drama! chuckle. Still, I got there in the end and decided to visit just the relatives who live in Woburn Sands - A good choice as it turned out because it started snowing again before I left at 5pm