A Magical Christmas

We had the loveliest Christmas I can remember. Semi-miraculously, we were all fit and well for the day itself, which had been touch and go. I know some others weren't so lucky and had a very poorly Christmas, so we do feel fortunate.

Emily woke up at 4.15 and came bounding into our room, stocking in tow. I'd only been asleep for an hour, and Jon not much more, lol. We'd had to shut the kittens out of the sitting room where they normally sleep, lest they rip the paper off Emily's pressies before she even got there, so they were running amok in our bedroom all night. Constantly on and off the bed, fighting, miaowing, climbing things, that lovely claws in carpet sound as they ran at top speed around the room for hours. What fun. So we managed to persuade Emily to go back to sleep in our bed for an hour, before the Grand Stocking Opening at 5.30. Emily declared it the best stocked stuffing ever and was delighted with all sorts of bits and bobs. We headed downstairs for a candelit breakfast before coming back upstairs to Emily's main presents from us under our tree.





She was delighted with everything and unfeasibly thrilled with anything connected to Harry Potter, lol. Emily was very lucky this year and enjoyed tons of presents, including her favourite, a Barbie plane/boat thingy.

Eventually, after I'd fallen asleep (!) we went downstairs to see Nana, Gramps and Grandad. Nana and Gramps had packed all Emily's presents into a huge straw filled box, nearly as big as she is. She thought it was sooooo much fun delving into the straw to find things. The downstairs sitting room looked like a stable by the time she'd finished! The kittens appreciated the straw too!





We had a wonderful Christmas dinner expertly cooked as ever by Jon. We always save one present to give to Emily after she's finished her dinner while everyone else is still eating - this year it was 30 handmade Barbie dresses which I found remarkably cheaply on ebay. I'd tissue wrapped each one and put them in a huge box full of polystyrene beans. Emily was thrilled to bits with them :-))

After Christmas dinner we grown ups opened our presents, including the ones Emily had chosen for me and Daddy, which were gorgeous, and ours to and from our parents. We were all thoroughly spoilt :-) In the evening we watched the Miss Potter DVD about Beatrix Potter, which was pleasant. Emily wanted to play party games, so we all stayed up very late playing "what am I?" with the secretly selected object drawn and sellotaped to our backs, and 20 questions to try to find out what it was. About five rounds later we'd progressed to such esoteric "objects" as Cinderella's Glass Slipper and Imagination. Was extremely impressed with Emily's intelligent lines of questioning!!

Boxing Day was very peaceful and relaxed, although Jon was poorly by then :-( having looked after us all the day before and done all the cooking, washing up, sandwich making, drinks fetching and generally spoiling us rotten. We played with some of Emily's new "stuff", watched Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark together and had more family games in the evening, this time playing "coffee pot" and "in the manner of" - much fun. Emily loves it when we all spend time together. Guess we obviously don't do enough of it during the year, but then what family ever does?

Yesterday and today have also been good fun, with lots more of Emily's "stuff" being delved into. She and I put henna designs on each other's feet and various tattoos in other places, as well as moulding and painting some Harry Potter figures, investigating a making paper kit and watching the Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix DVD with my Mum and Dad. Emily and Jon tried out a new drawing tool Grandad bought for Emily, Emily plastered her room with Harry Potter posters, did scratch art and all kinds of other bits and bobs. We also watched the Ballet Shoes dramatisation that had been on on Boxing Day, with Emma Watson in it (she will always be known by my daughter as Hermy, no matter what she does with the rest of her life, lol). Today we've been on a bit of a manic tidy up trying to find homes for the one hundred and one new and thus far homeless items. Clever Gramps has been making a brand new box for a beautiful 200 piece mineral/rock collection Emily had for Christmas.

So, it was a lovely time all round. Very good humoured, festive and family focused. We'll be having another family celebration on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day and then of course the day after that there's the small matter of Emily's 9th birthday to attend to - only four days to go now!