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2006-12-30 - 9.48pm previous entry next entry
Christmas Day 2006!!!
At last, a moment to write the entry about our Christmas! Matthew's first Christmas, and Arthur's THIRD - although his first Christmas Day looked like this...
... because we were all poorly with horrible flu and so I don't really like to count that year's Christmas as something that existed!
Here is a photo of Arthur on his second Christmas Day (the first REAL one), at 13 months old, very serious about opening a present!...
And THIS Christmas Day, at age 2, yet again terribly serious about opening presents, hehe:
We had such a LOVELY Christmas!!! I sort of half expected to feel a bit flat and like it wasn't really Christmas as such, or at least not Christmas as I had always known it, because we wouldn't be seeing any family, just staying at home on our own. But it was so surprisingly wonderful that I hope ALL our future Christmasses as a family might be like this one! I was surprised at how right it felt to just be us four at home on our own, with the whole focus on the little ones. It's how Christmas should be, or at least that's how it feels to me. On Boxing Day (the next day), we drove to Neil's sister's house about an hour away, and the rest of his family were already there visiting, so we got to do the whole "Christmas thing" with one entire side of the family! It felt fine to be doing that on Boxing Day, because Boxing Day is part of Christmas, like it's the second day of Christmas or something. It's how I remember it from my childhood. We did sometimes have one side of the family, either my mum's or my dad's, to Christmas lunch and they'd stay the rest of the day till near our bedtime. But not always. And Boxing Day was always a day that we'd go and visit family. It was so nice that way. We never had to be anywhere but our own beds on Christmas morning, with Father Christmas having been to our own home to deliver our presents, and for me that felt important. We got to enjoy Christmas Day at home with a few close family every year. Boxing Day was a welcome change and still felt like a continuation of Christmas, because we got out of the house after a day inside playing with presents (good for us kids!) and we got to see the rest of the family that day. It seemed perfect to me. We had our first Christmas away from home when I was 11 and we stayed with my grandparents. It was nice, but it did not give me that authentic Christmas feeling on Christmas morning. It was the first year that I felt like it was more of a grown-up Christmas. At home I could hang on to the magic of it all just because that's where it always happened in the same way every year.
Anyway! I digress! So basically it worked out perfectly. I realised for the first time that we are truly our own all-grown-up family unit, separate from the rest of the family now. We have children of our own and THEY are getting to be the ones who enjoy Christmas with their mummy and daddy and then see the extended family on Boxing Day. I feel so content about that! I felt no need whatsoever to see family during Christmas Day, nothing like I had expected. I phoned my parents in the afternoon to say Happy Christmas to everyone there (my grandparents were staying with them over Christmas) and I missed them then, but it still felt right that we were just us four at home for Christmas. I think we're going to try and do everything we can to safeguard that for our kids every Christmas. I think it's important for the kids to have Christmas Day at home, well, more specifically Christmas morning when they wake. We are really hoping that one day we'll have a big enough home so that we can invite family to stay with us over Christmas. Mummy says that's going to be HARD work at Christmas, with little ones to look after as well (she has been there!), but I still feel like that would be the ultimate perfect family Christmas, for me. To have my little ones under our own roof for Christmas, in their own home to open presents, and still have family around without having to travel and visit. Anyway. I hope we can afford that before our kids are all grown up!
So it was lovely! It started early, as every morning with our boys does! Arthur woke at about 6.20am, very normal for him, and we took him downstairs. It was pitch black still so we sat on the sofa while Neil put the light on. Right in front of the sofa was the little table with Father Christmas's snack on it! I said, "Oh LOOK! Father Christmas must have eaten his cookie! And LOOK! Father Christmas's juice is all gone! Do you think he drank it?!" Arthur got interested and went over to examine the plate. He noticed the stump of carrot and we decided the reindeer must have eaten that. Then I asked him if he thought it meant that Father Christmas had been in the night and left him some presents. He looked up at me like he couldn't believe what I was suggesting, hehe! He looked astonished, for some reason. I suggested he look and see if there were any presents (they were RIGHT next to me but he was so sleepy and focused on the table that he hadn't even noticed them yet!), and he went and stood in front of them with huuuuge eyes, breathing, "Wowwwww! Look dat!" :)
He opened a present or two and then Matthew woke so I brought him down. After that he just piled into them and we helped/watched. Matthew was extremely interested, as ever - he is the most INTERESTED baby I have known yet! No wonder he's so frustrated that his body isn't ready to propel him and manipulate objects and stuff like he soooo wants to all the time! It drives him crazy.
Here are various present-opening moments (note dark dark middle-of-the-night-ness and tired parents!):
Arthur got soooo much stuff! He got lots and lots of Thomas the Tank related things. I had decided to search out a lot of different things that were Thomas-based, because I knew he'd love them more than anything else. I did most of my shopping on eBay. I heart that place! Arthur got a Thomas the Tank outfit which he wore on Boxing Day. It has a little padded waistcoat thingy and he looks so sweet in it! �34 new, �3 used once from eBay - I kid you not. It's like new. Arthur loves it. I wish I had a photo of him wearing it, but I think the only pics I have were after he took the waistcoat part off when we were indoors on Boxing Day. I'll post Boxing Day photos in another entry. There will be waaaaaaaay too many photos otherwise! I spent today and yesterday uploading video clips and resizing photos from Christmas and since then, and I do not jest - I resized almost 100 photos and 21 video clips!!!!!! Yikes. So I need to make a few entries over the next day or two to catch up with those, and I'll try to thin them out for my diary but it's hard. I took toooo many!
I am beginning to really dislike YouTube. The video clips have the same naff delay on the sound (you see the mouths moving but hear the voices a couple of seconds later, tsk). So far it has been 6 hours since I uploaded my videos and some of them still don't display - they say they are still processing. That really bugs me! I can't post them in my diary till they've got their arses in gear to sort my videos out. Also they are taking FOREVER to load this evening. I just tried to watch a 1 minute, 34 second video clip of Arthur to see what it came out like at YouTube, and it has taken 10 minutes to load and I'm still waiting for it to finish. I'd rather host my stuff somewhere else but I'm not sure where. Also I hate that I have to make my videos "public" at YouTube in order to post them here. Anyone can view them there, and it creeps me out to see that a couple of them have already had 6 or 7 viewings before I've even posted them anywhere yet. I mean, I put my stuff "out there" by posting it here, but I don't really want to be any more public than this. I don't want huge communities finding my video clips of my kids and rating them or stuff. I just don't like the idea. Anyway. For now it's YouTube. I hope to find somewhere better soon.
Arthur got some jigsaws (some were Thomas the Tank Engine - 2, 3, 4, and 5 piece jigsaws which he put together much quicker than I had expected!):
He got a Thomas the Tank Engine audio CD with stories and singing and stuff on it - that has already proved absolutely invaluable on car journeys, as he sits fairly quietly and listens to them for a long time, chatting away to himself about the stories or singing a bit (he's finally started SINGING, hooray - I thought he'd never do it! He does not hold a tune yet though!). It turned out to be a great present for him:
He also got Thomas the Tank Engine stickers (and some other stickers) - also from good old eBay. Arthur LOVES stickers and has had lots of fun with these ones already. They have been stuck, peeled and re-stuck so many times that they are pretty much losing their stick-y now!
He got some books - this one is from Lois (thank you Lois!!) and he loves it. It has vehicles in it. Perfect for Arthur!
Arthur got some playdough (from Nana and Grandy), which got ground into the carpet waaay too quickly as we didn't have enough eyes in the backs of our heads! Matthew also liked the pots of playdough a lot:
Matthew got fewer presents than Arthur, obviously! He got a couple of lovely shape-sorters:
Matthew mostly loved shiny crackly wrapping paper, and it worked well because Arthur liked to actually unwrap and examine the presents while Matthew was content to just scrunch and shake the paper! Here's a short clip of Arthur helping to open Matthew's present from Lois (thank you again Lois!!) - a sweet little top with cars on the front! Matthew just loved the paper!
Arthur got various vehicles, including a Postman Pat van (he loves Postman Pat) from Millie, who is an online friend of mine who doesn't read here. Here's a little clip of Arthur opening the present from Millie - I love how he spontaneously says, "Oh yes please!" and "Aaan-goh Millie" (thank you) but hate how the sound isn't in sync for it. Tsk.
He also got a wooden bus-type-thing from Nana and Grandy (which he has had SO much fun with already)...
... and a huge rescue helicopter playset from Uncle Ian (Neil's brother):
And a box of 20 Matchbox cars, which he was super-thrilled to open and find:
But his BEST present by far was the one I have been buying excitedly for a few weeks at eBay - a huge collection of Thomas the Tank engines from the My First Thomas range. There are SO many different types of Thomas the Tank train sets out there! But I chose the one tailored for the youngest children (12 months +) because they are going to be the most hard-wearing, they are a good size for little hands, colourful and cheerful, and safe for little ones to shove in their mouths. Also Matthew can get his little mitts on them all he likes, which was an important consideration because he is SO interested in playing with Arthur's toys, and I know he's only 6 months old but I swear this boy already has a particular liking for Thomas the Tank Engine. The theme music calms him if he's fussing like crazy, and he always looks up from where he is on the floor, when I put Arthur's Thomas DVD on the TV, and smiles. He actually watches it for like 10 seconds at a time, with an expression like he likes what he's watching, which is surely crazy for a 6-month-old! Anyway, so I knew I needed a suitable Thomas set for 2 very small boys!
My First Thomas sets come in two styles - an oval track with a level crossing and a big station house, or a circular track with no extras. The engines are bought individually and are not exactly cheap, at �5 - �10 each. I won a set at eBay consisting of 29 of the most popular engines and carriages, the circular track AND the oval track and extras, for THIRTY-ONE QUID including postage!!!!!!!! Woo-hoo! The guy who sold it to me said his little boy loved it and that it cost like �300 in total or something craaaaazy like that. It's in great condition and I am just soooo thrilled. The set was missing a few engines that I know Arthur likes from the two DVDs that he's got, so I searched those out and bought them individually at eBay - about 8 more I think. So he has a huuuuge set now! We put them all in a big box and wrapped it up just like that, so that when he opened it, it would just be like this ENORMOUS boxful of his favourite things ever! :) We put it at the back of the presents and he opened it last out of all the floor presents. He was so excited getting the trains out that he actually went the opposite way to his norm - he went quiet and pale and actually SHOOK when he was lifting out Gordon (his favourite) and fixing his tender to him. We could see he was just so thrilled, and that was the loveliest thing for us. He has played non-stop with his Thomas set since Christmas Day. We put the track together for him and he started to put some trains on it and push them round. At one point, he sat back and suddenly said, "Fan-kah-gick!" and then said it again, and I didn't know what he was saying until I suddenly twigged that it was, "Fantastic!" hehe! He has never said that before, so I guess he was VERY pleased with his Thomas set :) I took a video clip of him playing with his Thomas set as we were putting it together, and I caught him saying the "fantastic" bit at the beginning:
The last present that Arthur opened, in the toe of his stocking, was a little fluffy duck with a pouch for a belly. My mum once gave it to me one Easter, filled with chocolate eggs, and I kept it because I thought how it might be useful as a gift for a child of my own one day! Sure enough, it seemed perfect for filling with Arthur's favourite treat - yoghurt-covered raisins. The only thing Arthur loves more than yoghurt-covered raisins is breast milk. If I can't nurse him when he is asking to nurse, he will usually cry a bit and then ask for his raisins in a pitiful voice! We once discovered, though, that a wonderful treat for Arthur is chocolate-covered raisins. He never really gets actual sweets or chocolates to eat. There's no need for very young kids to eat crap like that and as far as treats go, he is over-the-moon to get sweet things like the yog-covered raisins, etc. So we decided to treat him to a duck-full of a mixture of yoghurt- and chocolate-covered raisins! Here he is discovering it (with his Thomas audio CD playing in the background!):
I got a LOT of chocolate :) And a Laura Ingalls Wilder book that I have wanted for yeeeears. And The Sims 2 Pets, yay! I also got money, which I think I might spend on some other Sims 2 extension packs :) Or maybe a pair of jeans and some cosy PJs? If I can find the clothes I want cheaply (ie marvellous eBay again!) then I can probably still buy some Sims 2 stuff. Yay! I got a few sweet little gifts from friends and just really enjoyed "my side" of Christmas. By far the nicest part for me was the presents for the little ones though. I love that part!
Neil drinks crazy quantities of tea these days and asked for a giant mug so that he doesn't keep having to refill a smaller mug (!!), so I found this (yes, eBay...):
He also got previously-requested sweet treats galore and money and a huge radio-controlled helicopter (!!!) from his brother, to match Arthur's smaller one! Men are such little boys at heart :) He was really excited about it, but I have no idea where he's going to fly it yet!
After all the presents were open, I started the Christmas lunch, which was roast chicken (we're too small for turkey and chicken is easy and yummy), roast parsnips, roast potatoes and various veg (broccoli, carrot, peas) and gravy. No stuffing or sauces or anything typically Christmassy, but I don't personally like those anyway so the meal was perfect for me! Neil takes stuffing if it's there, but he's happy without too. While we got things ready for lunch (which was amazingly ready for about noon, for the boys' sake, as they eat lunch really early compared with us!), I noticed that the little ones had gone unusually quiet, just playing with toys and stuff for a while. It was lovely! I took a little video clip:
Of course that didn't last long, hehe! The next clip shows Arthur having a slightly mad moment (he put an empty toy box on his head and ran about like a crazy thing, laughing every time it fell off!) - I wish I had taped more but I only thought to get the camcorder after he'd been at it a while. He then went in the kitchen and climbed on a toy (as he says, "climb!" when Neil goes in and discovers him!) and rattled some cutlery in some cups and glasses on the surface (PLEASE try not too let your eye fall on the state of our kitchen too much, ugh!) and sang the Bob the Builder theme, hehehe! He has only just started "singing". I was starting to wonder why he wasn't doing it, because other kids his age are singing and it's not like he isn't going to be musical so it baffled me somewhat! He suddenly started singing the other week, but he does not hold a tune at ALL! The first thing he ever sang randomly to himself was "Happy Birthday to you!" hehe! He sang that while he was waiting for Bennie and Sarah to come and visit us - he was watching at the window for them, and the last time he was doing that was at his birthday party :) He has been singing Happy Birthday a lot lately. He also loves to sing the Thomas the Tank theme, and he surprised me by knowing all the words when I prompted him! He likes the "bridge" bit best, where they sing about each engine in turn ("Thomas, he's the cheeky one... etc.") and he knows all the words to that. He sings with such a shy smile that it's hard to hear him. He has always seemed shy about singing so far, as though the shyness was the thing stopping him from doing it before now. Strange, for Arthur anyway! His very favourite line in the song is "Gor-non thun-nun daaan liiiiine!" (Gordon thunders down the line) :)
Anyway, he went in the kitchen and started "singing" Bob the Builder. Neil recognised it first - he's saying, "Bowb Budder, CAN FITSIT!" hehe :) He's so funny! Oh yes, the clip:
We finally shoved aside/cleaned the kitchen contents enough to have all four of us sitting at the kitchen table FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME for Christmas dinner!!! Matthew's highchair has this great up/down option that means he can sit right up to the table with us, and I really like that. He's so detached behind a tray set away from us when we eat, and he's the kind of baby that likes to join in, especially where food is concerned! Arthur was on his usual seat, his big-boy booster at the table. I love that seat! It has been a great buy. Allegedly it is also suitable for a baby Matthew's age, but I still like the multi-function highchair for him over getting another booster seat like Arthur's. Arthur loves his seat and he's been big enough to sit up at the table like a "beeb boy" for a good while now, so it has come in very handy. His own highchair has long been redundant and I can't WAIT to get rid of it somehow! It's just in the way now.
For Christmas dinner, Arthur was served some of the meal but he made noises at the back of his throat (ones that mean, "yuck!", the charmer!) and kept saying he didn't want it and he didn't like it, as we were serving. He did eat a few peas but then just wanted marmite on toast. I had expected as much so was quite happy to let him have that for Christmas dinner instead! It was just sooooooooo nice to have all four of us sitting at the table together, eating a FAMILY MEAL!!! It's soooo bad that we haven't done that before now. It's important for the boys, and for us as a family. It can only serve to improve Arthur's eating. So we'll try to do it more. It was so enjoyable! But a little difficult to organise in the first place. Worth it though!
Matthew ate a roast parsnip, which he chewed to smithereens and swallowed several pieces of, and had his first try of roast chicken! He LOVED it. He has yet to bat an eyelid at a new food, honestly. He is so completely different to Arthur! I handed him a chunk of roast chicken from my plate, about one inch by 3 inches, and he just went for it! He took a moment to get used to the new texture and then he swallowed some pieces and chewed the rest till he couldn't hold it any more.
We took photos, of course! Here's our Christmas dinner (again, PLEASE ignore hideous kitchen):
Matthew eats roast chicken!...
Arthur eats festive marmite on toast ;)
After lunch there were the usual naps for the boys, and Neil and I went to bed as well. We all slept for 1.5 hours which was WONDERFUL!!! The afternoon was a sort of toy-filled blur and I can't really remember what we did, but Arthur had a lovely time playing with his toys and played with Matthew a lot too. He was such a sweetie. He kept showing Ma-Ma his toys and "sare-ing" them :) He's lovely with Matthew. They played on the floor for a while before bedtime. I can sort of see it turning into a fun rough-and-tumble time as they get older, as they both seem to enjoy that kind of interaction, and they are both eager to do that kind of thing with each other. The only problem just now is that Arthur isn't great at remembering to be gentle enough with Matthew, and Matthew has a fascination with Arthur's hair and grabs hold and pulls if he gets the chance - poor Arthur! We have to be on hand to prise open tiny fists while Arthur lies as still as possible crying out, "Oh NO, oh DEAR!" and other such things! My funny boys :) They're a bit grainy, but here are some photos of them doing the above stuff, just before bedtime on Christmas Day:
I finally iced and marzipanned the Christmas cake - phew! I had left over icing so I made it thicker and added snowmen and snowballs to the top :) That is MY slice there! It was yummy.
The boys were in bed by 7pm - Matthew was asleep by 6.30pm in his cot. Just before I breastfed Arthur in his bed, I asked him what his favourite thing had been today. He answered in about 0.04 seconds, "Like pennits!!" (I liked presents!). We read the nativity story from his Toddler's Bible at bedtime and I explained not-that-well about why we celebrate Christmas and who baby Jesus is and so on. In the end the thing he seemed to most "get" was that Christmas was like celebrating Jesus' birthday, remembering the day he was born. Arthur wanted to sing Happy Birthday, so we did :) I sang, "Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear...." and looked at Arthur to fill in the gap. He whispered, "Aaahhh-yahhh?" (Arthur) and I had to remind him that it wasn't HIS birthday today! I asked him whose birthday we were singing about, and he said (fairly relunctantly, I thought!), "Gee-guz" and so we finished the song, and he clapped at the end and then settled down for some nice snuggly mama milk in bed :)
I love that boy.
So that was our first Christmas as our own little family unit - something we'll be making every effort to do every year from now on. People will have to visit us, or we could visit them if it's convenient to us (it's hard to travel with two little ones), but not on Christmas Day itself. Some other time over the holiday season. I want to guard our special family Christmas time. I am already excited about future Christmasses with our little boys! It's only going to get MORE exciting, because they'll be more and more into Christmas with each year that passes now. What fun!!
It's really late now, and this is a VERY long entry! I hope it hasn't been too much to read - I know there have probably been too many video clips to watch, but I wanted them all together in one entry for "Christmas" for my own records. Tomorrow I will write about Boxing Day, because we spent it with Neil's family and Arthur and Ella were very cute with each other :) So there will (of course) be plenty more photos and video clips with that entry! And I warn you - more to come after that too! I need to write another entry RIGHT after that one so that I can catch up with everything before it's 2007 and it all becomes "last year's news"!! I can't believe 2006 is almost over. I seem to have blinked and it's gone. But, more about that another entry. That's why I need to make another couple BEFORE New Year!
I hope everyone had a good Christmas - I have read a couple of diaries but STILL need to do my Major Diary Catch-up that I've been planning for so long. I miss ALL the diaries I haven't had chance to read for a while, though I have caught up a bit on one or two recently. Right now I have a hankering for some Camden-pie, so methinks that will be the next diary to catch up on :)
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