Christmas 2014

Christmas 2014 has been one of the best ever. Surprisingly Joshua and Brandon did not rise super early this morning despite them bouncing off of walls with excitement yesterday. Even more surprising was that Brandon was the first to awake at about 7:30 and promptly ran into his brothers room to wake him for the big day. In his haste to wake his brother he never even noticed the stocking Santa had left him on his bed. This was the first year that we have left a little stocking on the boys beds and it really worked well. Joshua was super excited when he saw the stocking and realised Santa had visited over night.

 

As usual we stayed disciplined and got all three kiddies dressed, washed, teeth and breakfast before they were allowed to open any presents. This also worked a treat as it is by far the quickest Brandon has eaten in a long time. Once breakfast was over the next 2-3 hours are a bit of a blur of chaos with toys and wrapping paper everywhere, boxes being opened, toys being played with, noise and so on. It was tough going trying to keep track on what the boys were opening, help them set up various toys and also keep Holly entertained with her presents. Myself and Tina barely had time to open our own presents and in fact between Joshua and Brandon I think they opened most of them as well!!!

 

It was absolutely lovely to be able to involve Holly more this Christmas and for her to be so much more aware. Last year she was just 1 month old and pretty much slept the entire day.

 

Joshua teaching his little Sister the finer art of tearing into Christmas wrapping paper.

Holly's first present of 2014. She does not look amused and is kind of looking at it as if to say "How the bloody hell do I eat plastic food?".

Brandon showing off his dinosaur helicopter that he has wanted for ages.

Our little scientist Joshua with his microscope set. I remember having something very similar when I was a boy.

Joshua with his infinity 2.0 set complete with Thor and Iron Man characters. One of the most used presents of the day.

One of Brandon's best presents is his VTECH Smart Watch. Its an amazing watch for teaching them the time plus it has built in touch screen, digital camera, games, count down timer, stop watch alarm, picture editor and so on. It is really cool and he hasn't stopped playing with it all day. He has recorded some songs on it, taken some Christmas pictures, used the countdown timer to clean his teeth and set his alarm for boxing day!

Brandon with his VTECH Smart watch.

Joshua didn't really want for much this year and the only thing he really asked for was a Flicker scooter. At first I said no as he has a normal scooter and an electric scooter. But since we had no other ideas for him then we decided to get it. This purchase was a bit of a risk as we couldn't get Brandon one as he already had two main presents, but we knew he would be jealous of Joshua's one and gutted that he didn't get one. The other dilemma we had was what size Flicker to get Brandon as Tina seemed to think he would be ok with the large green one we got for Joshua, however I felt he needed the medium sized blue one. So by buying Joshua the green one for Xmas we can let Brandon try it out and decide if it is the right size for him and then buy him one for his birthday.

Joshua opens his Flicker scooter.

Brandon's second favourite present was his karaoke machine, he is such a little performer.

Brandon busting out some tunes on his singing machine.

And it even has disco lights. I am sure this will get plenty of use on Boxing Day with the family coming around.

We didn't buy Holly too many presents as she has loads of toys and clothes plus her birthday has only just gone. However one toy we did get her was this little pink shopping trolley. What a great buy this turned out to be as she absolutely loves it and it is encouraging her to walk around as she pushes her toys around the living room. 

Holly pushing her toys around the living room in her new shopping trolley.

Joshua proudly shows his Flicker on a  glorious summer Christmas morning.

Learning to wiggle from side to side to propel himself along.

Joshua soon has the Flicker technique nailed, Brandon has not yet had a go.

And Holly is still pushing her toys around with a big grin on her face.

The trolley can also substitute as her first go-kart. She absolutely loved my pushing her around in it and spinning her from side to side.

At the end of a long day we all settle down at the table for our Christmas feast.

I have the pleasure in pulling the first cracker with Holly.

And here is Holly wearing her first ever Christmas cracker hat. This year she could also eat a chopped up Xmas dinner rather than blitzed up food.

So another Xmas draws to an end and after a few family games the kids are all in bed and ready to start all over again for Boxing Day (aka Wickmas).

As a final thought for the day, does anyone know if the tooth fairy works on Christmas Day and of so what the going rate for a tooth is???? Brandon has lost 3 teeth this year compared with Joshua's zero! But today Joshua complained about a loose tooth and promptly pulled it out himself. So after spending all last night doing the Santa/Elf roles, tonight I am back to being a tooth fairy.