Wickmas 2018

On Boxing day we celebrated our annual Wickmas which has always been a tradition for my Mum's side of the family. Over the years the family has evolved with some members unfortunately leaving us for a better place and new members coming along to start their life journey. This year Boxing day just didn't quite feel right for some reason despite this being baby Rory's first Xmas and maybe that is because we no longer have Mum, Slim and Paul with us. I think we tried our best for the day and couldn't have done anymore as it is pretty tough hosting everyone the day after Xmas when you have 3 kids of your own. Anyway fortunately the second half of Boxing day did seem to go a lot better (but maybe that was just my perception as I got increasingly very drunk!).

Anyway as usual we had all our normal festivities including the present opening, Lisa's Xmas quiz, the giant cracker pull plus lots of silly games. There was plenty of food and drink for everyone and one or two of us were definitely a little merry by the end of the day. This is also the first year we have let Holly stay up until the very end (along with both boys) and I think we paid for it the day after as she was one tired little girl.

Anyway here are just a few pictures from the day.

All the family crammed in to our living room and ready to dive in to their sack of presents.

Love this picture of Holly's giving Elf Rory a cuddle.

Amy and Brandon in deep conversation whilst Tina tucks in to a present.

Auntie Lea's turn to open a present.

Holly tearing in to one of her presents. She was very patient and did wait her turn to open her presents.

Naughty Nicky wrapped up this empty box for me! But she redeemed herself by getting me and Amazon Firestick which is really cool.

I think Holly was happy with her unicorn garden.

After the presents we played a few games including Googly Eyes.

Holly with the Googly Eyes glasses on and drawing her picture.

This game was really good fun, called Yeti on the Spaghetti. Holly was a master at this.

More Yeti on the spaghetti.

All that hard work, but the cracker eventually has to be destroyed every year.

Joshua positioning himself underneath to catch the presents.

3-2-1 pull.

Nicky's Xmas tree pinata provided loads of fun. Holly loved helping to fill it up before smashing 7 bags out of it with a rolling pin.

The strings didn't reveal all the sweets inside, so we resorted to old school bashing with a rolling pin.

Joshua taking his turn.

The strings didn't quite work.

Brandon taking a swipe with the rolling pin.

Eventually the pinata bursts open and the frenzy for goodies begins.

To calm things down a bit, some therapeutic colouring thanks to Auntie Nicky.

Not sure what to say about this picture!

Hippy Holly.

One to show Joshua's friends in years to come.

Holly completed the stickers on the colouring sheet and then stuck the remains on her face!

These stickers were supposed to be to make snow men on the cups.

Instead they were used on Holly's face.

But we did manage to decorate a couple of cups.

Here was my effort.

Holly and Auntie Lisa playing with the Xmas props.

And again. What is with that mouth Holly?

Joshua sporting one of his new Fortnite t-shirts and opening some presents.

Of course Pie Face Canon came out, but I only managed to get one photo of Joshua getting Uncle David.

Holly playing reindeer antler hoops with her Daddy.

Christmas 2018

Christmas 2018 has been and gone and was completely amazing. I have never seen the kids so excited about Christmas before. Holly was an absolute nightmare to get to bed and kept asking how long before Santa comes, and as for the boys, well we went to be at gone midnight and they were both still wide awake and couldn't sleep as they had butterflies of excitement in their stomach. According to Josh, he reckons it was gone 2am before he finally went to sleep.

Christmas morning wasn't ridiculously early as all the kids were tired where they went to sleep so late. So I think it was around 7am when we eventually got up. I had prepared some pictures of Santa in our living room delivering presents from the night before and showed them to Holly before we let the kids downstairs to see the presents. She was really excited to see the Guinness, mince pie, carrot and milk had all gone.

The presents were all ripped open within about 30 mins. Holly didn't really have a main present as such this year as she has just had her dolls house for her birthday. So she had the biggest pile of presents by far and her main present was a Barbie camper van which she loves playing with. For Brandon we really struggled for a main present this year and ended up getting him the Fast and the Furious ANKI Overdrive racing track which is controlled by your smart phone or IPAD. Joshua did have a main present and a very expensive one too, we bought him a gaming PC as some of his friends are now playing Fortnite on PC rather than PS4, however we figured with him starting senior school next year that he will need a good PC anyway. So hopefully he uses it more than just for games!!! The downside is that we now hardly see him as he shuts himself away in his bedroom.

So after opening the presents I spent the next few hours setting up toys for Holly and putting all the stickers on her camper van and veterinary van. Then the next few hours were spent setting up Joshua's gaming PC in his room which meant changing some furniture around as well, then getting the network connected and making sure it all worked for him. Meanwhile Brandon was on the PS4 waiting for his Red Dead Redemption II to update and install.

Before dinner I ended up making a bath bomb with Holly and then doing some painting. In between all of that I managed to get Brandon's Overdrive track out so he could have a go at that. Eventually we all sat down to a very nice Xmas dinner at which point I revealed that there was still two unopened family presents behind the tree that the kids hadn't noticed. The first was a Amazon Alexa Echo Show to go in the kitchen and allow us to put the Echo Dot up on the loft floor to communicate with the boys. The second present was the new Pie Face Canon which I let the kids open for pudding - so we all got blasted with a face full of squirty cream.

After dinner I finally managed to start chilling a bit as the kids were all settled and happy playing with their toys. So a very full on Xmas day which left everyone very exhausted at the end of the day. However no rest for the wicked as once the kids were all in bed it was time to start preparing for the boxing day festivities with the family.

Santa in our living room delivering presents.

Holly's pile was so big she had two sacks full plus extras that didn't fit in.

Holly loved the pictures that I told her I had managed to sneak of Santa delivering presents. She thought he might even still be in the living room.

Once the kiddies were in bed we got the dinner table all laid ready for our Xmas meal.

And finlly Xmas morning and 3 very tired kids wake up just as excited as when they went to bed.

Brandon with his new Red Dead Redemption II PS4 game which he really enjoys. He is getting as knowledgeable about horses as he is cars!

But he did get a few more cars for his collection as well.

Joshua didn't get many presents this year as hs gaming PC was very expensive. So he got that plus a few little bits for boxing etc.

Brandon's other car for his collection. The Bugatti.

Holly with her mega craft set from Auntie Chris and Steve.

Brandon got this giant radio controlled helicopter from his Nan and Granddad.

Holly got this Barbie vets van.

And a ginormous camper van which she absolutely loves.

It didn't take Holly long to get some dolls down and start playing with her new Barbie toys.

Brandon with parts of his ANKI Overdrive track set.

And his Jumanji game which we haven't yet got around to playing. Hopefully something for tomorrow.

For our sins we bought Holly a bath bomb making set so I ended up sitting down with her and making our first one on Xmas day.

This little walking Unicorn was supposed to be a birthday present for Holly, but as she had so many presents we put it aside for Xmas.

She had fun walking it around the house and watching it twerk.

Finally I got around to helping Brandon set-up his fast and furious race track.

Its really cool playing with the smart phone as a controller and being able to fire weapons at the other car and ram them off the road.

Holly wasn't going to let me get through the day without making a bath bomb for her. Once made you have to leave them for 2 days to set so she only got to use it today. It worked very well though.

Of course she wanted a rainbow bath bomb so we had to mix every single colour!

Just before dinner I revealed the Amazon Alexa Echo Show family present.

Holly with her mess free painting set.

Finally we sit down for a lovely Xmas dinner which Tina cooked.

We 5 Kings at Xmas 2018.

As we were stuffed after dinner, instead of eating we opened the second family present which was Pie Face Canon. So funny.

Joshua about to canon Holly.

Her blocking hand misses and she cops a face full.

Good shot by Joshua.

Holly loved it though and had a second go with Brandon at the helm of the canon.

Joshua getting a shot on me which was mostly blocked (a very rare occasion with this game).

Holly blocking another canon full of whipped cream.

Later in the evening we started to wind down and Holly joined Tina in keeping her feet warm and massaged in one of Tina's Xmas pressies.