We Three Kings Blog: 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.