We 5 King's

Nice picture of the 5 of us taken at Auntie Nicky's on her cuddle chair.

Holly wearing one of Auntie Lisa's spectacular Xmas hair accessories.

Wickmas 2019

As always we had an absolutely fabulous Wickmas 2019 on Boxing Day with the KISMET crew. For some reason this year seemed far more relaxed and also we had to be a bit more flexible with the ever evolving family. God knows how I found it more relaxing given the stress of the building work finishing literally on Xmas Eve making it look like Wickmas would need to be cancelled at one point. With the family situation everyone hates change and we would all love the Kismet crew to stay the way it has always been, but this was never going to happen.

We also changed things up with the presents this year which was Michael's idea. Instead of buying for every adult each person only bought two main presents for names which were drawn out by lucky dip. The idea was to reduce cost for everyone and in theory means everyone gets two really good presents that they want. Everyone still bought for each of the kids which I thought was the right thing to do. Anyway I think the new present scheme worked really well (with the small exception that one person made a mistake meaning Nick only got one present).

Anyway here are a selection of photo's / memories from the day.

The Christmas tree looked good despite the change in present strategy.

As with Xmas day Holly was very spoilt with some lovely presents.

With the changing family we seemed to have more space and everyone had a seat in the living room come present time (even me!).

Brandon with his drone.

Joshua opening his fishing umbrella.

Holly struggling to get in to this present.

Michael had a fab idea for a 35 year challenge and bought me, Nicky, Lisa and himself an ET t-shirt to rein-act a childhood memory.

The 35 year challenge for me and by brothers and sisters.

Holly pulling a Xmas cracker with Rory.

Holly playing Head To Head and trying to knock over the presents with her Santa hat.

Then mine and Nicky's turn to go Head To Head.

Harder than it looks, but good fun.

Time for the giant cracker. No chance in hell of all the presents fitting in this year.

Going, going, gone........

One box of crackers which we bought had balloon modelling. So we made some swords and Holly had Jedi battles with her Uncle Michael.

Xmas shenanigans. 

Now that's a big improvement.

Me and big Sis sporting out ET jumpers.

Me and Holly entertaining Rory with his new Xmas present.

Plenty of food for everyone to enjoy. Bring on the Xmas calories.

Christmas Day 2019

Well it was tough and go whether the extension would be done in time for Xmas, but I am pleased to say that it was. The skip and scaffolding is still outside and the garden is a mess, but inside looks tidy and we have a lovely new room and porch to use. So for Xmas morning this year we decided to mix things up a bit and put the kids presents in the new "man cave".

It is true what they say about as the kids get older the presents get smaller. Joshua had a tiny pile as his main present was a apple iphone. Brandon's pile was reasonable as he had a new gaming PC for Xmas the same as what Joshua did last year. The logic behind this is that he would need a good PC for homework ect once he starts secondary school next year. By contrast Holly had a massive pile of presents to smash through. She didn't really have a main one as such, but she had a few substantial presents like her smart tracker watch, a Barbie car, a barbie horse and carriage etc.

As the kids all love "Slushies" we bought a Slushie make as our family present this year. We figured it would be really good on those hot summer days. We had already prepared loads of ice so that the kiddies could try it out on Xmas day, so Joshua made a blueberry Slushie for everyone. We hardly saw Brandon all day as he was in his bedroom on his new PC, absolutely loving this roller coaster / theme park type game that he had been itching to get.

Joshua wanted to go out to play with his mates on Xmas day which we thought was a bit wrong as it should be a family day. So we told him no which he wasn't too impressed with. In the end we all had a great day with a lovely Xmas dinner cooked by Tina and a few games etc as they day went on.

Holly setting out Santa;s Guinness, mince pie, milk and carrot on Xmas Eve.

Last minute cuddles with the Elves before they head back to the North Pole until next December.

This year Santa left the presents in our new extension room.

Holly by far had the largest pile of presents.

The table was all laid and looking great for our Xmas dinner.

Tina made these cute little Candy Cane name plaques.

Christmas morning and the kids start cracking in to their presents.

Brandon and Joshua getting stuck in.

Holly with her new watch.

Somehow Brandon ended up with 3 gaming headsets!

I think Holly is happy with her Barbie car.

And a big horse and carriage.

Holly did very well on Xmas day and had plenty of new toys to play with.

Joshua got this new Adidas tracksuit which he has lived in for 3 days. Brandon is always nicking Tina's snuggle fleece so we bought him his own grey one and he has lived in this for 3 days (even sleeping in it!).

Brandon enjoying his new gaming PC. All lit up green and looking good.

Tina laying the Tooth Fairy Game with Holly.

Later in the day the kids found the family present hidden behind the tree.

Its a Slushie make.

Joshua wasting no time to get a Slushie on the go.

Waiting for the Slushie to ice, Holly not looking amused.

Nearly done.

Holly playing with her hair salon toy.

Xmas dinner time.

Selfie at the dinner table as we all tuck in to our festive feast for 2019.

After dinner a bit of Nerf shooting with Brandon's floating ball shooter game.

Laying on our new kitchen floor and taking aim.

Joshua taking aim at the floating balls.

Giant Cracker for 2019

With all the stress and work with getting the house extension completed before Xmas we completely forgot (well actually just didn't have time) to get our giant secret Santa cracker made this year. So it was literally a last minute job to rush together a cracker on Xmas Eve which eventually got finished off on boxing day morning. 

There was no real theme this year and I have to say that this was our worst effort ever for a cracker. Holly used some unicorn tape and stickers to decorate the middle section. Brandon painted some sky scenes and stars with plane stickers on his end, Joshua had no interest and did nothing on his part this year.

Lesson learnt, must be more organised and out in more effort for next year!

At least Holly still enjoys making our giant secret santa cracker.

Brandon's end piece all ready for painting.

Brandon sets to work on his part of the cracker.

Not sure it is quite what he had in mind, but at least he made an effort unlike Josh.