It’s a couple of days till Christmas which means this post will of course be full of Christmassy stories. This afternoon the girls came round for an afternoon of eating, chatting, laughing, eating and watching Christmas films. Polly has got the idea of these types of girls days very well and just gets stuck in fighting us for the sausage rolls and ‘the beast’ gave everything a try too. Talking of the little ‘beast’, he’s 8 months old today. 8 months and it feels like it’s flown by but at the same time I can’t imagine a time without him.

This morning I also had a little date with my big girl. It was a suggestion from one of my mummy friends after a bit of challenging toddler behaviour and it was so lovely to do. We popped into town to get the last Christmas bits and then had a cheeky hot chocolate and a biscuit each- of course Polly picked the Santa one. After a little walk to see the sea we had a run around the byes where she jumped in a huge muddy puddle (of course one of the handful of times she’s left the house not in those bloody ‘doggie wellies’!) and we finished it off with pooh sticks in classic Polly style.

So we’ve had a Santa filled week and a bit with him coming along to a couple of toddler group parties. Polly’s face lit up each time and I’ve done a real cheeky thing with most of the presents. Mum confession- I forgot about presents to go in the children’s stockings. So I realised the handful of little gifts we’ve collected from the various Santa’s we’ve seen will make up for that error quite nicely. Except the elephant puppet that gave me the slip in the hands of an equally cheeky two year old.

We also had a couple of Christmas gatherings last Saturday. We caught the last hour of one of Polly’s friends after dashing through the lingering rain. They had fun playing pin the nose on the reindeer and we all ate lots of lush cake. The morning party is the third year we’ve got together with our little ones and this year there were more little ones than big ones. It was the perfect morning and one that made me get all sentimental over how lucky we are to be surrounded by such amazing mummies, daddies and small people and I hope it’s a Christmas tradition that continues for ever!

We also had a wonderful day on Tuesday when we took a trip to the local garden centre to go and see the big guy in the red suit again. We took Nanny along for the fun and I really don’t know which of the five of us had the most fun! I really would recommend their Santa experience as it’s so much more than just a couple of minutes with Santa and a random gift (I actually can’t remember what was ordered and these two presents have made it into the secret stocking stash currently hiding under a pillow case in the corner of our room). Both children were really taken by him and we both got a bit sentimental again- I’m blaming all this sentimentality on too much chocolate too!

And the final Christmas story of course came about last Sunday. The toddler nativity. It was exactly what you would expect from a nativity where you entrust the story of Christmas to a group of two year olds. Polly refused to put her costume on and screamed “not Mary” repeatedly till we bribed her with a chocolate finger. Between them they pulled most of the tinsel backdrop down. Polly walked off the stage halfway through and was persuaded back by one of the angels. The sheep kidnapped baby Jesus. They pinched each other’s wands and had duels on the stage. And we as adults failed at changing old McDonald into an innkeeper. It was just perfect and definitely one we won’t forget.

So I think I’ll sign off now by just saying ‘merry Christmas’, thank you for sticking with my crazy ramblings throughout 2018 and I can’t wait to see what 2019 brings!