2020. What a year hey?! I know for a lot of people this has been an incredibly challenging year and sadly for too many this has been their final year. I’m not going to downplay how crazy this year has been as unless you’ve been living under a rock since February you don’t need me to tell you about it. I’m simply going to say that the year doesn’t have to be blacklisted because of all the bad bits. This year has also had some amazing moments and I thought I’d end the year with a fun task that anyone can do if they need that little reminder that it’s not all been bad.

This week we had the absolute joy of watching Polly in her reception nativity- she played Mary and has taken her role very seriously! This experience should have been very different. Henry and I would have taken the 2 smaller ones down and sat amongst other eager parents in the school hall and waited for a classic primary school memory to unfold- obviously this didn’t happen. Instead we sat with a cup of tea and watched the show on the big screen at home. And Polly loved it. She shouted out all her friends names and sang along to all the songs and guess what- it’s definitely going in the memory bank even though it wasn’t what we expected it to be. It also meant that other family members have been able to join in the fun too. Anyway this got me thinking about the other positive things that have happened this year, so I challenged myself to pick out 20 for 2020. So here goes…

1. 9:14PM on Sunday the 7th June. Clara bear arrived. Obviously this is the most prominent positive memory of the year and it’s one that will forever bring joy. Our family became complete.

2. Our last ‘normal’ family day. It was in March. It was a bit windy and rainy but we had a blast. We took a kite down to the beach and we also popped into work to get hot chocolate with all the trimmings.

3. The first time we saw our Nanny & Pops after the first lockdown. Just to see them in person after so long inside for everyone.

4. Clara’s christening. Such a special day it got its own blog post! It’s still making my heart swell!

5. We spent most of the summer avoiding any large crowds and instead spent a lot of time by the river behind our house. One particular morning sticks clear in my mind. The big 2 were fully in the water with buckets and mischief and Clara was chilled on a blanket watching the trees above her. Pure bliss.

6. September- Polly started school. This was a big deal and I’ve never been more proud than I have of how well she has adapted to school life in amongst a pandemic- these little people are made of such strong stuff!

7. Pizza night at Uncle Oli & Auntie Faye’s. The kids had an absolute blast and I’m amazed they weren’t sick from laughing so much.

8. Seb said ‘I love you’ to Henry and I for the first time.

9. The trip to Suffolk in March just before lockdown. I look back now and realise how lucky we were to get those hugs in before ‘social distancing’ became the new normal.

10. Seb spending hours upon hours in the paddling pool in the summer until he froze and had to be dragged out- he’d still be in there now given the chance.

11. When we went for a picnic with Pati & George at Dart’s farm. Such a simple thing but one that bought so much joy. Oh I long for these simple things again.

12. Strawberry picking in the summer. Seb was in his element. We also had one of our only family lunches out of the year- good job it was a good meal!

13. Polly riding her bike for the first time.

14. One of the only plays on the beach the kids had in the summer where they saw their cousins, acted out the lion king and feasted on ice cream. Just to watch the kids just being kids.

15. When we ventured up to north Devon and got blown away at the valley of the rocks.

16. When we took the kids to the garden centre to see the Christmas lights and Polly danced along with the singing penguins while Seb laughed his head off.

17. During the first lockdown when Henry came home from Tesco with armfuls of reduced Easter eggs. I was very pregnant and will never feel bad for the amount of eggs I got through this year.

18. Realising my signature dish is chicken & vegetable pie, and making a few of them!

19. The playtimes the kids had in the orchard with their friends when they hadn’t seen each other in months. They just jumped straight back into playing like no time had passed at all.

20. When Grandpops & Becky came to stay, one of the highlights was going for breakfast together and a little trip up onto Dartmoor.

Truthfully I came up with several more as when you really look for a bit of positivity you can definitely find it in those simple things that make life what it is. So, that’s it from me until the new year. Just to say Merry Christmas to everyone and thank you for reading!

I’m gonna go out there and say it- today has been my favourite day of 2020 (apart from the 3 hours of the 7th June that included a brand new Clara of course!). After a lot of messaging, phone calls, checking restrictions, getting time off for godparents etc, we were able to hold a small christening as part of the Sunday church service at a special little church with a handful of family members and some amazing new godparents.

Clara started the day all smiles, but then refused to have a nap before we left so by the time we were 5 minutes into the service she was getting a bit stroppy- cue me standing up to start the ‘baby sway’ and she miraculously fell asleep… and stayed asleep till we were half way through the photo session! Polly was in her element, wearing the gorgeous dress she donned with wellies to Seb’s christening 2 years ago(!). she got involved with advent candle lighting and water pouring. Watching her face light up as the vicar blessed the water and poured it on Clara was such a precious moment with my girls that I’ll treasure forever. Seb was of course having none of it! He spent most of the service playing with his cars and then stropped through all the photos! It’s definitely given us some funny pictures to pull out when he’s older!

It was a wonderful morning and a huge thank you to those involved. As we couldn’t hold a celebration party afterwards we’re aiming to have a big party for her first birthday, assuming we’re all vaccinated by then- fingers crossed!

We had a quiet afternoon, watching a bit of strictly and playing cars before sacking off the roast dinner plans and instead bundling the kids into the car with blankets to go on a Christmas light hunt. Dancing in the back to Elton John with Seb while he shouted all the colours out was another precious moment to add to the bank. We then snuck in a cheeky McDonald’s before heading home via some more lights. It was such a wonderful day I think it’s given me a smile that’ll last till Christmas.

Ah Christmas- it’s almost here and we can’t wait! We are Christmas fanatics in this house anyway but this year we’ve gone even more so. The tree went up ages ago, there are lights all over the room and we’ve watched all the Christmas films multiple times.

I realise I didn’t blog at all during the last lockdown, instead I tried a thing where I posted something little on social media every day. I actually really enjoyed spreading a little bit of joy each day and it really made me appreciate all those little things even more.

Polly is doing well at school, it’s amazing how quick they pick things up, but more importantly she’s having fun- lots of it! She had a blast this week taking on the role of Mary in the nativity. We’ve not seen it yet (bloody COVID!) but we are going to be able to watch the recording, this does mean that the family can watch it too which is actually really lovely. She’s loving learning different words, her favourite being ‘pop’, she actually spelt it out with cows the other day! It’s also pretty funny when you catch her sitting on the toilet sounding out the words on the shampoo bottle (of course the ‘poo’ bit of that particular word prompted a fit of giggles!).

Seb makes me smile every day as he learns different things about the world and is starting to string sentences together- I could do with a few less tantrums though! I know it’s all part of him learning but it does get a bit annoying when the red cup wasn’t the right cup but when you offer him the blue cup he actually realised he did want the red cup. I do love watching him with Clara though as he absolutely dotes on her and her face lights up when he talks to her- “my Clara bear” he calls her.

And the little koala bear herself- well she’s 6 months old tomorrow which I can’t quite get my head round! We are very excited to get the weaning journey going and just to see her growing in general- she’s definitely the cheeky one out of the 3 and smiles so much it meets my heart.

Well I think I’ll leave it there for now, Henry has just made a cup of tea, Clara has fallen asleep on my boob and the cat has found his way into the cuddle too.