I’m not really sure where the last 6 weeks or so have actually gone, there definitely must have been a time jump at some point as it seems five minutes ago that we were pulling the decorations out from the cupboard under the stairs and now we are in those last few days before the big day itself! Decorating the tree was an amusing experience as expected this year as I had three eager little helpers. Seb could be found trying to attach 600 baubles to one branch, Clara was routinely giving the whole tree a shake just to see whether it would stand up to an earthquake and Polly was insisting on using every last decoration we owned- hence why the tree has more tinsel on it than branches.

After putting the decorations up that weekend we then headed into Exeter to go and visit the Christmas market, we caught up with our friend Pati on the elf train and of course treated ourselves to a McDonalds on the way home, quote of the day came from Polly on the drive home in the dark and the rain- “Mummy look, the dark is crying.”

We were lucky enough to be able to witness Polly’s nativity in person this year which was a really magical experience. The run up to this involved lots of singing practise where the delightful songs all got stuck in our heads and Henry and I spent many days winding each other up singing random lines at each other to get certain songs stuck back in the others head (“Shepherds get up on your feet!!”)- and it’s back lodged in my brain again!

December also means wrapping presents whenever you get 10 minutes to spare and hoping you remember all the hiding spots for them come Christmas Eve night- only time will tell if I pass this test. The week before Christmas is also when one child will suddenly start chatting about Santa bringing an entirely different present to what ‘trying-to-be-organised so started shopping in October Mummy’ had prepared for- thank goodness for Amazon!

Yesterday we had a super-duper Christmas filled day with a trip to see the main man himself and then a visit to a local farm where his reindeer were staying. The Santa we saw was amazing and the kids were absolutely mesmerised and even Clara was into it.

After an action packed day yesterday we are having a slightly quieter day today which means the kids are getting their Christmas film hit while I attempt to clean the house. This is pretty much impossible as if you leave one room unattended such as the living room then you come back to find they’ve emptied the ball pit. It did give an amusing moment though when I was upstairs cleaning the bathroom. I came down to find Clara eating a pack of cheddars and it took a few minutes to get the full story out of Polly as to how she had managed this. Turns out the big two got spooked by a spider and it made Clara jump and slip over a ball from the upturned ball pit. Clara started to cry so Polly solved her tears by providing her with food (she also helped herself to a snack for ‘saving the day’). I mean Clara does love her food and at least this was an actual food item unlike the other day when I caught her squeezing body lotion out of a bottle to eat.

On that note I think I’ll sign off on another whirlwind year as these bloody balls don’t seem to be being tidied up, but that does mean that I get to pick the next film as that was the bribe to get them to tidy up! So Merry Christmas to everyone and all that jazz. Let’s hope 2022 is as much of an adventure as it’s looking like it will be with a few exciting things lined up for us in the next few months. And hopefully I’ll be a bit less shit with updating this blog! Thanks for reading 🙂