Christmas 2014

This Christmas has been lovely. It's the first one where C had understood a bit more and also E's first ever one!

On Christmas Eve, I let C open his Christmas Eve box early in the day then we went to Chris's mums. His sister is a hairdresser so she gave C a haircut so he'd look smart for Christmas. When we came home we had dinner then the two kids had their baths and we watched C's Handy Manny Christmas DVD.

After they went to bed, 'Santa' worked his magic. I bought Chris Jon Richardson's Nidiot stand-up DVD so we ended up watching that before heading to bed ourselves at 4am. C and E woke at 6.30am so that maybe wasn't a good idea! 

I came downstairs first with E so I could get the camera ready to take photos of C. Chris was saying "shall we go downstairs? I wonder if Santa has left you any presents?" C's whole body was tensing and Chris said that you could just feel how excited he was. When he came into the living room, his little eyes lit up. He was delighted. He opened his presents first as obviously E didn't know what was going on. He was even painting at 8am! 

After breakfast we were all feeling pretty tired so we had a nap then visited Chris's family again before coming back home for a delicious Christmas dinner. It was a very relaxing day and I loved it. C was so happy.

Hope you all had a lovely Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Hello everyone! I just wanted to stop by to wish you all a Merry Christmas! I hope you have all had a great day and got spoiled! 

Chris, unfortunately, had to work 2pm-10pm on Christmas Eve so C and I went to Chris's mums for the evening. When Chris got home, and we made sure C was in his "big sleep", we started playing Santa. Luckily, I had all the smaller presents wrapped to Chris just built the bigger ones. It took him about an hour and a half to put the Fisher-Price Ballapalooza up! I couldn't wait to see his face the following morning. 

Morning came and Chris and I woke up at 6.30am. C would not wake up for love nor money. Chris even sat him up to put his dressing gown on, carried him downstairs but, nothing! I took this time to get myself dressed and as Chris has two younger brothers (5 & 3) he headed round the corner to his mums to watch them open their presents. 

Chris came back and we ended up being able to wake C up. At first, he didn't really clock on about the fact that all of these presents and toys were for him and as he was literally just awake, he had a bit of a cry. Once he got over the shock of being woken up, he was fine and ripping paper everywhere!

We headed to Chris's mums for a lovely Christmas dinner and settled down at home in the evening watching the Mrs Browns Boys and Father Ted Christmas Specials! Perfect end to a perfect day. 

Ella's Kitchen & The 1st EVER Mini Queen's Christmas Speech

Whilst the nation enjoys the traditional mid-afternoon Queen’s address after tucking in to Christmas dinner this year, little ones across the country can tune in to enjoy an alternative message created by baby and toddler food experts Ella’s Kitchen.

The very first mini Queen's Christmas speech has been created specifically for tiny tots to enjoy and is set to be broadcast online on Christmas Day.

From the birth of royal baby Prince George to the nation’s favourite subject, the great British weather, the unique speech provides a kids’ perspective on the year’s news stories.

Delivered by mini monarch Grace Dawkins, the Christmas broadcast also contains a selection of special messages and highlights from the Ella’s Kitchen Facebook and Twitter community, celebrating the achievements and tiny triumphs made by little ones across the country.

Paul Lindley, Ella’s Kitchen founder and Ella’s Dad comments: “Christmas is a very exciting time for little ones and we wanted to make it even more memorable by taking a much loved Christmas tradition and giving it our very own Ella’s Kitchen twist.

“We hope little ones across the country – maybe even baby Prince George – enjoy watching our mini Queen’s Christmas speech and who knows, maybe it will even become an annual occurrence!”

You can watch the mini Queen’s Christmas speech when it airs on the Ella’s Kitchen Facebook page at 3pm on Christmas Day (25th December): www.facebook.com/ellaskitchen or via YouTube: http://bit.ly/1drsnMh

Perfect Christmas Day

To begin with how I'd describe my perfect Christmas Day, I NEED to include the lead up - Christmas Eve. On Christmas Eve, after dinner, I would give C his Christmas Eve box that I've made up for him which includes:

Pyjamas

Dressing gown

Slippers

Chocolate

A Christmas bedtime story

A Christmas DVD 

A teddy

I'd bath C, get him all snuggled in his new pjs and settle down to watch his new DVD with his chocolate. We'll have baked cookies earlier in the day to leave out for Santa alongside his milk and carrots for the reindeer. Once C got sleepy,  I'd read him his new Christmas story and watch him drift off to sleep. 

Myself and Chris would then happily and excitedly leave out all of his toys from Santa ready for the morning. I usually wake up first on Christmas morning (I'm like a big child!) so I'd get Chris and C up too. I'd hope that C's face lights up when he sees everything but he's only 15 months old, I really doubt he'll have a clue what's going on. We'd help him open all his presents and I would play with him for a bit whilst Chris makes his delectable scrambled eggs (they're the best in the world, I don't know how he does it!) with toast. 

We'd then get dinner started and get dressed. Both Chris and I have younger siblings so we'd love to also see them on Christmas Day and give them all our gifts to them. Chris's mum lives around the corner so we'd probably pop there first to see what Santa has brought his 5 and 3 year old brothers. Then, time permitting, we'd visit my family. My sister is a little older, 11, but it's always nice to be with your extended family at Christmastime. I'll be honest and say, I'm not quite sure how we'd fit Christmas dinner in there! We eat late anyway so I'm guessing it would come after. In my eyes, being with family and seeing them happy is more important than a huge meal. 

After dinner, we'd play a bit more with C and his new toys and watch some Christmas telly! Perfect :)

Merry Christmas! This post is my entry into the Tots100/Argos 12 Days of Christmas competition.