An Almost Perfect Christmas

J has been an angel today - cooked the Christmas dinner, tidied up, washed up, helped loads with Little Liss.

I've chilled out, eaten lots and drank (a little) bucks fizz. We went for a walk across snow covered fields and Alicia 'sung' to us all the way. Lush.

Liss loves her Sophie the Giraffe teether, and we love her new Sterntaler boots. We tried them out on our Christmas walk and they stayed on the whole time! They have an adjustable elasticated inner sock which means they stay put on even the most wiggly baby.

Alicia chewing Sophie the Giraffe (tastes so much better upside down!)

Me and Liss - check out her new sparkly shoes!

Daddy and Lissy with her new Sterntaler boots

J loves his new telescope, I love my new jewellery, red slippers and promise of a child-free shopping trip to buy me a winter coat in the sales :-)

In fact, it's been a perfect Christmas. Actually, make that an ALMOST perfect Christmas - Els is with her dad this year and so we just had a Skype call with her. We miss her.

Unusually, we didn't have her Christmas Eve either (usually whichever parent doesn't have her Christmas Day has her Christmas Eve) because her dad wanted to take her to his girlfriend's parents and then to her Nonna (Granny) so he needed her for a good few days together. Ah well, our turn next year!

Hope you had a lovely Christmas too.

I'm back

Photo Credit: bringing sexy back

I well and truly logged off over the Christmas period. I rarely even checked my emails. I had lots of downtime and it was lovely, if a little fraught at times (well, Christmas always is, isn't it?).

Els had a lovely time with her dad and his girlfriend. We spoke on Christmas day, and were reunited three days later.

Having been with Daddy for five days, it took her a while to settle back in with me. Her plaintive lament, "I really miss Daddy and Karen. I want to be with Daddy and Karen!" was on a loop for a good few days. A little hard for me, but deep down I knew she would start to enjoy being with me and J soon. 

I've now got her for a whole week which is fantastic. Her dad & Karen are in the Lake District on holiday (brrr! It's cold enough here!). It's a good feeling when El and I have unbroken time together. Nice and relaxed. Her dad and I usually have Ella for two days each, taking it in turns in the week and then doing alternate weekends. 

It's good to have a full-time mum experience again.  I become more in tune with her and stop trying so hard to please her. We get in the groove together - flow into a steady rhythm that is natural and comforting. My life feels more solid than usual.  

New Year's Eve was fun. We visited my sister in the New Forest and took the kids to a house party. It was quite a laidback affair as most people there had brought their kids/babies/bumps. 

It was the first time I have seen in the New Year with Els, and it was really exciting doing the countdown together, letting off party poppers and then watching fireworks in the garden.

Ella and Sulis (my niece) were surprisingly good-natured the next day, despite such a late night. I managed to buy a little hangover nursing time for the grownups by putting Wall-E on after the kids' breakfast.

When do children start waking late in the morning after a late night? Obviously by the time they're teens, but I wonder if I will get to enjoy the odd 'party night' with Ella followed by a mutual lie-in before then. Let me know what you think...

I've got Christmas all tied up..

Photo: 3 presents waiting

I'm feeling very smug as I've had Christmas all wrapped up for days. An hour on the Internet and it was all done.

I even managed to buy my sister's birthday present (the poor thing has her birthday two days after Christmas) and a pressie for myself.

Buying myself a Christmas present is a tradition I started a while ago, it's a great insurance against the disappointment of not getting anything you really want. I highly recommend it.

I found some unusual gifts here and did the rest here - books, gadgets, smellies, clothes...it has the lot.

As soon as my postie had delivered the first package, I dashed to Waitrose for some wrapping paper. Big mistake.

WARNING: some of Waitrose's Christmas wrapping paper is actually see-through, although you can't tell until you're actually using it.

Fan-bloody-tastic.

I had to double- (and in some cases triple-)wrap the presents. Subsequently, I went to Tescos for cheaper and far superior wrapping paper.

The only other disappointment I have encountered in my amazingly hassle-free Christmas shopping experience is that things are not always as they seem in their photos. I can't go into that too deeply, as one of the intended recipients reads my blog.

The shoes  I bought for J (who doesn't read this blog), although lovely and almost exactly what he wants, are lace-ups instead of being 'slip on' as I had hoped. This may turn out to be a Big Deal. 

A a few months ago, I accompanied J on his hunt for some new casual shoes and we traipsed around no less than ten shoe shops. Why? Because any design he liked had lace-ups and "I just want something I can put on quickly. I don't want the hassle of laces."

Now, J is by no means a lazy man. In the summer, he put up a large garden shed single-handedly (I made the tea). I have never asked him why laces are a “hassle” and in exactly what situation he would need to save the five seconds required to lace two shoes. I suppose I shall find out on Christmas day…