Merry Christmas everybody

We're off to spend Christmas at my in-laws from tomorrow until next week, so wanted to wish all my friends and family a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS 2010. I hope you're all spending it with your loved ones, get the gifts you hoped for, eat a fabulous Christmas dinner, and enjoy seeing it through the eyes of your children as we will be doing.


This will be Poppy's second christmas! I can't believe how fast time goes by. She is still too little to understand the whole story, but knows who Santa/Father Christmas is and what a Snowman is, and that things in pretty paper usually contain something fun (after opening a set of Peppa Pinc books from Santa at a party yesterday).













Despite the best intentions, heavy snow in South Wales has scuppered any plans to meet up with other baby-Mums before Christmas, so I hope that the kids don't mind having a belated present each in the New Year. I suspect not, looking at the pile of stuff Poppy has got she will need a little time to recover from opening it all.

Expect the unexpected when it comes to toddlers

Whilst over my parent's house this afternoon they were putting up their Christmas tree. Well, my brother and his girlfriend were. And instead of Poppy being a pain in the backside and pulling everything off, getting in the way, and generally being a toddler, she joined right in and helped. She was passing them the baubles and putting some on herself. I hope it's a good omen for when our decorations go up and we won't have the constant battle for 3 weeks over her stripping the tree on entering the room each day. After this I will try to be more open minded and let her have a go at things that perhaps I would usually avoid...

Nativity

Had a great day yesterday. The day of The Nativity had arrived. Angel costume had been purchased (thank you Tesco), contribution to the after-show party buffet was sorted and Poppy was well rested after an early nap. After wrestling her into the costume, required due to the post-nap grumpiness that didn't particularly want me messing with her clothing, and forcing her into a coat we made it into the car on time. I'd like to add that, yet again, an activity involving Poppy fell on a day hubby was working, so I was on my own for this one. My Dad and Nanna were coming to watch in the church but meeting me there.
Everyone was in great spirits in the church hall (backstage) getting their various offspring into costumes, persuading shepherds to hold onto their foam crooks and kings to keep on their colourful hoods. There were a lot of angels (no-one fancied trying to keep a star costume on an 18 month old), a Mary and Joseph, and even a baby Jesus thanks to the convenient birth of the second child by one of the mums 3 weeks previous. We were set.
My Dad was tasked with recording the event on my camcorder for hubby and my Mum to watch, who couldn't make it due to illness. We dutifully smiled on entering on cue, walked the walk, sat in place and sang 'We Wish You A Merry Christmas' for the finale. Poppy got very excited, shouting 'Bampa!' repeatedly, laughing loudly, clapping and cheering. As Poppy's part was right at the end, I was looking forward to watching the whole thing through myself too.
So once Poppy was in bed I eagerly switched on the camcorder and set it to play. Then got a bit puzzled as to why my Dad had filmed his leg. And why there was no footage of the nativity play. Then I realised what he must have done - had it recording when he thought he wasn't then pressed Record again when it started, therefore turning it Off. Oh dear. Breaking the news to hubby and Mum wasn't fun. I now have a desperate plea out on Facebook for a copy of someone else's video. However, as hubby pointed out, it will be from the point of view of that parent, zooming in on their little king or angel, and not of Poppy. Hopefully someone took a wide angle view of the whole thing and we can watch that. My poor Dad, he'll not live this one down for a while.