Ten things I learnt over Christmas 2013

I’ll stick my neck out and say that 2013 has been the best Christmas I’ve ever had. It’s been so much fun spending time with family and there is nothing better than seeing the kids so excited. I’ve learnt so much that I wanted to share some of it with you…

1) When it comes to baking biscuits for Father Christmas, my children all have different approaches. T1 prefers to stick his hands in the bowl, T2 prefers to watch and E hates the texture of flour and having messy hands.

2) Cuddles on Christmas morning with my brood before we open Christmas presents is the best thing ever. Pinning them down for a cuddle when they’re excited to the point of bursting is not so easy.

3) When Santa promises to bring the kids “super fast scooters”, he really means it. I think I might need one of my own to keep up with them.

4) I never realised that scooters can be perfect entertainment indoors to keep small people occupied while the turkey is being cooked – that includes babies too, as E loved her slightly less fast, smaller scooter with seat.

5) Christmas day with a pair of 4yo brothers is bonkers. Sometimes you just need some quiet time with mummy to escape from it.

6) The best way to calm the house down is to send the boys out into Grandma and Grandad’s garden to burn off some energy. It turns out the boys are really good at helping Grandma build her compost heap by throwing on all the old apples and veg (entertainment AND a useful job done in one handy go).

7) It seems a Toytoa Granvia van with a roof box has an incomprehensible capacity to store boxes of Lego, Playmobil, BigJigs, teddies, jigsaws, games, scooters, rockers, walkers, chocolates and even a couple of suitcases too (I didn’t get a picture of this as I was too exhausted after attempting to shoehorn in all of our stuff!)

8) I’ve been singing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer wrong all these years…apparently it goes “as he shouted out with cheese”, not glee.

9) It’s not worth putting your favourite glass baubles on your tree when you have young children, even if you’ve put them high up out of reach. Racing cars like to drive up the tree when you leave the room, and the effects of a head-on collision can be devastating.

10) The final thing I learned over Christmas is that I’m married to an incredibly clever man…Husband passed his English test with the right number of points to submit our Expression of Interest for Australia!! Our application is now in the system and we’re waiting to see if we get selected in the first or second draw of January 2014!!! Bring it on.

I’d like to wish all of my readers a Happy New Year, and here’s hoping 2014 brings you everything you’re dreaming of. xxx