Anyway, we finally made it. We spent the next few days trying to finish up all the preparations for the big day - Ben started and finished my Christmas present buying in a few hours! On Christmas eve we took the girls to the local Church of England for a Christmas craft afternoon -it was a fantastic free event with 12 or so stalls with different things to make. Then they had a 'crib' service i.e. church service for kids with puppets etc. It was quite the Sister Act type show but we didn't stay for long as we were having our big Christmas eve dinner. Alice had started with a bad cold too, poor little lady.
On Christmas morning we had waffles and the missionaries who live with my parents joined us too. Then we had our traditional family Christmas service and acted out the nativity for the audience (Grandma and Grandpa), even the missionaries participated. Esther was Mary, Eliza the Angel Gabriel, Ben was Joseph, Bex was the donkey(!), the missionaries were the shepherds. I'm not sure we made it as far as the wise men...
I think finally around 10ish we went to check if Father Christmas had visited... Here are some pictures courtesy of Bex:
Alice in her Christmas dress from Grandma. Even though she was not well she still tried to be happy but you can tell in her eyes she wasn't feeling good.
Esther waiting for the great present unwrapping to begin:
Eliza-love that cheeky face!
Gotta love the orange in the stocking! Eliza actually does really love oranges...
Fantastic picture of Esther with her scooter -she had wanted a 'big girl scooter' for Christmas, one of those metal ones with 2 wheels and she was pretty excited to have gotten it.
Eliza was steadily working through her little pile.
Alice doing what she does best!
Eliza is playing with the joint Christmas present that Father Christmas had cleverly wrapped with both wrapping papers so the girls knew it was to share... a remote control Barbie car. £4 from a second hand toy sale - what a deal!
Alice taking sometime out with Grandpa and eying up the Christmas decoration.
After all the presents were open there was a chance to look back and see what they'd unwrapped! This is Eliza's new mermaid book - she also got some Winnie the Witch books which she loves!
Later in the day everyone except Alice and I went for a walk in the freezing cold. The huge lake in the park was frozen over, I don't think I have ever known of it frozen over before. We played some games, watched a movie and unfortunately didn't spend too long in bed that night because Alice was just not well, temperature, wheezy, coughing, etc. On Boxing day we took her to the out-of-ours doctor at the hospital who gave her an inhaler to ease her breathing. My dad's side of the family came over for dinner later in the day which was lovely as I don't get to see them much at all. Ben felt like he also got to know them a lot better. I told them they should all come for a visit to cambridgeshire so I hope they do!
On the Monday Mum, Bex and I hit the sales in the morning and Dad and Ben hit them in the afternoon. We travelled home that night. The house was freezing when we got back and Alice had a mega high temperature so I didn't get much sleep again. Ben's brother Sam was getting married on the 29th (Wednesday) so we decided that instead of all of us going Ben would just go with Esther so the left on the Tuesday evening, stayed over and came home in the evening after the reception. It was disappointing not to go especially as I missed seeing our new baby nephew Lucas but it wouldn't have been fun for anyone to take Alice or fair on her. It was really the first time Esther had ever been so far away from me and the first night, other than when I had Eliza and stayed in the hospital for the night, that I had not been with her so it was a strange feeling. I've got those apron strings tied tight and it felt like one of the first steps in loosening them off!
The rest of the Christmas/New Year holiday we spent at home mostly or quick trips out in the local area, walks etc. New Years eve we had an older couple in the ward over for some food and to play games. We played some games with the kids before bedtime and then taught the Larsens how to play Mah Jong. They were going to the New Years day parade in London the next day so left earlyish leaving Ben and I to wait till midnight on our own. We watched the fantastic firework display in London on the TV,it really was fab and the next day took it in turns to have a sleep! Bex came over and we started doing the jigsaw puzzle Ben had bought me as a 'present bulker' from a charity shop. We enlisted the children's help to find all the outside pieces, Esther was actually pretty helpful, Eliza not so much... On the Sunday we determined we had to finish the puzzle that day. Let me tell you, there was a LOT of sky. After we finally made it to the end there was a piece missing but that's kinda to be expected when purchasing a used puzzle. SO nevermind we thought. We kept it out for the kids to see then next day and decided it was taking up too much space so we got the kids to help us tear it apart (all those hours hard work gone in 2 seconds!) and about 5 minutes after it was back in the box lo and behold we found the missing piece under some stuff on the table! OUCH!!!! Oh well, we had a good laugh about it!
So that was pretty much our Christmas and New Year. I'm glad to have this post finished, for some reason I've been putting it off for a while! Happy New Year everyone!
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