Alex's first Christmas!

Firstly, apologies for not posting about Christmas until now, New Years Eve! We have had an exciting week with various visits to relatives hence the lack of posting. Alex's first Christmas was really exciting...he didn't really understand what was going on, although by yesterday he had finally got the idea about unwrapping presents...well sort of!A Christmas photo of the three of us

Christmas day saw us having a family breakfast in our own home and then piling things into the car and driving across the city to my sister-in-law's (Fay's) house, where she and her fiance Rich hosted the celebrations for the whole family...8 adults and 3 children (aged 4, 18 months, and 8 months). Rich cooked a traditional Christmas dinner for the first time, and his Mum was so concerned about this that she provided enough cakes, pies, tarts etc to sink a battleship...we all went home armed with a tin of food! The dinner was great with everyone enjoying the chats, food, laughter and general silliness associated with family times. My home made crackers went down a treat and were a great success.

Granny and Grandpa Pete enjoy Christmas lunch
Everyone sharing Christmas dinner fun and silliness
Look Daddy, I have a hat and a cracker!
Alex and his cousin Tom (18 months) share a moment of reflection

Presents were opened after dinner, and Alex really didn't know what to make of it all. He sat there with one strip of wrapping paper torn off a present for ages just looking. In the end we unwrapped his presents for him and he had fun rolling on the floor and crawling round with the two dogs and watching his cousins playing. Christmas is so special with children around...they get so excited and have so much fun. They played with wrapping paper, bubbles, some of Alex's toys, jumping off the stairs, dancing to a musical toy as well as generally bouncing on the adults. All in all it was a great day and lovely to see the cousins all playing together, especially now that Alex is going forwards (commando crawling!).

It is hard work opening a present!
Wrapping paper provides endless fun for Tom

Tom, Alex and Sam played happily on the floor together
Cuddles with Granny!

Boxing day was a peaceful day at home as we exchanged our presents for each other and Alex. Alex loved his big plastic activity centre and I just loved Tim's present of an Alcohol ink set to play with, complete with applicator, spare pads, silver and gold mixatives, 9 inks and a blending solution. The rest of the day was spent experimenting with the inks (with a mixed degree of success) and watching Alex play with his new toys. Sadly Tim wasn't very well, but he still managed to have some fun with his computer and we enjoyed a Chinese meal and a movie in the evening.First attempt with Alcohol inks and gold mixative...this didn't work too well as the gold came off on the stamp rather than the ink stamping onto the gold

A successful background which also contains a subtle gold wash...I haven't tried stamping on this yet.An attempt at putting colours exactly where I needed them for a scenic stamp....I am quite pleased with how this worked.

Thursday 27th December saw Alex and I driving down to Somerset to see my family. The original plan was for all three of us to go, but sadly Tim wasn't well enough to travel so Alex and I went on our own. It was a long way and after about three hours of travel Alex started to get fed up, but in general the journey wasn't too bad and we arrived at 3pm. We did an exchange of presents for the two babies (Alex and Daniel) in the afternoon and then I gave my home made presents to everyone and they all seemed to love them which was good. Alex loved his stacking rings from Gran (his Great-Gran), his book from my parents and his train set from his Uncle and Aunt! It was fun seeing Alex interacting with all the family and 'playing' with Daniel. My brother took a classic set of photos which shows Alex playing with a toy then Daniel reaching over and grabbing that toy and Alex looking bewildered!

Auntie Nel and cousin Daniel
Alex sharing giggles with Uncle Andrew

After the little ones had gone to bed we had our Christmas dinner (Roast beef with the full works followed by Christmas pud and mince-pies - very yummy!) and had a lovely chat with everyone. It was lovely to have all of my family there, including Gran and Great-Auntie Jean (known as Auntie), although it was a shame that Tim wasn't there.

Auntie Jean, Nel and Mother enjoying their Roast BeefAndy and Gran share a moment of chat
Dad, Auntie Jean and Nel round the dinner table

Friday (28th Dec) morning was hillarious as both babies were awake by 7am and were given to Grandma to play with in bed, while Grandpa tried to sleep beside them! I just love the various photos of that occasion. The aim was to go for a nice long walk during the day but the weather was revolting so we ended up inside sorting out some of the old toys and books from when Andy and I were little, doing a jigsaw and playing with the little ones.

Grandpa asleep in bed while Alex and Daniel play with Grandma
Sharing Grandma's lap
After breakfast and the over 80s share a moment with the under 1s!
Sharing a toy between two. Daniel definitely had the advantage as he can sit up and get two hands on the job!

Both evenings we were in Somerset we decided that Alex and Daniel could share a bath and that was the greatest of fun. Alex just loves to splash with his hands, his latest bath time trick and Daniel kept trying to grab Alex's feet causing much hilarity all round.

Alex playing on Mummy's bed before his bath
Splish, Splash what fun we are having in the bath together

Andy, Nel and Daniel left at 9am on Saturday leaving Alex and I to spend some quality time with my Mother, Father and Gran. As it was sunny we went out for a walk down the lanes trying out the new pushchair (our Christmas present from them!). We set off back to Sheffield after an early lunch. The journey was long (an accident on the M5 slowed things down) and loud as Alex had one snooze during the traffic jam, but refused to sleep later on when he was tired and just screamed for about 30 minutes until he finally fell asleep. It was lovely to get home and see Tim...Alex was so excited to see him!

Alex out for a walk with his Great-Gran

Yesterday I came down with a horrible stomach bug and felt pretty rotten for most of the day so really didn't do very much, except open a couple more presents with Alex who got very giggly over the wrapping paper. I also built Alex's garage (a Christmas present from Granny and Grandpa Pete) which he loves, and extracted the big red bus from the ridiculous amounts of packaging. The bus was a present from Andy and Nel and Alex really likes the various bricks to put in it as they rattle nicely.

Today I am still feeling under the weather and so have spent a gentle day playing with Alex and tidying my crafting things and my desk. Even the tray on my desk is more organised and I now have just three items left to sort before filing away properly. This means I can start the New Year as I hope to continue...with a crafting session tomorrow morning!

I hope you all enjoy celebrations tonight and Happy New Year for tomorrow. More soon,

Love,

Caro

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