Christmas. I suspect most of you, like me, are feeling a bit festivity-ed out. The run up to Christmas is always fraught and filled with anticipation. The day itself is always manic, family-filled and leaves us feeling full of food. And then after, I’m kind of done. By today (the 28th), I’m ready to start focusing on the new year. I love the tree being up but I’m itching to take it down. To get the house tidy and back to it’s normal self. To stop eating my bodyweight in chocolate and roast potatoes. And most importantly, to get a couple days r&r in before the year starts again and we go back to normality.
Before I start rambling on about 2017 and all I want to achieve, I wanted to take a moment to share with you a little of what OUR christmas looked like. This year was our first as a family of three (four if you count the dog… we do!). It’s incredible to think that this time last year, our little boy was still just an unknown bump. That we had no idea of what lay ahead for us and were just relieved that the 20 week scan a couple days before was all clear. It’s cliched but we really were filled with anticipation. Well, that and mum’s roast dinners.
Christmas for us is always filled with family. It’s a mad rush but we try to fit in as many people as possible over the few days that we have off. It seems crazy but up until this year, Dave and I have never eaten Christmas lunch together. We normally spend the night/morning with my family, split for lunch with our respective families and then go over to his family in the evening. It’s just not possible with a baby to do that and obviously we don’t want to! Instead we decided to embrace the crazy and try and cram in as many as possible over the few days – starting by hosting Christmas Eve at our home before kicking everyone out into the night ready for Santa’s first visit.
Christmas morning was spent in our own home before going to Dave’s family and then on to my family in the afternoon. Midway through the day we decided to pop in home (thankfully they both live within 10 minutes of us in either direction), pick up our stuff and stay at my parents home so that we could relax. It was hectic but it was worth it to see everyone’s faces as they doted on the latest addition to the family, laughing as he attacked wrapping paper and crawled around bashing over gifts!
Suffice to say, someone was completely spoilt with gifts. We’d decided to limit what we spent, knowing that he’d get a fair amount from friends and family. His book collection has tripled in the last few days, his bath toys are now about to take over the bathroom and our lounge looks like an Early Learning Centre outlet. For a baby that hadn’t had any battery operated toys until now, he’s made up for it in the last few days! The house is filled with (awful) noises that repeat over and over AND OVER. Thank heavens for a #mumfail of forgetting to buy quite enough batteries – such a shame!
The next day we made our way to watch the local hunt gather. We’re not really into hunting (horses make me sneeze) but it’s a tradition that they gather on the seafront on Boxing Day before heading off through the town. My mum used to go when she was a child. Usually, we’d gather with my mums side of the family on Boxing Day to celebrate my Grandma’s birthday but unfortunately she passed away earlier this year and with ever expanding families and demands on us all it just wasn’t possible to keep the traditional lunch. This was a great way for us to all get together, have a catch up and relive a memory that my mum and auntie had of their childhood. It also turned in to a meet and greet for half the people we knew so ticked a few off the list of visits!
We’ve also brushed off the cobwebs with plenty of walks. It’s so easy to fall into the rut of eating too much and lying on the sofa moaning. We wanted to get the Christmas gluttony shifted as quickly as possible, especially when it’s been perfect walking weather for us – cold and clear! I’m not going to lie, it definitely wasn’t the easiest decision to make when inside it so tempting but once we were off and going it was nice to exercise the old lungs!
And that’s it! Our first Christmas as a family of three is over… It’s been so different to the one’s we’ve had before – definitely louder and less relaxing – and I’m sure that’s only going to change again in the next year. We’ve now got a couple of days at home before heading off to a New Year’s Eve away with friends which should be interesting as we’re the only ones with a baby in tow! After that, it’s on to 2017 and all that has in store!
5 Comments
Looks like you all had a lovely time. There is a traditional hunt gathering in my home town as well. I miss being able to go and see it. They also do a barrel rolling competition! It’s so much fun. Then the whole town goes out drinking. There are around 12 pubs, they get ridiculously crowded and sweaty.
Merry Christmas!
There’s barrel rolling here too – only that’s done in the summer for the sailing regatta. TWELVE pubs?! Good god, it must be complete mayhem! Happy Christmas to you too x
Such gorgeous pics of you guys! Sounds like a busy festive time but lots of fun!
Sounds like you had a fantastic Christmas. Some lovely pictures.
We’d usually spend our Christmases apart too but last year we decided as we were married and I was pregnant we’d have to have it together!
It’s weird isn’t it – spending it together?! Think Christmases going forwards are going to be a lot noisier if this one was anything to go by!