Happy Christmas! It’s late on Christmas night after a big day (and not much sleep the night before). Dad seems to be reaching a point where Christmas is more about seeing family members and watching the reactions to presents than receiving presents. It’s a nice place to reach.
The week leading up to Christmas was a somewhat busy one. Kel brought the kids in for dinner after work. The food court where we usually have laksa had complimentary balloon animals made-to-order. Huff and Puff enjoyed playing with their animals once dinner was over, though Huff was looking intently at hers trying to work out how hers could be deconstructed back to being a balloon.
Mum has gone to some trouble doing cooking and baking for a variety of recipients, and having Puff (and, as it turns out, his sister who tends to copy everything she can see her brother doing) help by decorating things. Here’s Puff working away with some edible icing to decorate the various Christmas-shaped biscuits.
Huff impressed everyone at Dad’s work when visiting (here she is with a candy cane in each hand – it’s been a big week for sugar consumption).
We managed to track down Uncle J for a brief visit – Puff persuaded him to provide a “piggy back” (there’s still some disagreement on the difference between a piggy back and riding on someone’s shoulders),
Puff is still enjoying being Bandit’s ‘dad’ (or ‘pretend dad’ depending on Puff’s mood). Dad took Puff and Bandit out for a Sunday morning walk – Puff is getting better at having Bandit obey his instructions.
We augmented a couple of already-late nights by saying “they’re already up: let’s see if there are any Christmas lights”. Puff and Huff have both been highly impressed with some of these places – the high point for Puff in both places has been the quasi-animatronic animals. One house had a polar bear singing carols into a microphone, and the other had a couple of Adelie penguins standing still.
Needless to say, Huff has been taking additional naps this week. She tends to get a bit sweaty, so we’ve been varying her outfits accordingly to try and make sure she can rest comfortably.
The Grandragon arrived on Christmas eve – here’s everyone preparing biscuits for Christmas day.
Huff wasn’t entirely convinced about the tradition of wearing tissue-paper crowns from Christmas crackers, so this photo had to be taken quickly.
Overall we were really happy with the way the kids handled themselves on Christmas Day, expressing gratitude for gifts and – for the most part – not nagging about presents or special treats. Their Mum has done a great job with them.