Memories of Christmas Day 2014

I thought that whilst they were still fresh in my mind I would jot down some Christmas Day memories:

• The Baby was so besotted with his play kitchen from granny and grandad that he was not interested in opening any of his other presents - including his stocking. Then he discovered some random other toys that granny had acquired for his visit and he was too busy playing with those to open any presents. We really should not have worried...well to be fair we didn't really! Just a stocking with some fun bits and some mega blocks.

• Do you see the candy striped pressies balanced on top of his kitchen? When granny gave it to him to open he took it back to the top of the kitchen. He's not usually so neat and tidy!

• Mara gave dad a Beach Boys dvd (we're all big fans in our house - memories of summer road trips in France and dad making the car dance as we listened to the Beach Boy's cassette) and we all found their geeky appearance and 'dad' dancing hilarious. One of them was really going for it with moves from river dance one minute and twerking the next! We then introduced my dad to the fact you can find Beach Boys songs on youtube and we all had a sing along to some of the classics like 'Then I kissed her.' I've always been a fan of a song with a narrative.

• Whilst we were browsing youtube we also played some guess the intro quizzes (where I beat everyone hands down) and some general knowledge quizzes.

• The Baby kept tricking us by faking being tired and as a result he ended up being put down with a bottle FOUR times before he finally napped at 4 p.m! (His usual time is about midday!) Too much excitement and fun and second hand toys to play with clearly.

• Mara and The Belgian were in the kitchen for most of the morning prepping the Christmas dinner. It meant we missed out on The Belgian's pancake breakfast and had to make do with Lindor truffles and chocolate bunnies. The Baby ate one of the truffles in a unique way by biting through the wrapper. But then chocolate for breakfast is a standard on Christmas day surely?

•  Auntie Mara had brought The Baby a story book written in French and I read it in my best French accent (hamming it up as usual) and also gave my best rendition of the Queen's speech to mock mom's love of the royals.

• Christmas dinner was served, uncharacteristically, at the early time of midday and most of us weren't dressed yet and so we don't have any family shots around the table as it wouldn't have been a pretty sight. The cracker jokes were as cheesy as usual and only some of our family got into the spirit and wore the party hats. The Baby enjoyed playing with his turkey dinner but I woudldn't day he consummed much of it.

• The girls won the first film choice with Serendipity. Mum had requested it, but she was asleep after the first scene (as per usual!)

• Boys won with the next choice and we ended up watching the controversial episode of Top Gear. Very festive!

• We usually go on a Christmas day walk to burn off the stodgy and indulgent dinner, but this was a very lazy Christmas day and The Baby's awkward napping 'routine' meant that we missed the limited day light.