Matilda's third Christmas

We had planned a rather busy day, but one in which Matilda would see all of her grandparents (all 6 of 'em) in the one day. We'd already seen Gramps and Gran Lylia on the night of the 23rd for Matilda to get her pressie (too big to bring to Christmas lunch @ Great Uncle Scott's).
Here she is at her very cool new table and chairs, just her own beight for drawing (on herself), painting (on herself), and other creative activities.
Then on Christmas Eve, we decided against the 3:30pm Hurry to Bethlehem family service at the Cathedral and instead went to St Marks's for the 7pm family service. A risky move after a late night, but we wanted to be within our community and our church friends at Christmas. Also, 7pm (ish) is M's bed time, so we weren't sure how she'd behave. She went very well, tried to sing the hymns/carols along with us, talked about Santa all through the gospel reading, but then redeemed herself by telling the children's and youth minister that tomorrow was "Baby Jesus Happy Birthday". ;)

For what I hope will be the last time for the next 15 years, I was the first awake in the house AGAIN on Christmas day. After two late nights, M still wasn't awake at 7:30, and we had a champagne brekky at Grandma and Grandad's house to get to (and lunch and dinner with other family members), so I snuggled into her and woke her up. M was far more concerned with giving Daddy kuggles (cuddles) and putting her shoes on, she didn't even notice the presents under the tree until after waking her Daddy. We opened some presents, got dressed and ready for the day, and went to Grandma and Grandads for brekky. Yum, of course! Fresh stone fruit and yoghurt followed by Eggs Benedict, and then some lovely pastries from Belle Epoque for morning tea. And some champagne for the adults, because after the flood, there seems little point in keeping "good" things such as 1996 Dom Perignon (thank you Duty Free shops), and much more point in sharing them with our loved ones or using them and appreciating them.

That HUGE bottle JR is holding is FULL of bubble liquid! With a chocolate smell ... Matilda decided that bubbles were WAY more interesting than eggs benedict (her loss).

We then went to Great Scott's for lunch. This is his house:
It's a former Methodist church, now deconsecrated. It's a pretty cool place for Christmas lunch! We caught up with Aunty Petie, Uncle Cam, and Aunty Jenny before they had to go to their Mum's for lunch.

Fairy wings from Aunty Jenny!
Super funky dress from Aunty Petie
Play Doh (to eat) from Unca Cam!
M rocking her cute chin cupping look
The mob
(M's Mummy didn't get the note from her sisters to wear a nice big loose summer dress)

After lunch, M explored Great Scott's crib. She found his exercise equipment:
After a lovely lunch, we went the next suburb over to MorMor's house. Mumma, Daddy, and M all tried to have sleeps. Well, Mumma tried, M was too excited to pretend to try, and Daddy did have a sleep. Grandad Eric and Uncle Al arrived, and we all had fun opening pressies and then had a yummo dinner.
All weary from a big day, we left MorMor's some time after 9pm (yes, M went all day with NO sleep, the little party animal). What a great, family-filled Christmas.

Merry Christmas

This was meant to be a Christmas letter post, to atone for not sending out any Christmas cards. But it's now 11:30 pm on Christmas Eve, and we'd better get to bed before Santa arrives and finds us awake! ;) According to Norad, he's in PNG at the moment, so mustn't be much longer before arriving on the East Coast of Aus.


This awesome pic was taken by Madeleine. We're still choosing which ones to get printed, but this was a cracker! :) As always, JR looks like he's talking, but the important person looks cute.

We wish all of our friends and family, both near and far, a very blessed, holy, and merry Christmas season, and a joyous and prosperous New Year.

With love,
John, Kirsty, and Matilda

Santa is a Kidnapper (apparently)

We've always thought Matilda would be a talker, and as her vocab continues to develop, we're seeing plenty of signs of her future potential (and suspect ear plugs will be our future).

Last weekend, M could not stop saying:

Santa coming, picking up Tilda.

She said it over and over, again and again. She told everyone at daycare on Monday how Santa was coming to pick her up, and by Tuesday it morphed into Santa and Mummy coming to pick up Tilda. It seems in M's mind right now, Santa picks up the children, not sure if it's the naughty ones or the good ones, rather than dropping off presents. And I'm not sure how I got involved in the children taking (JR has a theory about M confusing the "I saw Mummy kissing Santa Claus" song ... but I don't think M even knows it!).

But, M knows Santa is coming ... we really ought to get out the not-too-badly-flooded Fisher Price Nativity set for her to play with, because that'll just innately teach her the real Christmas story, right? ;)

Except I think baby Jesus is still in the car. Oops.