Happy Christmas!

We had a busy Christmas spent in the company of Amy's parents (Ivor and Wendy) and then enjoyed the evening with our friend Catherine and Anthony and their two children and Catherine's parents.

It meant we all ate far too much and rolled around the house when we got home at the end of the night.

Audrey had been awake at 4am (but fortunately we got her back to sleep until about 5.30am) but it's remarkable how advanced both Audrey and Eli's 'fine motor skills' are when it comes to unwrapping presents. I tried to persaude them to leave a few presents until after breakfast but to no avail and before long the floor was covered with torn paper and each of them with a pile of toys.

Audrey's 'Skipper and Chelsea' dolls (from Grandma) proved a big hit. Eli enjoyed his olympic football (from Robin) and we had a few games down our (far from Wembley) hallway. Santa chipped in with a Spider man car (why would spider man have - or need a car when he could swing on his web??) and vests and socks for them both.

Both the kids energy and enthusiasm for Christmas has grown exponentially every year. Audrey had delighted counting down the days (via her advent calendar) and it meant that they were both fully revved up when the day actually arrived. Audrey was really disappointed on boxing day when I told her it was another 364 sleeps to Christmas and asked if there was anything she could do to speed things along.

Food left for Rudolf (water and a carrot) and Santa (beer and mince pie)

A resplendent Amy prepares the dinner

A pair of monkeys with a couple of soft toys