christmas for the kendalls

christmas was a little different for us this year with dougs dad in hospital. we know that it's unlikely he will come home - and we are preparing ourselves for the worst - but trying to be positive and make things normal for him. oli stayed overnight in the hospital with him so he would be with family, which left doug's sister to come and be with us and the kids.

and we had a great morning! we got up and unwrapped presents with these excited kids... who always know how to make christmas magical. i guess it's just part of being a child!

alex was completely smitten with his singing baby shark toy and cuddly bluey. he was loving all of it. crawling around, getting into everything and nosey-ing into everyones gifts.

maddie and joseph are so much fun. no matter how small or daggy a present is, they just love everything. it's hilarious. doug bought them a pair of wind up poos with racing helmets on called "skid racers"to race up and down the hallway. joseph insisted we needed to take them to the hospital to show steve, as they are forever making poo jokes to each other and he wanted to show him. of course they started poo races on the floor of his hospital room hahha.

maddie loved showing alex all his gifts as they were open and read his bluey books to him the minute they were out of the paper.

joseph was thrilled with his super mario gifts and a new retro sega console!

as well as this super special gift from poppy and grandma which he claims he had wanted for 39 years!! we were dying laughing when he was yelling that as he opened it. "finally!" hahaha

my highlight was some new sunnies - and dougs was bluetooth bose headphones.

it was a happy family morning, even if it was missing a coupe of our favourites :(

❤

we went into the hospital around lunchtime and took some of our cooked breakfast to share with steve and oli. he was thrilled to see us all and enjoyed his cuddles from the kids and a few presents we bought him - including the angus young pop! vinyl we'd managed to find.

these days with him are so precious and i am so glad we have been able to take the time to keep visiting and taking the kids in, even though joseph is "sick of the hospital!" too bad mate. we all are, especially your poppy.

dinner at jared and donnas - with my fave nieces and nephews 

and some more cuddles with this little elf. 

it was a good day!