there is absolutely nothing better than having children in the house on christmas morning. the excitement is so contagious and i love seeing their little faces come into my room asking if they "can just open one thing?!" the three of them were so happy this morning, especially when grandma arrived with favz and josh and it was finally time for presents!
as you can see, i was correct and there was presents everywhere. so much love to be had.
alex loved ripping into his presents this year and knew exactly what was going on, he then wanted to open everyone elses too.
the kidlets were thrilled that santa and the reindeer ate the treats they left out too.
alex loves books and constantly empties his entire shelf onto the floor, so we bought him some more to do the same thing with.
joseph got all the lego he'd had his eye on... i am not kidding when i say their grandmother will get them anything they want. she is the actual worst for it. if mum says no, ask grandma. and whenever mum growls at grandma, grandma answers with, i won''t be around forever, i need to enjoy them and spoil them while i can.
i bought this for alex, it's a sprinkler attachment and spouts the water up from each rainbow piece for the kids to run about in.
maddie had a dressing gown on her christmas list - her old one had gotten too small and she desperately wanted a new one... only it was december and hot and no one had a thing... until with days to spare i located an adorable one in soft pink thin waffle fabric on the cotton on kids website and cause it's summer, it was even on clearance. woo.
and the only thing she really wanted - an ipod. this was an adventure in itself. i ordered this with weeks to spare, and the stupid courier the seller used delayed collection by almost a week then didn't know where it was. gah. so many emails later, they claimed it was still on schedule to arrive on time (which was december 28th now because of their delay in collecting...) and that they couldn't help me until it was late. no phone contact available, no offers to look into it. just absolutely shocking service, which i learned is normal from them. word to the wise, do not ever use sendle. they are bloody useless.
anyway. at 3pm christmas eve, i receive a notification saying that my package has been delivered. just like that. lost to delivered. what the heck. but. she loves it. declared it her favourite gift ever and proceeded to dance about the house with her headphones on listening to the preloaded k-pop. mum win.
the kids favourite gift though, was the nintendo switch that grandma bought them. joseph nearly peed his pants with excitement and even more so when he realised there was five games on standby too. dad got plenty of love and cuddles once they finished screaming - while we waited for brunch to be ready
which was totally worth it. bacon, eggs, toast, croissants, fresh blueberry muffins and all the fresh fruits.
and christmas wouldn't be complete without these gorgeous cookies from my best friend at baked on benrua. her star puddings are my favourite thing in the world.
dinner was a scored and glazed ham from lite 'n easy, where oli works. each year the staff are given a ham or a fruit box, oli always goes for the ham and we enjoy it at christmas and for weeks after.
we also had lobster, which madeline was horrified about, but all our polynesian crew enjoyed immensely.
then when we finally got around to dessert... we had banoffee,
more fruit, mini pavlovas by oli's request (which i had to go to multiple shops to find at the last minute when she suddenly had a hankering for them hahah)
and mini treats from my goodie plates. that tim tam slice was to die for.
what a wonderful christmas. so grateful to have our family here with us. if for some reason this does end up being oli's last christmas here with us, we know it was a wonderful one, full of love.
