Merry Christmas!!!

Can you believe it, Christmas is done and dusted already. I look forward to it all year, I love the preparation, the excitement, the plans, the gifts, the food, the vibe, the family-time, the lull in city-life, everything. And then it's over, just like that. But, it was fun!! So much fun. We had a fabulous holiday so far. Something we desperately needed. Just to forget about thinking worst case scenario's when looking at our middle 2 children. Just for a moment. It's never far from the mind, but for a few golden moments in time, it was good to really just forget. And be a normal family, with normal, healthy children without any swords hanging over their heads.

The kids went to visit their granny and grandpa for a week. They were spoilt rotten and had loads of fun. Though, Monkeyman was very tired, and it made him a bit teary. I also think he missed us. We phoned every night, and asked if they're okay to stay the week or if any one of them needed us to fetch them. But they said they were fine. The boys didn't want to stay longer than the planned 6 nights, but Boeboe wanted to stay one more night. That was good to hear, that she had a really good holiday. We missed them though. The house was quiet without them. Peanut was still with us, which was nice. She also missed them alot, and loved hearing their voices over the phone every day.

When the kids got back, we dived into the mess they called their rooms. Gosh, it took us forever. But their rooms are cleaned, most toys are sorted and new bedding and curtains hung. We decided to give up our spare bedroom, to Mr N. So he moved in there, and Monkeyman got his room. Boeboe stayed in hers. And Peanut is at long last out of our room (sniff sniff). My baby is growing up. :-( She's now happily sleeping in her own bedroom (Monkeyman's old room). Still waking up at night, at least twice. But we're coping okay with that.

So each child has their own room now. We bought bunkbeds with the bed ontop of a desk, for Monkeyman and Boeboe each. Mr N has less stuff in his room, so he got the double bed that came with the spare bedroom. And he has a lovely desk that his grandfather made him years ago. So they're all set now with bed, table and lots of space for everything. I got them all new duvets, and a few new curtains. So their rooms are looking SO GREAT! Wow, the difference a sorted house does. It just lessen the stress levels. I haven't taken pics of the rooms now that they're done. I'll do it in the next few days and post some of them.

After our week of cleaning and sorting, the in-laws visited for Christmas. We had a really great Christmas Eve, with good food, and the kids got to open some gifts. On Christmas morning they found gifts brought by Father Christmas during the night, and then we visited some more family for a wonderful Christmas lunch. Today, the in-laws has left again, which now leaves us with a quiet, relaxing week to look forward to before my husband has to go back to work. Fortunately, we have almost 3 weeks left before school starts again.

Here's some pics of the past month or so.

Here's a pic of Boeboe's spider bite. Probably around day 10 or so.
It was taken about 2 weeks ago, before they went to visit the
grandparents.

A close-up. All the wrinkled skin has now fallen off, and brand
spanking new skin is covering her toe perfectly. No lasting
damage or scars. Even the nail is perfect. For a while there
I thought she was going to loose the nail.

Isn't this the most adorable thing. Sibling love. Whenever he
sits on the floor, she will maneuvre backwards until she sits with
her back against him. She really adores all her siblings
just so so much.

 

Monkeyman didn't know he's also getting a new bed and desk.
He saw us put Boeboe's up in her room, and was so jealous.
So we surprised him one morning, leading him blindfolded
into his new room with his new stairs and bed all set up.
His face was priceless!!

On Christmas Eve. Very happy with his gifts.

She was so excited all day, she could barely wait for dinner to
finish.

Another happy child. :-)

Isn't she looking adorable with the Christmas cap?

 

Spoilt little boy!

He really wanted the little Dath Vader figure.

Loved tearing the paper off!

On Christmas morning! Father Christmas was here!

 

Look at how creative her daddy is. He made it look like a
little gift basket! All three got the same gift, so we had to try
and wrap them up differently so that the shapes didn't
give it away. They really thought they were all getting
something different because we made Boeboe's look like
a basket, and Mr N's like a house. Only Monkeyman's
was kept as the rectangle it really was.

So excited to start opening up.

Look mommy, a baby!

He loved being tricked with loads of newspapers to
change the shape of his gift.

Very chuffed with getting what he wanted from Father
Christmas - a tablet.

Smiles all around when everyone got one.

Except Peanut, she got a talking, singing, dancing baby doll,
which she absolutely adores.

 

My beautiful little girl. Not much bigger than her doll, LOL.

This is how it looks when everyone gets a tablet for Christmas!
There'll be strict rules in place about how many hours they're
allowed to play once school starts!