Thursday photo #189

Today marks the end of my ridiculously busy week and finally, it’s time to start preparing for Christmas. There’s food shopping to do, Christmas cake to make and the small matter of a Polar Express ride. If anybody wants me, I’ll be filling my face with mince pies and mulled wine until the New Year.

How many Santas is too many?

Since November, we’ve been doing the rounds of Christmas days out. But with the start of school holidays, we’ve stepped it up even further this week. Since Lia’s pre-school Christmas concert on Friday, we’ve made it to no less than four Christmas events.

We’ve been to Birmingham three times, heading for the Botanical Gardens, Christmas Market and the Sea Life Centre. We also made it to Newbridge Farm Park to meet Santa’s reindeer and see his sleigh.

And now, the girls have developed a theory about every Santa they see. Because of course, they all look different so only one of them can be the real thing. Libby’s logic is that Santa must be pretty busy (she has a point), so sometimes they see a ‘dress-up’ Santa. It’s a good answer, I wish I’d thought of it myself.

But it has made me think. Days out are really important to us. They’re the perfect opportunity to get together as a family and have some fun together. And of course, days out are an integral part of my blog too. But are we overdoing it, particularly at Christmas?

What is Christmas all about?

At the moment, I don’t think we are overdoing it. The girls have enjoyed every day out and come home buzzing with excitement. I don’t get massively into Christmas at home. We have a Christmas tree but no other decorations really. So for us, festive days out are one of the biggest parts of our celebrations.

But as the girls get older, I know things are going to change. I hope Christmas day will stay pretty much the same. We all enjoy my mum coming over for lunch and the afternoon. Then later on, it’s great to take the girls to see my dad’s family and relax with a glass of something, safe in the knowledge we won’t be going anywhere.

The run-up to Christmas will have to be adapted though. The girls will grow out of Santa visits and fairground rides. Perhaps we’ll make the house more festive instead, I’m not sure. But whatever happens, I hope that having fun together as a family will always be at the heart of our celebrations.

Thursday photo #189

Both girls went on a little pony ride at Newbridge Farm Park on Tuesday. It was lovely to see them riding as they haven’t done it since they left their first nursery. But my favourite part about it was this photo of them together in their hats, there’s something incredibly cute about it. They look deceptively innocent.