Yes, Amelie's got a Hello Kitty onesie, just like her mother. Not that Lisa wears it all the time. On special occasions like Christmas, she's generally in her pyjamas...
Onesies are more for evening wear. Which explains why she didn't get dressed until teatime.
Anyhoo, our first ever Gardner Family Christmas as a foursome was a roaring success. Unless you're me, and you were expecting presents. Amelie eventually dragged herself out of bed at 8:30am, which was a relief as I was still putting her dolls house together at midnight, and before we knew it, she had her hands on some presents...
She had them all open by 9am. It was like a festive tornado had ripped through our flat, leaving in its wake a scene of utter devastation. Mostly on my face, when I realised none of the gifts were for me. Amelie helpfully opened Toby's presents too, leaving him to play with the wrapping paper...
... while she reached new heights of excitement with her main gift: a state of the art dolls house...
I got it off a bloke called Ibsen. It's made of Norwegian wood. To some people, of course, an old-fashioned wooden dolls house might seem like a bit of a retro present, but as the photo above demonstrates, we've still got an Argos catalogue from Spring 2010, so to us, it's pretty contemporary.
This year, for the first time ever, we failed to receive an invitation to Christmas dinner at my parents' house. Which is why I didn't buy them presents this year. I can only assume they've gone down the Herod route and taken a dislike to baby boys. But undeterred, I set about proving that anything my Mum can do for a family of nine, I can do for Lisa and a four-year-old who won't eat chicken.
To be fair to Lisa, she did do her bit for the festive family feast. Whilst I took charge of the chicken, bacon, stuffing, roast potatoes, sausages, Yorkshire puddings and gravy, Lisa volunteered to microwave the veg. Which was the main thing holding us up at the end. Her main contribution, however, was persuading Toby to sit quietly on her knee while the rest of us stuffed our faces.
By the end of the meal, Amelie had refused all the chicken and choked on the bacon, while Toby was covered in bits of potato that Lisa had dropped on his head. But other than that, it was a successful Christmas dinner. And we all ate far too much.
In the evening, we were lucky enough to be visited by Big Sis, who phoned me on her mobile from outside our flat to say that she kept ringing number 18 and we weren't answering. I explained to her that we don't live at number 18, and she was soon inside, and feeling positive about our daughter...
... which is more than we do a lot of the time. Sis presented us with some high quality souvenirs from her recent trip to Uganda, most of which should have been intercepted at customs and burnt for reasons of health and safety, but among the ones we won't be chucking in the bin are these delightful elephant shoes for Toby, which were handmade in a remote African village...
He started laughing at his own feet the moment we put them on. Unfortunately he then started sucking them. So we're currently watching him for symptoms of Marburg.
3 comments:
Phil, I think all things considered that wasnt too bad a xmas. Did that wrapping paper that Toby is playing with have the Turkey in it by any chance?
No, we're still looking for that. I think it must be in the box with all my presents.
Hold that dream, great mate
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