So then, New years eve, the last day of the year.
We had a morning trip out to the castle with the Halfords, it was great to catch up with them and have some youngsters to play with.
We went to meet Mum for lunch at the restaurant in her shop, we love it in there, it's so high up and you can see loads of interesting things from the window...not to mention the lovely chips!
We had a low key evening, with a couple of visitors and some Wii action, all topped off with some late presents:

Friday was of course New years day, the first day of the year...not that it made much difference to us at all really. Anyway, we headed off to Grandad and Anne's for lunch with Alan and Hayley. There was some more late presents too....wahey! And because we were at Grandads it was 'screw up the wrapping paper and throw it at each other' time:

We had another game of my Lego Minotaurus game in the afternoon, it was great fun playing with Alan, he really gets into it!
Then it was the weekend, so there was a lot of sitting about to be done of course:

But the most exciting thing of all was a trip to the cinema to see the new Alvin and the Chipmunks film!

I'd never been to the cinema before so it was even more exciting for me. We had really good seats right at the back in at the top of the walkway so we didn't have any big heads in the way. It was a bit like watching the telly, but much much bigger and I soon settled in. I did hold dad's hand though...well it was quite dark!
The film was brilliant of course, I was soon out of my seat and dancing along to all the songs.

Yeah, I liked it too, but I got a bit restless towards the end.

We walked home via the new park in the City Playground:

I hurt my delicate bits on the see-saw:

Sunday we went to Auntie Christines for lunch as we hadn't seen her all over Christmas. This of course meant more presents! Here I am getting down to the serious business of Hama beads:

It's the only time i've ever seen Dad with the iron!

And i've been turning myself into the glove footed monster, scary or what eh?

Dad was back to work on Monday, so that was me back to nursery as well. I enjoyed being back truth be told, but it wore me right out. I did love being re0united with Ned though, I missed him after being together at home for so long.

Yeah, I had a couple of mornings with Grandad and Anne which was good, but it's back to school tomorrow....if it isn't snowed off!!!

So we must issue another huge thank you for all the late presents we had over the last week!

Well we're a day late this week, but it's been Christmas in case you hadn't noticed?
Mum was off with us in the morning last wednesday, she dragged us to the shop on the sledge through the snow.....how christmassy!
It was, even though I didn't fancy it and decided to walk instead. Although I did let Ned pull both me and Mum.....yes, i'm very strong don't you know!
We had to take Mum to work in the afternoon, which was a shame.
Especially as Dad insisted on driving really slowly in the snow....the boring old git!
We had a visit from Sue in the afternoon, Ned missed it all though as he was fast asleep, I had her to myself! Good job he didn't see the huuuge bag of presents she'd bought in, he'd never have kept it secret like I did!
Thursday then was Christmas eve, the excitment of the last fairy drawer and the last window of the advent calendar...
....unless, like me, you'd opened 24 several weeks ago, oops!
We had a visit from Rach, kimi and Marney, always great fun, especially when there's presents involved of course!
Then Dad came home from work, finished for christmas!
We had a visit from Slim and Trace in the afternoon as well, we love Christmas, we get to see so many people!
Andy also put in a brief appearance before he cleared off to Cornwall for his winter surf!
It was a McDonalds for tea, dad reckons it's good to get a proper meal in before christmas as it's a difficult time to get a decent feed.
And after thet we dropped in on Abi and Faye to exchange gifts and for Mum and I to make a fuss over little Faye.
And a great oppurtunity for me to ransack Abi's toys!
Sounds like a pretty packed day doesn't it? Not for us, we carried on and went to the pub as well! How about that?
We had a quick drink with a few of the gang that were out and snowball fight before being dragged off home before the disco started...boooooo!
We had urgent business to attend to at home though:

The santa sign of course!
And the sprinkling of the reindeer food on the drive:

And then in side to leave a carrot for Rudolph and a mince pie and glas of Ribena for Santa:

With all that taken care of it was time for bed, after quickly checking Santa's progress on the NORAD website.
And then up again at 3am!!!! I was informed this was far too early and was sent back to bed. Spoilsports. I managed to nod off again and tried again at a far more reasonable 7am which was met with approval. I fetched my stocking and got busy with the little things first of all. Santa had done very well with the stocking stuff and we had a nice game of happy families in bed while we were waiting for that lazy slug Ellis to surface.
I had to give in and get up in the end, so I dragged my stocking in and was as pleased with Santa's gifts as Ned was, if a little more bemused about what on earth was actually going on.
Once that was done, it was time to get downstairs for the main event:

Big presents:

More big presents:

Presents you could wear:

And then lots of smaller presents wedged right at the back of the tree:

What lovely stuff we had!
Auntie Trish came over, result. We only normally get to see her when mum and Dad are going out or something. She had a lovley Santa hat that she had worn all the way from Amazingstoke too, a great effort that didn't go unnoticed.
Uncle Den made a very brief appearance, but it was obvious he wasn't staying at our house for long as he was far too smartly dressed!
Then Alan and Hayley arrived with Grandma and it was lunchtime, here's proof I did eat a carrott:

And here's proof that Mum undermined Dad and put a sprout on my plate, I ate half of it to keep them both happy:

I think Alan ate almost every single pig in blanket that I lovingly hand rolled!
So once lunch was done and dusted it was present time again:

Hooray!

Ned makes sure i'm looking my best:

He's done a good job i think?

We stayed up pretty late but eventually it was time for bed. We'd both been really good all day though and didn't mind too much.

I let Trish sleep in my lovely bouncy bed, I hope she liked it. I got to sleep in Mum and Dads room on the ready bed which was most exciting!

Here we are in some of our new snuggly pyjamas before we turned in:

Boxing day then, supposed to be all round to Auntie Christine's for the day but her and Uncle Ian were so poorly it was all called off. What a shame! Fancy being poorly for christmas?

I'm sure we'll catch up with them soon enough.

So what did we do? Sit about, eating:

And playing with our toys. Dad and I had a mountain of Lego that wasn't going to build itself!

And a baby with a tricky to fit nappy:

Mum was still off work on the Sunday and she was itching to get out and about. We decided on swimming and headed off to the Coral Reef.

I was pretty worried it would stil be closed but was assured everything would be okay this time, it was!

We had a lovely swim, loads of jumping in and splashing and retrieving our little seal thingy's from the bottom of the pool, which I was particulalry good at, even if it did make my eyes go bright red in the end.

I also had two goes down the flume with Dad and loved it to bits, squealing for speed all the way down!

Mum was back to work on Monday, booo! We had a quick trip out on the bikes so i could try my new helmet:

We went to see Mum for lunch and took her to the pasty shop in the pouring rain!

Yesterday we had a proper visit from Uncle Den and Auntie Gail. We got to show them all our presents and what have you properly.

Today we had all the excitmement of a Tesco shopping trip, yay!

And the completion of my last Lego set....boo, back down to earth with a bang!

Of course we need to thank everyone for our lovley gifts and their splendid company over the last week or so, we've had a really lovely time and consider ourselves very lucky indeed!

The social side of things have hit a bit of a peak lately, with my school disco clashing with Ellis' nursery party/carols/Santa meet and greet.
Yeah, Dad dropped me off with mum in the afternoon at nursery and then went back to pick Ned up from his disco.
He couldn't see anything as the curtains were all shut and the lights were out. I loved it, even though I had once again been sent with no money to spend on glow in the dark bracelets and sweets like my friends.
I had a bit of a time of it at the nursery do, I came marching into the room in front of all the parents with my arms inside my Reindeer outfit, fell over and then couldn't get up again, I decided to flail about on the floor for a bit instead...oops! I didn't do much singing, didn't like Santa all that much (until the presents came out) and wasn't fussed about the mince pies, other than that it was great!
I quite liked going back there to have a nosey around when we went to pick the girls up!
Then it was my party day at school, at least I had some last minute snacks to take in and some party clothes to change into. We made myself a placemat and everything, it was reallly good but there was a dsitinct lack of pudding.
And I was thrilled at nursery when they told us we'd won the 'guess how many sweets are in the jar' competition. Two huge jars of sweets, well done mum!
And then it snowed on the last day of term, not much, but enough for me and my friends to start rolling a bit of a snowball in the playground. I rolled it all the way home (well except for the bits I lopped off to throw at people) and after much effort and scouting for twigs and stones we came up with this masterpiece:

So thats it, no more school until next year! I said goodbye to all my friends and bought home the last of my massive haul of cards (I keep counting them to dad, he hasn't really got any).
Even more exciting was that I got a lift into nursery with Mum in Hugo's car! How you like that Ned then? His mum drove me, Mum, Luca and Matice all into nursery, I we loved it, all sat in the back together!
Saturday was proper exciting, the tree finally went up after sitting in the garage for a week:

Ned was allowed to cut the bag off and when he did the last snip the whole thing opened up, brilliant. Here's dad and I giving the tree a nice long drink of water:

And here I am getting ready to hang the decorations on:

We were chomping at the bit to get it decorated but Dad insisted on putting the boring lights on first...it took him ages. Still, once he was done we threw every decoration in the box at the tree and it looked brilliant!
Saturday evening then, party time for me!
And panto time for me!
I went ot Leo's party with all the gang, a special thanks to the Halfords for looking after me and feeding me several thoudand crisps and of course to Andy who very kindly fitted me with my bedtime nappy and put my pj's on when I asked him to. I don't know why I was soon keen to get ready for bed as I will still well on it at 10 when the panto gang came back.
Yeah, Panto gang, Puss in Boots at the corn exchange. We went with Auntie Trish, Auntie Christine, Owen and Hannah as well as mum and dad. Things started well with a coke from the bar and my very own lightsabre to wave about (thanks Trish, sorry to the man who sat in front of me, I think I may have knighted him several times).
I loved the show, especially the big song and dance bits, and I also loved me and Auntie Christine getting a mention during the show, even though I got the spotlight on me and a wave from pretty much the entire audience. I politley waved back of course. I really enjoyed the songs, Especially 'fight for this love' (Cheryl Cole, Dad not too impressed) and 'Eat (Use) somebody' (Kings of Leon, Dad much happier). By the time we got back to the party I was pretty worn out so I had a few nibbles and then crashed out on Max's bed watching his new telly.
So of course sunday was a bit of a lie in and then we got creative, this time making some christmas crackers to have with our lunch. We did one each:

And here is the fruits of our labour! They even went bang when you pulled them (well, some of them did). We put hats, a joke and a chocolate santa inside!

In the afternoon we went ot visit Yanna and Fen for our usual christmas trip. Anday came too, which was of course a welcome result. We saw their new rabbits (very cute indeed), we played in the garden in the snow with Kin dragging us up and down on a sledge (the less said about Dad's attempts at this the better, lets just say he struggled to stay upright).

And then we had early presents, not sure how come these one slip past Santa but hey ho, we're not complaining at all. We had lovely toys to play with:

Before we were dragged outside:

And taken to see some of the most impressive grizzy's ever!

They even moved:

Then of course it snowed properly:

We made a much bigger snowman than last time:

We went out with the sledge, pulling each other along, threw snowballs and generally loved it!

I was first to feel the cold and soon called Beebies and a warm sofa....I left the boys outside until even they had to come in and thaw out.

It took ages to drive down and get mum, I couldn't work out why everyone was driving sooooo slowly!

We had a after work dash to the shops to pick up all the christmas food, the less said about this the better really, Ned and I didn't exactly shower ourselves in glory in the shops.

And then we headed home for seasonal pizza, pepperami baubles and no tomato sauce, just how we like them:

Mum was at home with us this morning, we convinced her that what we ought to do was go down the park and then on to the shop, by sledge of course! I even pulled mum along, i'm so strong. Not that she's that heavy of course......

I wanted to go out in my shorts, on my bike! I was overruled on both counts though.

And the excitment just keeps on coming, school trip to the Panto in Basingstoke on Thursday. We went on the coach and everything, it was brilliant, even if I was a little bit nervous (due to a trip to see beauty and the beast when I was 3, it was a little scary then). We had a great time, there were even people from the telly (Toonattik on ITV) in it as well.
And then on Friday I got to be the performer for a bit in the dress rehearsal for our nativity play at school.
Yep, Dad and I went along to watch as we're otherwise engaged in the mornings.
I must admit, my focus wasn't really on the play as i was more interested in waving at Dad and Ellis and playing with my tassle from my headgear. I think it's because the part of a villager wasn't really challenging enough for a performer of my calibre.
We had a late call from auntie Christine after tea on friday to ask if she could come and play and we could send mum and dad out, we made some swift arrangements and it was on! We were so excited that she was coming we couldn't wait to get rid of Mum and Dad. She wore us out good and proper and sent us off to bed with some lovely light up Santa snow shakers, which we love almost as much as Mum does!
So then, weekend business. As usual all we wanted to do was slouch about, watch telly and draw pictures (some of my seasonal inspired pieces have been getting me a lot of praise lately). As usual though we had to go out somewhere...shouldn't complain though as we went Christmas tree shopping to Yattendon.
We had a dance with Santa of course:

We pleased Dad no end by taking ages to find the right tree, he normally complains when Mum and I want the first one we see.
Which was all very well and good but I didn't have coat and it was cold outside!
By the time we had chosen it was dark so we took the long way home to admire some grizzys!
We even got the christmas glasses out when we got home, things are building up to the big day very nicely!
We had no such lazy luck on Sunday and we were forced out to the woods with our bikes, I managed to get quite a speed up and was even pretty keen on some off roading:

I found some great tracks to ride:

But after a while i'd had enough of the bike and decided to walk with Mum:

And take a nice rest:

We went home, had lunch and fell asleep for an afternoon nap, before Mum woke us up and dragged us into town to see 'Rêve D’Herbert' by Quidams, sounds a bit fancy doesn't it? It was people on stilts, whose suits puffed up and then had lights inside them. I didn't really like the look of them to begin with if the truth be told, but I warmed to them in the end.

I loved it, especially chasing them up Northbrook street and into the market place where there was music and a big glowing balloon that they released into the sky.

Back to school then and the first day of the Nativity play proper. Mum came along and got treated to a very similar performance that Dad saw, with my focus in waving and tassle wafting. I think she was quite impressed with my efforts when my class did our song though. She got a programme with a cast list in it, I was listed as the first of the villagers! I must have been important or something.

Dad picked me up from nursery on the bike which is always a treat, even in this cold weather. What makes it even better is when you see Andy driving his van and he gives you a wave! Made my day that did!

Well we've been full of coughs and sneezes lately.....sniff sniff.
Yeah, I even got sent home from nursery for having a temperature and being a bit on the dozy side. Mum came to get me, we went home and cuddled up, watched some Cbeebies, some Loose Women....I soon felt much better and was back at nursery the next day.
Friday aftenoon was my Christmas Bazaar at school, how exciting. Dad timed it to perfection, he arrived just after i'd been round with my friends from class, so then I got to go around all over again with him and Ellis.
Oh I loved it, especially when I won a jar of sweets almost as big as me...
.....much bigger than the jar I won too!
We queued up for ages to see father christmas, despite Ned and Dad coaching me I was still a bit wary of the big man in red. He asked me what i wanted for christmas, my one word answer was 'pink' I'm not sure what I wanted, but as long as whatever it is is pink i'm okay.
Then I got asked the tough question....what did I want for christmas....ummm.....aaaaaaah.....I didn't know! He advised me to go home, have a good think about it and write him a letter instead.
So the weekend and we finally had a proper trip out! The seaside to be precise. We had a trawl around a couple of surf shops, Owen and I tried on some silly hats that are supposed to keep your head warm in the cold sea....all they did was remove chunks of my hair and try to take my face off. Still, we got to laugh at Andy trying wetsuits on which appears to be rather hard work...ha ha. He had the last laugh though when he went in the sea with Dad and Owen in his new purchase:

It didn't look all that inviting:

So I gave it a miss, bought myself a cool surfers necklace with a fish on it, ate picnic foods, scrounged chips and created some driftwood sculptures on the shore.

Those sharp cookies amongst you will notice I actually wore a coat!
Sunday then and Grandad and Anne were coming round for lunch, we really were most excited. Especially as it was his birthday. A special occasion obviously demands a special cake so we set to work on this little beauty:

A steam train of course:

With a candle in the funnel, he loved it!

Almost as much as we did making it and then of course eating it all.....every last bit!
We had a walk down to the park in the afternoon, I got to show off my new bike riding prowess.
And I got to stay longer at the park than everyone else as Hugo, his brothers and his Mum and Dad also came out to play when they saw us. Brilliant, we climbed trees and even played a game called rugby with a funny shaped ball before they walked me home later. I did mention quietly when I got in though that I had missed Mum and Dad...only a little bit though you understand.
And then today was our school chritmas lunch, it was cool, I even got to sit next to Hugo which was ace, even if I did end up with a gravy soaked stuffing ball in my hat.......