Christmas as seen by three children

L opened up the dressing up costume we’d bought her: “Wow! It’s a net curtain and some wings!” Utterly chuffed to be receiving a pink net curtain with little flowers on, plus some pink wings. Her delight didn’t diminish when I showed her that the net curtain was part of a fairy dress, and the wings attached to it.

We got her a steering wheel thing to plug into the computer so that she could play simple driving games on it without getting frustrated with the keyboard or mouse. It came in a box about a foot cubed. She saw the box and said: “Wow! A big stone!” Still excited when I explained to her what it was. (She now has a bit of unaccustomed power as she has something that J and K want her to share with them, rather than her wanting to share something of theirs.)

We could have saved a bit of money if we’d just bought her a net curtain and a big stone, and it appears she would have been just as pleased!

On Boxing Day we headed over to Katy’s uncle and aunt to see lots of nice relatives and eat lots of nice food. At lunch today, out of the blue she said to Katy’s aunt “When I was sick Mummy gived me some alcohol to make me feel better.” Fortunately she knows us all well enough to know how to interpret that i.e. to smile, say “oh really?” and then ignore!

K had been asking for a remote control Thunderbird 2 (without even checking that they existed :roll:) and unfortunately one couldn’t be located in time. There was a substitute waiting in his stocking as left by Father Christmas, and when he found it he said “Wow! Look J! A remote control Thunderbird 2!” (Slightly related aside: J has bagged ownership of Thunderbird 1, and so is Scott in all Thunderbird games. K is happy being Virgil and being the pilot of Thunderbird 2. I think L is usually Lady Penelope.) Anyway, Katy and I groaned inwardly and weren’t sure how to bring him down gently. I went over to him and said “Oh wow! A Thunderbird 2 torch!” This then prompted “Look J, a remote control Thunderbird 2 torch!” Over the course of Christmas Day the “remote control” part was gradually dropped with no loss of happiness, so I think we’ve dodged a bullet :).

Katy had bought some stocking making kits from the Early Learning Centre, which we made up on Christmas Eve. They were really good – pre-cut felt with sewing holes ready made, with a nice blunt plastic needle and lots of wool to put it all together. Katy ended up doing L’s for her, K did the easier bits of his and then I finished it under his direction, but J did all of his apart from the tricky knot-related bits. Katy showed him how to do whip stitch (something I learned too 🙂 ) and he did a really good job.

His protracted journey to bed included putting out some coffee in a thermos mug, a mince pie and a mint for Santa, and a parsnip, a pear and an orange for Rudolph. At some point along the way he said good night to his stocking, and at one point came downstairs again saying he’d forgotten to give his stocking a cuddle goodnight. This seemed to be an earnest request to cuddle his (empty) stocking, so I obliged and packed him off to bed again :roll:. He stayed awake for ages, which made our rummaging through plastic bags outside his room seem even noisier.