We Believe In Father Christmas!

December has arrived, and with it the flourishes of sparkle and glitter that I can't help gravitate toward. This year I felt like I needed to get the decorations up early. Leo is 6 and excited doesn't seem a strong enough word to describe how he feels about the festive season this year, and after a few weekend's full of Christmas fun I thought that there was no time like the present to get the tree out from it's long slumber.

Pickering's Gin Baubles are sitting pride of place at the top of our Christmas Tree this year! RRP £30.00

I can't help feeling that the magic Leo feels at Christmas is going to be snatched away in the next couple of years, and I know that is what ultimately lit the fire in my Christmas Spirit. I know it's cliche but seeing how excited Leo gets about the magic, about Father Christmas and about his scout Elf, I can't help wanting to bottle it up and keep it alive for as long as I possibly can. I am sure that I am not alone in reliving the childhood magic of Christmas through my child, and it is true when they say that Christmas is at it's most magical when you see it through the eyes of your child.

Home Bargains Christmas Range 2017

This week I faced my very first Father Christmas question that threatened his very existence. I was shocked as I hadn't expected it, and quite honestly it was not something that I thought would be questioned at the mere age of 6 years old. But there it was, the statement to end all statements. A child at school had told him that Father Christmas wasn't real and it was in fact the parent's who put the presents under the tree. Isn't it sad that at 6 years old there is a child in the same year as Leo that has had the magic snatched away from him for whatever reason? Not only that though, he was now systematically trying to steal the magic away for as many children in his class as he could.

I looked Leo in the eyes, I told him how sad it was that this little boy didn't believe in the magic and Santa Claus. I told him that maybe this particular child's parents had to buy his presents and put them under the tree Christmas morning, maybe this child was on Santa's naughty list, and of course Santa only comes to those who truly believe.

Maybe this was harsh, but I will not stand there and watch the magic drain out of my 6 year old's Christmas, no way no how. Thankfully we have Emmanuel our Scout Elf around to help with the magic of Christmas, and Leo's faith has not been rocked in the slightest.

If you have children who no longer believe in the man in Red, please explain to them that there are children who still do, and it is not fair to rob them of that. When the time comes that Leo knows the truth, then I will sit down with him and have a real heart to heart, I will remind him of all the magic and excitement he experienced when he did believe, and I will make sure that he knows, and I will make sure that he understands how important it is not to take those same experiences and memories away from any other child.

Leo said to me that night 'Mummy of course Santa is real, his elves make some very expensive presents and we couldn't afford all those!'. That made me beam inside, you see even though Leo believes in Father Christmas and his magical workshop, and he doesn't know that it is Mummy and Daddy spoiling him rotten, he has a beautiful appreciation for absolutely everything that he receives. People have said to me before that they wouldn't say that all of the toy haul comes from the North Pole, because they worry that they won't get the appreciation for the gifts. Personally for me, I would rather keep that magical fire stoked and watch as Leo's eyes widen and sparkle with each gift he unwraps. There is so much time ahead for Leo to know who is really behind the present giving, and for me it is enough recognition to see how happy he is on Christmas morning.

With Christmas Spirit on our side Leo and I popped the tree up and fluffed up it's snowy white  branches, up and up it went until finally it stood tall in all of it's splendor.

My little believer and I.

Home Bargains Christmas Range 2017

 I strung the lights and then Leo lovingly placed each bauble, before we finally completed our most colourful tree yet with a Christmas star right at the very top. Were all about colours, it's not about having the most perfect colour co-ordinated tree, it's about having fun and putting our own spin on it.

Leo has written his letter to the man in Red, and for the first time ever has wanted to write it and send it off to him. Together we sat down and I helped him get out what he wanted to say, and then he put it all down on paper himself. For anyone who has been following Leo's journey over the years, you will know just how far he has come, and I quite honestly could not be any prouder of him if I tried. He is quite simply coming along in leaps and bounds, and he deserves the most amazing Christmas. 

He hasn't really asked for a lot this year, he would be happy with a new game for his Switch collection, but I know that if he unwrapped a new 3DS XL on December 25th he would be absolutely over the moon. Being the thoughtful soul that he is, Leo even tried to downgrade the XL claim in preference of the smaller version because he didn't think he could ask for a new case too.

 If you have a look at the bottom of his list you will see that he has asked for 2 Amiibo's, Link and Princess Peach. The Princess Peach he has asked for, he doesn't want for himself, he want's her for me. My heart melted when he told me this, so I may have gone a little crazy with the Amiibo purchases...


We are really making the most of what this Christmas has to offer, with each year that passes we are teetering on the edge of a discovery that will take away so much sparkle of the festive season. I know it is not all about believing in Father Christmas, magic and gifts, but that combined with the magical ways we spend time together as a family, for instance our annual trip on the Santa Express each Christmas eve,  it will really impact the way we celebrate Christmas once the ugly truth comes out.

I for one am willing to protect the most innocent of white lies for as long as I physically can, and I am going to make the very most of the time we have left. So this year we have decorated to the nines, gone a little crazy with gifts (if you can't spoil them at Christmas, when can you eh?), and we are counting down the days until Christmas Eve.

Our mischievous little elf will be sticking around and causing trouble, and we will be making sure that this is the most magical Christmas to date!

Christmas 2015

Christmas was here in the very blink of an eye, the weeks had gone by so very quickly and your excitement had simply grown beyond anything I have ever seen before. This year you couldn't stop talking about Santa Clause, you knew that on Christmas Eve he would be flying through the skies on his way to bring all of the good boys and girls gifts to open on Christmas morning. 

All you had asked for was a racing car like Mummy's. A blue Mini Cooper that you would be able to drive yourself. When Father Christmas asked what you wanted, you replied with exactly this, and he promised you that he would do his very best. This in turn made you beam for ear to ear, and you came away even more excited for the big day.

We cuddled up on the sofa on that magical night before Christmas to watch the Snowman while you opened up your Christmas Eve box and found an abundance of treats waiting for you. The magic of the night sparkled in your eyes and echoed across your face. A true innocence witnessing such wonder in the ordinary world wrapped around us, it was enough to make even the Grinch get into the Christmas spirit.

I put you to bed early on Christmas Eve explaining that the sooner you drifted off to sleep, the sooner Santa would arrive. The sooner you would wake up and see the treats that Santa had delivered in the night. Of course being four years old, being as excited as you were.. Sleep didn't come easily. At 10pm you were still wide awake fighting off sleep in the hope of catching a glimpse of the man in red himself.

You slept in later than I had expected on Christmas morning, but once you were awake I couldn't keep you upstairs. You found your stocking and shrieked with excitement as you bounded around the room in your rather gorgeous new Joules Pyjamas, and with that you were leading me downstairs to the lounge where the Christmas Tree was standing tall and proud over all of the gifts that now lay beneath.

With eyes shining like glass and a smile as wide as the moon, you asked if you could open a present. We found one out for you and the gift opening commenced, it became apparent that this year you wouldn't need weeks or even months to open them as you have in recent years, we would quite easily open them within a few hours at the rate you were going.

Once the gifts under the tree had been exhausted I turned to you. 'Leo, did you get your racing car?' your head lowered and the happy expression that had once illuminated your face went dark. There was no racing car in sight, and you looked incredibly disappointed, we seized the opportunity to go and cook up some breakfast in an attempt to put that smile back where it belonged.

I recall sitting at the kitchen table, and I had already spotted a shiny red racing car in the corner of the room.. I tried to call you over so that you could discover it for yourself, but your stubborn head had come out to play. You even started to whine, until suddenly the penny dropped and out of the corner of your eye... You saw the car that was sat waiting for you!

Of course you had to go outside to play right away. There was absolutely no messing around to be done here, not when there was such a beautiful new racing car to be broken in. You spent most of the morning whizzing around and getting used to the controls. and in fairness you handled it very well. Your face when you slipped it in the fastest mode might have been the highlight of my day, as your face spoke a 1000 words in that split second you leaped forward.

The rest of the day was spent playing with new toys and sorting them all into your room. I had just installed a brand new bed into your room, a ladder bed. It had been something you had wanted for a long time, and the timing seemed perfect. It meant that your crowded room was completely de-cluttered, all of your toys had a home and you had so much floor space to now enjoy.

With everything upstairs it was time to sit down for Christmas dinner, you had been really looking forward to it, but at the very last minute decided that you would rather have a ham sandwich (a Christmas Sandwich as you called it...). So while the rest of the family tucked into a tasty Turkey with all the trimmings, you enjoyed your sandwich. You did enjoy pulling crackers with Granddad though and the table was full of laughter throughout the meal.

After lunch you took me out for a drive in your racing car, you placed a protective arm around me and chauffeured me like the superstar that you are.

It was a beautiful Christmas and watching you enjoy the magic of the season was the most amazing feeling yet.

Here's to another amazing year, whatever this year may bring.

Christmas 2014

As Christmas morning arrived Leo awoke. It was still early when I heard the plodding of his size 11 feet coming along the landing. He had awoken and made his way straight to my room, completely missing the stocking full of presents hung on the inside of his bedroom door. It didn't take Leo long to clamber into bed and ask for the Lego Movie to be popped on the television, but it was a nice quiet half hour as we all came around and woke up slowly. Eventually I fetched the stocking of gifts so that Leo could sit quietly in bed and open them, to my surprise it became apparent that he wasn’t in the mood for presents quite yet.

Once we had all managed to keep our eyes open we made our way downstairs, only to come face to face with an abundance of Christmas presents. Santa really had been in the night! The excitement bubbled in Leo and he raced towards the Christmas Tree to find a present to open, but as Daddy was not yet downstairs, Leo was informed he had to be patient and wait a little bit longer to open his gifts. Of course informing a 3 year old to ‘wait’ when it comes to opening presents went down like a lead balloon… And somewhere between then and Daddy making his arrival in the living room we had lost Leo to a rather bad mood. Even when instructed that he could now begin opening his gifts, Leo was not interested, he did not want to play ball. Leo strode over to the lounge door and said ‘I don’t like you! I slam the door!’ and proceeded to do just that, before having a cry on the stairs… It wasn’t exactly the morning of excitement I had in mind!

I happened to know of one special gift that Santa had brought for Leo, a gift that he had set up on the landing all ready for one very lucky little boy, and at this point it seemed like the only way to put a smile back on his face again. Taking him in my arms I carried Leo back up the stairs to where there was a rather big present, I began to help him remove the wrapping paper until we revealed Leo’s shiny new train table! Of course as soon as he saw the tracks lay in wait, he couldn’t un-wrap the rest quickly enough.

This was where Leo spent the first few hours of Christmas, and I suddenly remembered why we had wanted to wait until later to show him where Santa had left this present… Once Leo’s mood had made a complete U-turn and those dark grey clouds had cleared from over his head, we knew it was safe to head back downstairs and begin opening some more of Santa’s gifts.

The morning quickly dissolved into the afternoon and as usual Christmas was running on full speed ahead. Presents were slowly opened and then played with before moving on to anything else, which of course is why it took Leo a good few days to open all of his gifts, but it was so lovely to see him enjoying and appreciating each of his new possessions.

With such a busy morning behind us we were all really pleased to sit down for Christmas lunch, Roast Turkey and all the trimmings, Pigs in Blankets, Roast Potatoes and Stuffing. A feast fit for a king, Leo had been talking about Christmas Dinner for weeks on the run up to the big day, but I knew he was going to take one look at it and refuse to eat it… I was right. He did. So while the rest of the family tucked into a delicious lunch… Leo decided he would sit and eat Brioche before discovering a love for Cheese and biscuits and feasted away on many of those!

We pulled crackers…Leo almost went flying on more than one occasion, but he spent the entire time chuckling away. He even wore his cracker hat with the rest of us before quickly running away back to his train table at the end of the meal.

The evening was spent over at Leo’s Granddad’s partners house, where even more gifts were bestowed upon him, more food was consumed and Mummy may have had one or two glasses of bubbly! With the moon high in the sky and Christmas day coming to an end, we let some fireworks off into the night sky to see a final dazzle of glitter before Christmas was over.

Leo received some lovely gifts and I am still trying to sort through his toy boxes in order to make room. His favourite gifts by far were his Nintendo 2DS which is proving a luxury on car trips and meals out in order to keep him entertained, and of course the Train Table that is getting daily play action.

Another Christmas has shone like a shooting star and twinkled away for another year, but seeing Leo enjoy the magic and listen out for Santa Clause was such a beautiful experience, and this is just the very tip of the magic to come.

Christmas Eve 2014

It’s Christmas Eve and the house is now silent,

Leo is in bed after much adieu about going.

The excitement and magic is in full swing tonight,

and there is no way that it is going to be slowing.

The man in red is soon to be on his way,

and Leo is on the lookout for the one and only sleigh.

He’s gone off to bed full of hopes for tomorrow,

Knowing when he wakes all the magic that will follow.

The Night Before Christmas was the book he was read,

‘Santa’s coming Mummy!’ was all that he said.

The story finished and he lay in in my arms,

Cuddles and excited chatter as I succumb to Leo’s charms.

Whispers of magic and coos of delight,

It will be hours before he goes down for the night.

A mince pie and milk await old Santa Clause,

While he breaks for a moment and relaxes his annual chores.

For when Leo awakes in the morning he’ll know,

That Santa has been and put on a rather splendid show!

As wrapping flies and the gifts are unsealed,

The magic of the day is being revealed.

For one little boy this is a very big year,

For it’s the very first one that it all becomes clear.

The house falls still as everyone sleeps,

And in only a few hours Leo will peep.

So for now it’s time for bed,

To catch some shut eye for this sleepy head.

From Life Unexpected we wish you a Merry Christmas!

Christmas 2013

Awaking on Christmas day slightly later than usual was a great way to start the day. Especially as I was still suffering from what I can only describe as the flu. Aches and pains, a sore throat and headaches were plaguing me, and I lost all hope of being 100% healthy when my voice decided it still didn’t want to come out and play. Symptoms aside I had been really excited about Christmas, especially now Leo was older and could really take part.

We spent Christmas with my family, and Leo was tucked up in bed and soundly asleep by 8pm. All ready to get a good night’s sleep and be ready for all of the fun and games of Christmas Day…

This year was the very first year that Leo was at an age to really get involved, it was the very first year that he opened presents himself with excirement and curiosity. Upon entering the living room to see the mountain of presents that Santa had left for the entire family, Leo’s eyes widened and he was soon traipsing through the gifts, stowing away with the ones that took his fancy. Even if they weren’t actually for him. 

We sat together and opened his stocking first, but waited for everyone to come in and join us so that we could all marvel in Leo’s reaction. Santa could have left lumps of cole I that stocking, Leo was so pleased by the Buzz Lightyear and Disney’s Car’s wrapping paper that it wouldn’t have mattered what had been inside of it.

Leo was handed his presents by his Auntie Alice, and he slowly but surely tore off the paper hiding away his gift. One of the very first things Leo opened was his new Buzz Lightyear doll, and as soon as he laid eyes on Buzz… Leo was no longer interested in opening presents. Buzz was the only toy he had eyes for.

The opening of presents took most of the day (and then some), but that was really nice as it actually gave Leo chance to play with the new toys that he had already received.

Having the whole family at home was a really great way to spend Christmas, the kids played, the adults watched and prepared for a tasty Turkey dinner. Somewhere amongst it all Leo discovered a very special gift, a gift from Mumma and Dadda….

Leo’s very own Lightning McQueen Electric Car. Suffice to say that when Leo pulled back the paper and realised exactly what was underneath, it was like all of my Christmas’s had come at once. His eyes lit up and his smile grew, and before I knew it Leo was sat in the seat and ready to give it a test run.

Granddad soon voiced his dis-pleasure at the apparent skid marks Leo may have left in the carpet, so both Leo and the car were soon zooming around outside…

After lot’s of driving, zooming and toddler fun, Leo was desperate for a nap. As soon as those tired eyes closed, Leo was asleep right up until Christmas Dinner was being served. I had to gently bring him around as I didn’t want him to miss the fun of eating with everyone, and pulling crackers!

This year really was the start of the magic for Leo, the understanding that Santa brings presents and that Christmas is a time full of wonder and excitement really shone through. As usual though the day went by far too quickly, but although next Christmas is still a year away, I hold special memories of our special day, and I look forward to building on the magic that Leo has already witnessed.

Next year Leo will be 3 and a half years old, and the magic will ring louder than it ever has before. And if this year is anything to go by, it is going to be very special.

The Night Before Christmas

It was the night before Christmas and the entire house was asleep,

Not even Leo could be heard to be making a peep.

Little man was snuggled soundly up in his bed,

as Lightning McQueen spun circles around in his head.

The Christmas Tree was alight to greet old Saint Nick,

Who flew down the chimney so much quicker than quick.

A sack over his shoulder and a glimmer in his eye,

He lay down the gifts and took the home made mince pie.

Then out on the lawn I saw the reindeer land,

They had seen Santa sip one to many… and he was struggling to stand!

He took his time to lay down each gift with care,

and was doing a grand job until he tripped over the chair.

There was a thud and a wallop, A crash and a bang

And when he fell on his bum, oh how he sang!

The reindeer jingled and jangled their bells as they cheered Santa on,

And before I knew it the man in red had gone.

Saint Nick had stumbled back to the sleigh,

And taken a mince pie to eat along on his merry way.

Rudolph had found the carrot that had been left for his tea,

And Santa smiled revelling in all of the glee.

Santa began to whistle and shout with each hiccup and pout

as he called each Reindeer by name.

‘Now Dasher, now Dancer, Now Prancer & Vixen, On Comet, On Cupid, On Donder and Blitzen’

‘To the top of the house and onto the South, and no more sherry for me,

No not tonight!’

The jolly man on his sleigh was now well on his way,

And as he flew past my perch on the window I heard him say..

‘Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!’

I couldn’t help but giggle to myself as his sleigh flew completely out of sight.

Merry Christmas to all my readers from both Leo and I.

And to all I bid you goodnight.

It is the season

Since the 1^st of December we have welcomed Christmas into our home, we have embraced the season with open arms and happily taken part in this magical time.

We have dutifully helped you open your advent calendar each and every day, and you have munched your way through 16 chocolate coins so far. You wake up and tell me ‘chocolate draw’ until we head over to the Advent House and see what treats today has in store for us.

Your excitement about this season has been so wonderful, heading out in the car after the sun has set and the moon has risen is always a treat. You see Christmas as we scootle along in the car, and get so excited by the lights that everybody have placed to celebrate Christmas 2013. The big old Christmas tree at the end of the road and the big old house just around the corner who always have their lights up year in and year out.

Your little face when you finally tried your very first hot chocolate.

You mmmm'd and arhhh'd in all of the right places. 

You pulled the mug out of my hands,

You demanded more.

So I decided to share my hot chocolate with my little guy on a cold December's Winter's day, and now you have discovered this simple pleasure you can rest assured that we will be sharing many more this Christmas.

I don’t expect you will eat your Christmas dinner this year, but I know you will happily un-wrap presents, pull crackers and don party hats!

You will go to sleep as always on Christmas Eve not realising that when you wake up on Christmas morning, Santa will have paid us all a visit in the night. You will spend the morning opening all of your wonderful gifts and I will be there just watching your face as you realise what is inside each and every parcel. There will be lots of playing and lots of tidying up to do by the end of the day.

I love that each year you are gaining more of an understanding, looking back over your last 2 Christmas’s in photographs show me how grown up you now are. Your very first Christmas saw you as a baby in arms, just shy of 6 months old. Far too little to really know that anything was going on, but you shone so bright with each smile you beamed at us.

Last Christmas you were 18 months old, much bigger and much wiser. Back then you seemed so incredibly grown up, feeding your baby Josh and pushing him around in your new pushchair.. But now I can see that this year is truly the start of the magic. The start of an understanding that is going to get more exciting as each year goes by.

You know that something is going on, and have taken part in so much this year. But you don’t realise that this is simply the build up to one big day of magic and family. But next year.. Next year you will. 

A Very Merry Christmas

Christmas is a very special time of year, even more so for me these days with Leo around.

I love how everyone gets together and spends that one day a year breaking food and enjoying each other's company. I have to say that I absolutely adore the run up to the big day, the excitement and magic that this one day a year brings in it's wake.

Christmas Eve is pure magic, the anticipation is enough to awaken the child in any grown up and for me I just cannot wait to see the look on Leo's face as he begins to un-wrap his gifts.

This Christmas was Leo's second and in a year the differences in him are astounding.

On Christmas Eve we packed our car full of goodies and drove the 2 minute drive up the road to my parents house, the car was full to bursting and after taking a rather long time to pack it all in...I then had to un-pack it at our destination. 

Santa popped by on Christmas Eve, not that we saw him...But some gifts for Leo were left. Santa had brought Leo big boy pajamas and his very first pair of slippers in preparation for his nightly slumber.

The stockings were hung and after we put out a mince pie (home made I hasten to add!) a glass of milk and of course a carrot for the hungry Rudolph, Leo was put to bed, where he dreamed his dreams until at least 9am. In the mad house this time on Christmas Day is un-heard of, normally we are up before the sun even rears his sleepy head. With my younger siblings getting older, it seems that they now tend to sleep longer, even at Christmas.

We all arrived in the lounge to find that Father Christmas has indeed graced us with his presence this year, and the amount of gifts under the tree insinuates that we have all been incredibly good this year...Santa must have missed all the mischief that Leo get's up to and I am guessing he certainly does not read this blog! 

I had in-visioned Leo running around and opening every present in sight, the same way he devours the newspaper as soon as it is posted through the letter box. But actually Leo was very restrained, he opened a present and was presented with a baby doll. A little baby boy. As soon as he saw baby in the box Leo took him over to his Uncle and waited patiently for him to open it. Leo then brought baby and the baby's toy milk bottle over to me so that he could feed him. It was lovely watching Leo play with him and really interact, but it was clear that Leo didn't want to open anything else after that first gift!

I managed to hide baby so that we could open more presents together. A pram, a sit and ride train, a quad bike and play food soon joined his expanding gift pile, but it was far to obvious that he was not interested in the act of present opening but more the playing that followed after. It was great seeing him get the play value out of everything and you could really see he was enjoying every moment, despite the  over whelmed look on his little face.

Christmas lunch did not appeal to Leo, he didn't even devour any pigs in blankets...I thought he would love the sausages! Leo merely picked at his dinner and pushed it around his plate. However he did take to dipping his fingers in the bread sauce and exclaiming 'yum!'.

Leo discovered Christmas Crackers this year and even got to pull one with his Uncle, despite the odds of winning being against him. Leo won! He worse his crown with pride and 

Since having Leo Christmas Day has become extra busy as so many people want to see my little man and enjoy the moments of him opening his gifts. So after spending the day at my parent's we headed over to Luke's Dad's so that we could give them that special time.

Leo was reluctant to open yet more gifts and avoided the presents, and would show interest in everything but! He finally opened up the rubber bath ducks and decided the best way to play with them was by throwing them at Granddad and shouting 'B'.

Christmas carried on for Leo well into Boxing Day when we visited his Nanny and Granddad where yet more presents were waiting for him. The over night break seemed to give Leo the motivation to get on opening more presents, a tool bench complete with tools, a hop along bunny rabbit and even a nursery rhyme CD for the car. 

Santa even came along to pay the kiddly winks a visit, and as expected Leo was not a fan! He quite happily took the gifts that Santa was baring, but Leo left the rest of the detail to be desired.

Poor little Leo topped off Boxing Day by coming down with a viral infection. He went down for his nap perfectly ok and then awoke completely out of character and with a raging temperature. 

He spent the rest of the evening cuddled up and very lethargic. We had a pretty rough night with little man and had to keep bringing his temperature back down, but by the next day Leo was well on a the mend again!

Leo's second Christmas has been wonderful, and even now a week later, we still have a Santa Sack full of gifts for Leo to still un-wrap. Even now that all the Christmas decorations have come down and we are met with the bleak January gloom, we still have those special memories of all the magic that took place.

I hope you have all had a very merry Christmas and are now easing back into the day to day runnings!

Happy New Year!

Laura

xx

The Bloggers Secret Santa 2012

Hello everyone!

The lovely very lovely Vikki from Love From Mummy and I have been discussing all things Christmas, which is now just around the corner!

We thought it would be a great idea and hopefully lots of fun to organise a Secret Santa for bloggers to participate in. 

I'm sure everyone is aware of what a Secret Santa is, but for those of you unfamiliar with it, it's a Christmas tradition in which members of a group or community are randomly assigned a person to whom they anonymously give a gift.

We thought it would be a fantastic way to bring the blogging community together and get everyone in the Christmas spirit.

 Terms & Conditions:

*All bloggers wishing to participate MUST complete the form here. 

*Registration will close on Friday 2nd November 2012, all forms must be submitted by this date.

*This secret santa is open to bloggers from the UK only.

*All data will be collated and bloggers will then be matched at random. 

*Once your secret santa has been allocated, you will be emailed with their details and may visit their blog to get some ideas of what gifts they may like, as well as using the information provided to you by us.

*The maximum amount you are allowed to spend on your secret santa's gift is £10.00

*Your gift MUST be posted out no later than Friday 14th December 2012.

*When you have received your gift, you must write a blog post about it ASAP and link back to your hosts www.lovefrommummy.co.uk and www.thelifeandtimesoftheworkingmum.com 

*When your post is published, email the URL to secretsanta@lovefrommummy.co.uk

*Don't forget this is NOT a swap so the person you are buying for will not necessarily be the person buying for you.

If you would like to take part then please complete the form here by Friday 2nd November 2012.

Thank You!

Laura & Vikki

xxx

Leo's First Christmas

Dear Leo,

This Christmas was your very first, the tree was ready and your stocking was hung, awaiting the many presents that Santa was bringing in on his sleigh. My excitement must have rubbed off on you, as there was no way you were going to sleep. Despite my greatest efforts you were awake until gone 10pm on Christmas Eve.

I tried explaining how Santa just would not come until you rested your head and closed those brilliant blue eyes of yours, but still....you just would not sleep. I have to admit, you were lovely company and the giggles you provided were a real treat on every ones expectant ears.

When you finally went down, Daddy and I ensured that Santa would have a glass of milk and a well deserved mince pie. After everything was in place we all made our way to bed.

Even I couldn't sleep on Christmas Eve. It was like being a child again and the excitement was alive in all of us...and I swear that in the early hours of the morning....just after you had awoken for a bottle...I heard the sleigh land with a thump on the roof and a clutter of hooves dancing along the roof slats, a few moments later I heard a thud down stairs! I can only imagine that Santa had just clambered down the chimney and was now delivering your many presents!

I settled you back down and again retired to bed, only to be awoken early on Christmas day, 7am in fact and it wasn't long before the rest of the family made their way downstairs to the masses and masses of presents that had appeared under the tree!

Santa had indeed been in the night and it looked as though his work shop had exploded in the front room! There had never been more presents than their had been this year. We all sat and helped you open your stocking.....before you proceeded to fall asleep on Daddy's new gaming bean bag for what felt like forever...

Leo you had woken up so early that you were still too sleepy to even consider staying awake, when you did finally wake up...your Aunt and Uncle had done a Taz Manian Devil type of hurricane around the Christmas tree, and the living room was now covered in wrapping paper. I looked over at the tree and realised that the majority of what was left...was all yours. Santa must have seen what a well behaved baby boy I have, and rewarded accordingly.

We helped you open all your presents....you were a pro at getting into your gifts. Although it has to be said...you would have just been happy with the wrapping paper. Although I expect next year when you are running around...this will all change.

Leo, you were supposed to have your first taste of Turkey and Christmas dinner, but just as dinner was served up, you let me know that you were ready for yet another...nap! So I took you up to bed and tucked you in, there was no fight put up from you and you fell asleep...instantly. Missing the entire lunch festivities.

Christmas dinner was Turkey with all the trimmings...and we all tucked in, while you were busy dreaming little dreams in the land of nod.

With the day drawing to an end, you still had many presents under the tree and when we had finally opened all of them. I had to wonder where we were going to house them!?

• A Winnie the Pooh Walker...
• A Fisher-Price Amazing Animals Choo-Choo Train...
• A big Mickey Mouse...
• A plush Winnie the Pooh..
• A ball pitt..
• A giggling ball..
• A Fisher-Price Kick n Play Piano...

Just to name a few! There were more than we could ever play with in a day alone, well more than you could. I have to be honest and tell you...I played with all of your presents before you ever did. Of course I tried to involve you to the best of my ability...but the child in me called me on.

We popped over to your Grand Pops in the evening, so he too could see you opening your presents and marveling at the wrapping paper. Soon after getting you back home and settled for bed, down you went and off to sleep you went...

Your first Christmas was a lovely day, having you around brought so much excitement into the whole of Christmas. You were just turning 6 months old, but you knew something was going on.

My Christmas present from you was amazing...In the week running up to Christmas day, you were becoming so strong. Your back was getting straighter and whenever we sat you up...you sat for longer and longer! You are still a little shaky...but you are almost there! My little baby can sit up!

I remember last year (Christmas 2010) sitting and thinking what my life would be like next year....Last Christmas I was around 12 weeks pregnant with you and now you are 6 months old. Time has flown by. Not for one minute did I know just how amazing this year would be. I feel like we have both grown so much and I am so proud!

Merry Christmas bubba!

Much Love, Mummy xxx

P.S....

How were all of your Christmas's? Did you all get everything you dreamed of? Were your little rays of sunshine spoilt? I would love to hear all about it!

I was spoilt rotten, Luke presented me with the most amazing camera...so I guess it is just more of an excuse to take even more photos!

Merry Christmas all!!

P.P.S....I just wanted to share some more of my favourite photos from this Christmas.....