Presents — Blog — They Grow up so Quickly

After countless times being asked how many sleeps until his birthday, James has turned four. To celebrate, we had a small gathering and a few friends over on the weekend. Our friends Lydia and Nige had come over on the Saturday eve so it was lovely for James to have someone to open his presents with.

The boys were in good form all morning and all the parents even managed to fit a run in before we headed out for a walk in the woods, which is what James had decided he would like to do.

James loving the book that turned into a fire engine!

After we had all showered after our runs and had some breakfast we headed out to Moorlands. We go here a lot as James really loves it. Here we met up with some more of James’ friends and they ran around and had a wail of a time.

We headed to the area with the tree house in it as it has a bit more of an open area for the kids to run around in and let off some steam. At one point, Gav decided that he could take on the children in a stick fight. Lord of the Flies ensued and Gav was left pummelled and bleeding on the floor, ok slight exaggeration, however he was not far off it.

After letting off steam we headed back to have some lunch and cake. James had chosen an Iron Man cake as he is his favourite super hero.

The little man had a fantastic day and was truest spoilt rotten. Thank you everyone for coming and also thank you for all those who got him a present, he was truly overwhelmed.

So, it has been about three weeks since I last wrote anything on my blog. Work has been crazy busy coming up to year end and the last thing I have wanted to do when I get home at eight is to log onto my lap top and write something. However, I have had a lovely break over the Christmas period so I thought I would write a few words about how Christmas has been in the Thomas household.

This year we were having Christmas with just the three of us and seeing family on Boxing day. This is the first Christmas that James has really got it and he has been so excited counting down with his advent calendar as well as seeing what Elfie has been up to every day. We got to Christmas Eve and he was hyper all day. Lyns had been on nights the night before so was up at lunchtime to join the fun. We went to see some friends in the afternoon then came home for a picnic of nibble bits. James loved it and tucked in. After that, it was bath and bed for him.

He was really excited putting out treats for Santa, even Elfie and Nutty got involved, helping to choose what treats Santa got.

Before going to bed, James had cleared a space at the end of his bed for Santa to leave his presents. Being a little super star, he came through at 7am but in a panic. He could not find the presents that Santa had left, even though he had left there in the space James had cleared. I rushed back into James’ bedroom with him to look for the presents and thankfully there they were.

After half an hour of paper flying everywhere and squeals of joy all of Santa’s presents were open. James was all set for running downstairs to open the family presents under the tree. We had, however, agreed that they would be opened after dinner so we sat down to watch Incredibles 2 that Santa had brought.

Lyns was not feeling very well so dinner fell to me. I hate cooking roasts at the best of times but luckily everything came together, admittedly we had bought a lot of things that were ready made and just needed putting in the oven but still, we ate dead on 1pm much to James’ delight.

After dinner, it was time for present opening, James was one very spoilt little boy…

After all the presents were open, we decided to head into York to see the Christmas lights. Two reasons for this, firstly Jess got a walk ad secondarily it got us out of the house for an hour or so, it also meant Lyns and James got dressed.

We were really surprised by how busty York was. We were expecting to be the only people on the streets but there were lots of people walking about.

The face of a little boy who had just dropped his snack

Once we got home, it was time for a bath and bed. Once James had been settled, he was so tired he went to bed relatively easily, Lyns and I were able to get an hour or so of relaxation before we headed to bed, exhausted, ourselves.

We woke to an excited James on Boxing Day. Granny was coming over for breakfast and presents in the morning then we were off to Nana and Grandad’s for dinner and yet more presents. For me though, the day started with a run which was lovely as it really blew the cobwebs away.

Granny and Darren arrived at 10am for Breakfast and I cooked a full fry up, including homemade bacon, cured with cinnamon which gave it a lovely flavour, and Stornoway black pudding. A lovely start to the day. After this, it was time for presents and once again, James was spoilt rotten.

Once Granny had gone, we got ourselves packed for our night away at Nana and Grandad’s. We were there for just after two and it was coffee / hot chocolate liqueurs all round whilst we opened presents. Once again, we were all spoilt.

Once everything was open, it was time to build. James and Grandad had lots of fun building the cars. We spent a very pleasurable few hours building lego and cars and all sorts.

Once again we finished Boxing Day with an extremely tired young man. He had had a wonderful Christmas and we are so thankful for all the people that bought him presents, he received far too much. All his presents will keep him going for weeks. We have had a lovely Christmas.

Thank you for reading my blogs over the past year and I hope you have had as good a Christmas as we have and I wish all the best for the coming year.

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