Birthdays and snow

It was my Dad's 60th birthday a few days after Christmas, and my family managed to meet up at my sister's to celebrate.  It is very unusual for us all to gather in one place these days, so it was nice for the cousins to have the opportunity to play together.
My sister and her husband put on a lovely spread for my Dad, which included a massive 60 profiterole cake.  My Dad does so much for his family, so I hope he enjoyed having us all there!

 Happy 60th Dad!  Thank you for always 

being there for us

Unfortunately, I didn't take many photos since I'm still paranoid about actually using my camera, but I did take a couple of photos from our visit.

My youngest nephew, Alex, is 7 months old already and he is such a good baby!  You can see him absorbing (and gumming!) everything around him. 

Baby Alex - how sweet is this face!

It was lovely watching the cousins play, and Lily was so good with Rowan, and held his hand when we went for a walk through the snow.  Rowan was a little unsure about the snow at first, but enjoyed stomping through it by the end - he started copying Lily and tried throwing some snowballs. Rowan was quite taken with Lily, and gave her a goodbye cuddle when we were leaving.

A snowy walk with cousin Lily

 Stomp! Stomp!

 

Rowan also enjoyed rough-housing with Tom.  I'm not sure how much Tom enjoyed that, but he took it all in good nature.

I'm hoping that we see our family more in 2015.  It isn't until you see how much the children have changed between visits that you realise how much time has passed.  I am lucky to have a brilliant, loving family, and it would be good to catch up more.

My sister

My Mum

First family holiday

Last November we went to Center Parcs for our first family holiday.  Gareth and I were a bit concerned as we would be sharing a room with Rowan.  He has had his own room since he was 3 months old, so we wondered how a sleep-over would work out. We had nothing to worry about and we all managed to sleep relatively well.  Although there was one morning where I had to slowly retract my foot from Rowan's reach, as he had woken up, grabbed my toes and started saying "mummy mummy" on repeat.  The photos were taken with my old camera so I'll apologise now for the poor quality.  Regardless of blur, red eye, over-exposure etc. I'm grateful that I have been able to record our family memories, so thank you trusty old camera!

Tree covered in Christmas lights.

Center Parcs really go to town at

Christmas

When I booked the break I hadn't realised that it coincided with the Winter Wonderland period.  There were lots of Christmas themed activities and decorations to entertain us, and despite only booking one activity (Santa's grotto for Rowan) we were not short on things to do. Rowan particularly loved the animatronic singing reindeer, and every morning the first thing Rowan said was "reindeer, reindeer."  There were real reindeer right next to these comical Rangifer tarandus but Rowan wasn't the slightest bit interested in them.  The zoologist in me was a little disappointed by my son's indifference.

 Rowan was mesmorised by the singing reindeer.  Every day entailed a visit to listen to

them sing

 Sorry real-life reindeer. Not today

We spent a lot of our time in the subtropical swimming pool which Rowan loved.  He adores water, and so he had a great time going around the children's rapid pool. Gareth even took him down the small water slide with him.  Gareth and I were able to go for a lone swim each on one evening, when we took it in turns to watch Rowan.  It was so relaxing swimming through the warm water whilst cold November rain dashed on your face.

The outdoor rapids. You can see the steam 

rising from the heat of the pool 

Looking at Santa's 'magic river' (blue and silver baubles

floating in a stream) 

Waiting to meet Santa. I had to turn the 

flash off to prevent the whole image being

over-exposed, so unfortunately it came out

blurry 

Inside the plaza. These are all real plants, 

and there were goldfish and koi in large

pools along the path

  We ended up returning home 1 day early as Rowan had started to come down with a nasty cold, but we didn't feel like we had cut the holiday short.  We all had a fun break, and enjoyed spending some rare quality time together.

 Awkward family selfie

 Tired Rowan (and tired Gareth!)

It rained for most of our holiday, but it

meant I could get this atmospheric misty

tree shot, so silver linings and all that 

Christmas 2014

Fortunately, Gareth wasn't working Christmas Eve or Day this year so we enjoyed a quiet family Christmas.  My amazing husband managed to sneakily buy me a DSLR camera  which I've been lusting after for over 10 years!  Since we only recently went on holiday (post to follow. Eventually), this year we'd agreed to only do small token gifts, so I was really not expecting a camera.  I've been going a bit snap happy, although I have been afraid to use it too - I'm so terrified of damaging it!  I'm sure the more I use it the less worried I'll be (although with a sticky 2 year old that may take a while!)  I intend to blog more now that I can take better photos - with my old camera, I am usually so disappointed with the images it puts me off taking pictures.

Anyway, back to Christmas... Rowan is old enough to understand that something different was going on, but not to the extent that he was too excited to go to sleep on Christmas Eve (despite plying him with sugar from his first ever hot chocolate!).

First hot chocolate (with marshmallows, of course)

Cuddles on Christmas Eve

Throughout December, we have had regular shouts of "reindeer" and "Santa beard" from him, so he at least knew the association.  Surprisingly, our Christmas tree survived despite Rowan pushing it over once, and pulling baubles off on a daily basis. He did put them back in different places, so we had a very interesting yet lop-sided tree by the time Christmas arrived.
Gareth and I woke up before Rowan on Christmas day (no doubt the last time that will happen for some years!) and we both took his stocking into his room (Santa had thoughtfully left it on the outside of Rowan's door) when he woke up around 9am.  He was thrilled to find a chocolate in his stocking, and happily ate it whilst opening the presents.  Although he did direct Gareth and I to open a fair amount on his behalf.

 Rowan's handmade stocking. I was pleased 

with how this turned out - it's lined and everything!

After his stocking was emptied, we went downstairs for breakfast and found Santa had delivered a present to Rowan, and also one for the whole family.  However, a boy led by his stomach, Rowan had his breakfast first before seeing what Santa had left.  Rowan was happily playing with his new Aqua-doodle pad from Santa, and then noticed more presents under the tree.  He helped Gareth unwrap Santa's present to the family (a calendar with a tag reading "To help you find time together") and then proceeded to go steadily hyperactive throughout the day.  He was too excited to nap, and was put to bed early at 5:30pm, where he promptly fell straight to sleep.  He still has several Christmas and birthday presents to open - I think if we allowed him to open everything on one day it would have been too overwhelming for him.  Everyone has been very generous, and we want to ensure he enjoys (and appreciates) everything that has been given to him.

Rowan helping Tangent open his present. I love the look of

anticipation on Tan!

Opening more presents

Unfortunately, we didn't have our dinner together as a family as Rowan was too excitable (and fighting the tale-end of a cold).  However, it was nice enjoying a quiet meal with Gareth after Rowan was settled in bed.  We did make sure Rowan had his birthday cake in the afternoon, so I don't imagine he would have wanted much 'proper' dinner anyway. 

 For Rowan's birthday cake, I made a Christmas yule log

with Lindt chocolate ganache

Everyone says Christmas with children is a magical time, and it is.  It is also absolutely exhausting!  I think it's going to take a month to recover our energy.