'Tis The Season...

Well, it's that time of year, yet again!

This year, I'm not quite sure who is more excited about Christmas.

My daughter, or myself.

This year, she will be 3 (on boxing Day) and is actually aware of what is going on.

The build up to Christmas this year, has been so exciting...

Not just for her, but for myself also.

When it came time to set up our tree,

Khiarna did pretty much all the decorating, herself.

We went shopping and she picked out all the decorations she wanted.

This year, we have a red and silver theme going.

All picked by Khiarna.

When she got home, there was no time to waste,

we had to set the tree up and decorate it immediately.

We have bought the Freddo Frog Advent Calendars, and aChristmas Chalk Board, that counts down the days until Christmas.

Every morning, after breakfast, both kids get their daily Freddo Frog from their Advent Calendar and then when they finish eating that, we change the number of days left til Christmas on the chalk board. While I try to teach Khiarna how to work out how many days there are left.

Whenever Izaiah tries to sneak an extra Freddo from the Advent Calendar, you can hear Khiarna telling him "No Ziah, only one every day then Christmas!"

What has surprised me,

the kids barely touch the Christmas tree! Or the presents underneath for that matter.

I thought for sure, I'd be spending most of my day, chasing the kids away from the tree,

or re-decorating it after they had destroyed it.

So far, so good!

The only problem I seem to have, is Khiarna thinks she knows best, when it comes to how and where the presents should be put under the tree. Her favourite past-time is to re-arrange the presents, and then to yell and scream at me when I move them back again :|

Khiarna is also ecstatic about Santa, and the fact that he is going to bring her presents.

We have seen him a few times. And whenever she is talking to anyone, she loves telling them about the times she has seen him.

We were waiting at the train station one day, when a bus drove past, filled with Christmas decorations. To top it off, the driver was fat, with a long grey beard, and was wearing a Santa hat! Khiarna got so excited, she started jumping up and down screaming "Santa's driving the bus!"

We went to the shopping centre that same day, and sure enough Santa was there.

He was between photos at the time, so was walking around out the front of the Santa photo area, and talking to people as they were walking past...

Khiarna wanted to go and say hello, so we did.

He asked her "Have you been good?" Khiarna - "yes" Santa - "Have you been good at home for your Mum & Dad?" Khiarna - "Yeah!" Santa -"Oh, I think you're telling me fibs, are you telling me fibs?" Khiarna - "..... Yes."

Haha, it was so cute!

Then just the other week we took both the kids for their Santa photo. Didn't go quite as well as I had planned. I had hoped this year, we may not have to sit with Santa too.

Wishful thinking!

When we got there, Izaiah was fine, racing up to Santa like he knew exactly where he was meant to go, he loved the idea of what was happening.

That was, until Santa spoke to him.

As soon as Santa spoke to him, he screamed and carried on, and clung to my leg, refusing to even look at santa. Of course, I had to pick him up and try to comfort him.

Santa tried comforting him too, by giving Izaiah his bell. The naughty little boy, Izaiah pegged the bell at Santa as hard as he could, hitting him right on the knee cap :|

Khiarna was loving Santa though, talking with him and giving him hi-fives, telling him what she wanted for Christmas, and telling him how she had seen him everywhere!

Once we asked her to go and sit with Santa, that's when the real fun started.

She went all shy and kept saying she didn't want to.

Andrew had to sit with Khiarna, next to Santa, and I had to sit next to Santa on the other side, with Izaiah. The even harder part was getting both kids to look at the camera at the same time.

Izaiah would be staring at Santa, giving him the 'who the hell are you' look, and Khiarna would be looking and pointing at Izaiah, telling him to look at the camera!

in the end, we managed to get a gorgeous photo of Khiarna, and poor Izaiah looks shocked as anything!

The thing that has shocked me, the most I guess.

Is Khiarna's memory.

I can't seem to help but buy more and more Christmas presents, every day.

Most of the time, Khiarna is with me, and seeing as I put them on layby, most of them a month ago. I thought for sure she would forget about what we had actually bought, by the time Christmas came around.

Yet, here we are, 12 days from Christmas, and she can still run off every single thing that is on layby from Santa!!

So much for a surprise!

Luckily, she hasn't quite put 2 and 2 together and worked out, that if she saw me buying them, then they can't be from Santa.

I told her the lady at the shop is Santa's helper, and she's taking them to show Santa, so he knows what she wants ;)

Phewww, she believed me haha.

12 days til Christmas!

When did this sneak up on us?

Even though, I'm still freaking out that this Christmas won't be one of our better ones, or that the kids won't have nearly as much as I would like them to (although fingers crossed I manage to pull a trick out of my hat before then)

I am still more excited about this Christmas, than I have been about any Christmas, since I was a kid!!

I literally feel like I'm a kid again.

I know for sure, I won't be able to sleep Christmas Eve, and that I won't be able to stop myself from waking the kids up at the crack of dawn to open their presents ;)

I'm just too damn excited.

It makes it so much more exciting once the kids know what's going on, and are excited for it

too.

I just can't wait to see the look on Khiarna's face, come Christmas morning, when she comes downstairs and sees that santa has been.

Or the look on both of their faces when they open all their new toys!!

I'm getting so damn excited just talking and thinking about it!!

Hurry up Christmas :)

Hope everyone is just as excited as I am this year.

And hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas with their families.

After all that's really what Christmas is all about in my eyes,

Family :)

Merry Christmas Everyone!!