Birthday :: Christmas

A week ago today Pip celebrated her 8th year around the sun, she had a lovely day and celebrated with two friends, Beth visited from 10:30am until 2:30pm and Daisy-Mae visited 4pm until 7pm. 

 It was interesting watching and listening to the interaction between the girls, Pip knows Beth from school they were and still are best buddies, they both have a whacky sense of humour and creative spirit so it was fun watching them perform a magic show using existing props and then creating some of their own. 

Pip and Daisy Mae are almost birthday twins with 24 hours between them as DM was born around lunchtime on Christmas Eve!  DM just loves pretend play so the girls had fun playing with Shannon Pip's doll from last year and a new addition to the "Our Generation Family" a beautiful white Camarillo horse that Pip has named snowflake :-)

 The usual sit where you were born and "x" marks the spot at 8:39am photo opportunity :-) 

 Playing with the magic set from Beth.

 Waiting to blow out the candle of which they had several attempts!

 It is the first year that I have not made a homemade birthday cake, I was just too exhausted from the crafting and Christmas preparations.  Pip didn't mind as long as there was a cake and candles she was happy :-)  It was also the first year that she forgot to wear the birthday crown and the birthday ring was left in the cupboard!  Those epic bags under my eyes should give a clue that I was not in "the zone" :-)

Benedict has been a real help these past few weeks and Christmas Eve was no exception, he prepped all the veg and tidied around the house.  There was still some last minute wrapping of presents and Dave and I watched midnight mass on the television.  We haven't made church in months, my health has not been good and I have been struggling with ongoing pain which thankfully is now slowly being resolved:

 Pillowcase gifts of pyjamas for Pip and a Christmas jumper for Benedict.

 Every self respecting horse needs an experienced rider so meet Lily Anne, a playmate for both Shannon and Pip.

One epic selfie and ...

... one that would win the silliest selfie award!

 We ate Christmas lunch at 1pm which for us is a world record and the kitchen was completely tidied and sorted by 2pm.  We then played our new Christmas game of Carcassone and I am not really a games person but this game is fab and well worth buying.  Each game usually lasts no more than half an hour and is totally doable even with kids in tow!

 Our Christmas tree organised and decorated by Benedict, that guy sure loves to celebrate!

This past week has been marred by my health problems and so we have been very much confined to barracks.  I did manage to take everyone out on a short journey yesterday to run errands and have a hot chocolate treat.  It did us good to get out of the house.  Dave's mum and dad are hopefully visiting again on New Year's day so that should be good. 

Hope that you have had a blessed Christmas x