Christmas Day 2011

The aim of this blog post was to tell about our Christmas Day in photos – but as few photos as possible. It’s really hard to pull back the numbers of photos, but we’ve given it a try. We initially wanted 1 photo per hour, however that is easier said than done! Too much going on in some hours, and not much in others. By the way – click on the photos to see them bigger

6:00am – Stockings

The kids were up before 6 am. It was time to do stockings. We don’t do Santa in our family. The kids all know that their stocking presents are from Mummy and Daddy.

In the kids stockings were some Christmas decorations that Becca had made them.

Oh, and we can’t forget our new dog Maddie – she needs a present too!

What’s Christmas without cleaning up a mess?

Oops – Becca spilt the jelly in the fridge!

Happy Birthday Jesus!

Every Christmas we bake a birthday cake and sing Happy Birthday to Jesus. It’s just a small reminder of what Christmas is really about. We hope that our children grow up remembering this and not think it’s just about presents!

Presents!

What else can we say?

Play time!

After unwrapping all these toys we’d have to start playing! That slot car set took a while to set up!
The kids love being at grandparents for Christmas, but they also loved being able to open up and set up ALL their toys without having to wait (sometimes a couple of weeks) until we get back home.

Crazy!

We realised that the slot car set was right in the way of everything in the lounge. Becca and I decided to put it on a mat, but we didn’t want to take it apart! Somehow we succeeded as can be seen in the photos. MissK10 took these great photos – Well done! All this work was destroyed later in the afternoon when MissC2 decided to start pulling it apart.

Lunch

We headed off to Avalon Park to have our Christmas lunch and let the kids have a play. The first photo is actually of the two older boys putting sunblock on! (Sorry for the quality of the lunch photos – we forgot our main camera and took these on our phones.)

Skype with the rellies!

Later in the afternoon we had a Skype chat with both sets of grandparents (and other extended family). Only took one pic sorry.

Hi Poppa!

Dinner – well… dessert

As you can see we missed a photo of dinner – but it was a beautifully cooked roast lamb with roast veges. Mmmm! Here’s dessert though – Jelly, ambrosia and icecream. It was pretty late by this stage so kids were in bed soon after this. Was a fantastic day though!

Surviving the holidays

Well, the holidays are coming to an end, and we’ve survived. Yes, the parents of 5 kids – 2 girls, 3 boys – are still alive after 2 weeks of no school and kindy. And to top it off, we’re alive after a lot of cold, wet weather which has meant the kids have been stuck inside for most of it.

So how did we survive? Well, that’s a good question. Here’s my take on how we survived these holidays:

1. We had lots of kids. This is really important. The more kids you have, the easier your holiday will be. Okay, this isn’t completely true, but it certainly does help keep them entertained, as they’ll play together a lot of the time, and don’t need parents to always find things for them to do.
2. The kids had playdates. Actually, two out of the three playdates was really a result of the Mum’s wanting to catch up. So parents, get to know one another and invite yourselves round for a coffee. I’m pretty sure the fact my wife makes a range of coffees and hot chocolate with her coffee machine is a big help in this. Oh, and don’t forget the baking!
3. Along with the playdates, we had relatives with kids come and visit. Again, the parents got to chat and spend time together while the kids simply played and played and played.
4. Making the most of fine weather was essential these holidays. There was not a lot of it, but we made sure that we got the kids out when we had the chance. Do what you can for free, but make sure you put some money aside to take the kids somewhere different. Maybe the zoo, the pools – we took them to Staglands, a nature reserve where you can get right up to the animals and feed them. We also took them to the park and let them run wild on the playground for a couple of hours (this is challenging with 5 kids of various ages).
5. We let the kids pull out the puzzles and games. Simple, yet effective.
6. We let the kids interact with technology. We let them watch movies – Star Wars was a hit – (and TV). Oh, the TV is a life saver for us in wet weather. They played Wii; on the computer and the iPad.
7. Oh, and I mustn’t forget they got a stack of books from the library. This is normal for them anyway – they usually visit the library once a week, but books really do keep the kids entertained.
8. Possibly the most important thing we did actually was relaxed and did nothing the first few days of the holidays. We were all exhausted after a busy term, and we took the time to recover.
9. A finally, Rebecca and I took time for ourselves. One of us got out every few days while the other stayed home with the kids and had some ‘me’ time. It’s so important for parents to realise that they don’t have to be with their kids 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days of the year. You can take time for yourself! – We’re also going out together at the end of this week now that we’ve organised a babysitter .

One thing we didn’t do these holidays but usually do is make playdough. This can provide hours and hours of fun. Of course there’s always baking with Mum (or Dad – yes I like baking).

So what did you do to survive these holidays? Or what have you done in the past? It’s always good to hear what other parents do. We can learn from each other and become better parents together.

- Nathaniel