Saturday, December 26, 2009

Christmas 2009

Hey Everyone

well, Christmas Day has been and gone once again, and to tell the truth your humble narrator is still somewhat exhausted by the day! James managed to sleep to as late as 5am on Christmas Morning - i think Michele and i got 4 hours sleep between us rather than each!

never mind, we managed to sleepwalk through large chunks of the day! the important thing was that James was rather excited to see what Father Christmas had brought him, and he wasn't at all disappointed with what arrived!

first up was what James had hoped Father Christmas would bring him, and indeed did bring him - even if Mummy & Daddy had to try and work out how to put it together beforehand. when exactly was it that someone somewhere decided that bikes should be sold in boxes?





now James has never ever ridden on one before, so he hasn't quite mastered the art of pedals as of yet. he sort of gets the idea, but for now he seems happy enough if Daddy is on hand to push him along!





as and when James has got the hang of doing it all by himself, however, Father Christmas has made it be that Daddy is all ready and raring to go riding with him!





as for young William, well, for the most part he decided to sleep through Christmas morning. lucky him, i say!!





James very kindly opened up William's presents for him, mind!

now then, you may recall from an earlier post that "Santa's helpers" had put up a present for James from Grandma and Grandad on Christmas Eve. we left the curtains closed in the morning, leaving them for James to open up and see what was outside.

as you can see, he was rather impressed with what he saw!





it's not my place to brag, really, but i would like to think that the caps i put on the bolts increased the stability of the trampoline, as well as created an easier way for James to climb into it, as excellent as all the other stuff that Richard and Dad did.





a happy bonus for James was Lyla popping over with Grandma and Grandad later in the morning to see how James was getting on with his presents. needless to say, the cousins loved playing together on the trampoline!





William did wake up a little bit when Grandma and Grandad called in, long enough for a little bit of a cuddle with Grandma at least!





later on it was time to go over to Grandma and Grandad's house for some more presents, and a particularly fine lunch - many thanks again for my chunk of steak, Erika. it might not be the traditional turkey, but i like and prefer it!

James had written very nice cards for his Grandparents, which Grandma and Grandad were very taken with! hopefully they liked their presents too, but i think the card and a big hug from James was all that they wanted!





James is, it has to be said, getting very good indeed at helping others open up their presents. even though Lyla didn't ask for James to help, there he was, assisting it getting the wrapping paper off her gifts!





it's no bad thing that James helped, really. on behalf of Santa i wrapped the presents for her, and i do tend to get called "Mr Sellotape" with my somewhat "make sure that it is wrapped" approach to presents!

in turn, Richard, Erika & Lyla got us some generous and excellent gifts, the least of which was not a brilliant Motorhead t-shirt for me! William also got some lovely new clothes too, including this rather ace one!





it is something of a tradition for the family over in New Zealand to mess around with a timer on a camera and do a portrait picture at Christmas. we (well, Dad) decided to have a go at the same thing, with the help of his tripod and indeed every now and then pressing the right button on the camera!

the result is not too bad at all!





speaking of tripods, Mum & Dad got each of us a rather dapper "video camera" each, if "video" is the right word for them these days. "digital media recording device" is no doubt the actual technical name, but to some of us it shall always just be video.

when not debating (arguing) with Dad over who had the biggest, best and shiniest tripod, Richard was keen to show off his skills with it, as you can see here.





without wishing to scare either small children or even smaller animals, just what kind of films does Richard wish to make with a tripod and a self-timer? this next picture gives you something of a clue!





yes, i think the less said about that the better!

i cannot say that we had a relaxing Christmas, but we did have an incredibly fun one. hope the same is true of you wherever you are in the world!!!


be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No comments: