Christmas {The Ordinary Moments}

When I think of Christmas’ from my childhood I never remember the big things, I never remember what presents I got or what presents I gave. I remember hundreds of tiny details or little ordinary moments that I try to put into our Christmas now. My mum always used to plait my hair wet from the bath so it was extra curly on Christmas day, we had new pyjamas out the packet so they always smelt new and even now that smell reminds me of Christmas Eve. We used to run to the postbox opposite our house to post the letters to Father Christmas and me and my brother used to ‘help’ my mum decorate the tree. As we got older we’d sit and wrap our presents together listening to Christmas music or watching a film. My mum would keep the cards from the previous year and we would make our own gift tags from them. She used to put our Christmas artwork up on the walls every year and tinsel hung everywhere in the house.

We very rarely spent Christmas without extended family and they made Christmas what it was and is for me. I loved having everyone around, I’m very lucky that my family have always been close and my husband has been a part of it right from when we started dating. It still makes me happy to have us all together and knowing that my boys will grow up around them. My mum would have the table set in the morning (she still does this now!) We would eat Christmas dinner with the paper hats on from our crackers and I always wanted to sit near my Grandad who told the jokes the best and would play with the toys with us. We would play board games after dinner and as I got older we would all play Trivial Pursuit right into the night.

When the boys are older I won’t remember the things we bought them or how stressed I got in the run up to Christmas. I’ll remember that Lucas says ‘deer-rein’ instead of reindeer and that his face lights up whenever he see’s a Father Christmas. I’ll think of how he helped me put decorations on the tree and wanted to wrap up one of his books to give to a friend from school. All his artwork will be kept and displayed and Arthur and Brandon will add to it over the years. We have made and all sampled his Christmas bakes and decorated glittery ornaments. He has asked Father Christmas for teddies, for him and his brothers and just that would make them all happy.

This year is special as it is the first time in many years that we will be having a Christmas dinner with all my family, we’ll be squashed round the table on different chairs and it is the first full, family Christmas for my boys.

I’m looking forward to us all being together and I’m taking a little break over Christmas to make the most of it, apart from maybe a little letter to my twins for their first birthday! Thank you so much for reading over this year, it still means so much that people take the time to read what I write. Thank you to Katie for hosting this lovely linky, I hope it continues next year and I’ll try to join in more. I wish you all a fantastic Christmas and however you celebrate I hope you enjoy the small things.