Liam's First Christmas

Liam started off his first Christmas by receiving his first Christmas present (a Gingerbread Man book from me) and also giving his first present to me (a book called Why I Love My Daddy). It's never too early!

Christmas Day was spent with Sophie's family. Liam had a decent amount of time being held by various members of the family but he spent most of the day sleeping in his travel bassinet in an upstairs bedroom. So Soph and I accepted his presents on his behalf, and there were certainly a lot of fantastic gifts! I think everyone there did very well in the present department, but Bella and Christopher certainly took home the lion's share. The toys that got the most immediate use were a first bicycle for Bella, a small drum and saxophone for Christopher, and a soft toy monkey that plays "If You're Happy And You Know It Clap Your Hands", and you clap the monkey's hands together in time with the song in order to keep the song going. Christopher was absolutely fascinated by the monkey, I hope he wasn't too disappointed that he wouldn't be taking it home!

Christmas lunch was fantastic. We had prawns with mango and avocado, a potato salad, roast turkey and what I think is the best ham I've ever had, glazed and roasted in the Weber by Simon. We then had an amazing spread of desserts made by Cath. She had made cannoli, a Swiss chocolate mousse, a Toblerone cheesecake, a lemon and berry cheesecake and a croquembouche (profiterole tower). And as a former pastry chef she certainly knows what she's doing! I sampled all five desserts, and had two serves of my favourite, the cannoli.

For the rest of the afternoon we watched Toy Story, and then went outside to see Bella take her first ride on her new bike. Christopher was tottering around on the same patio on which she was riding, but despite some extremely close calls they both came away unscathed.

So it was a wonderful Christmas Day! I especially enjoyed seeing my Niece and Nephew so happy and having such a great day themselves, it made me really look forward to next Christmas when Liam might be tottering around himself and saying his first few words. He'll probably appreciate his presents a lot more too!