Combining a birthday with Christmas

Christmas Day is always more hectic than most as it’s also POD’s birthday. Like the majority of other children, her excitement levels were at fever pitch as we approached the festive period. We had a great drive up to the POD Father’s parents, enjoying a lovely Christmas Eve feast before putting presents under the tree and retreating for the night. POD was up early the following morning to discover Father Christmas had been. The presents were all individually wrapped in Santa paper (he’s a good egg that chap in red) and POD was thrilled with every one. Her wide-mouthed look of surprise continuing until she reached the final gift.

A new dress is always a must on POD’s birthday. This year she wore the Twirly Bow Dress with a snowy town design from the wonderful folk at Frugi, thanks to Kara from Chelsea Mamma and the #GiftofGiving campaign. The dress is made from 100% cotton, is beautifully soft and perfect for twirling. Although considerably taller than she was last year, when she was dressed as a fairy, she insisted on having her photograph taken by the tree. She was wearing a brilliant mistletoe headband and was accompanied by a Christmas bear and a Christmas pudding cushion! She’s always so patient waiting for everyone to get showered and ready but it’s good to split up the Christmas and birthday present opening. We always keep them separate as it’s still her birthday regardless of it being Christmas Day. Bubbly and nibbles in hand, everyone set about opening their presents. POD is usually given one present at a time so we know who it’s from and she can enjoy that one thing. Give her a few and it all gets a bit crazy! Everyone is so generous with their gifts and if there was a day for her to be spoilt it’s 25th December!

She especially loved walking her pet dog ‘Fluffy’ and listening to him bark! Frozen is still a big deal in our household so she liked her Sing-a-long-Elsa – especially the Spanish version of Let it Go! Not to mention her Elsa dress, colouring set and jimmy jammies. She received some lovely clothes too – for herself and Baby Annabell! POD received a dolls house she can colour in herself, beads, paper dolls and an easel for drawing and practising her writing. She also got a replacement watch after the last one was submerged in water by one of her pre-school chums! Having enjoyed an absolutely superb Christmas Day feast, the eight of us headed outdoors for a brief wander. We headed down to the church were the POD Father and I were married many years ago now. POD enjoying being fire chief on a bike that belonged to one of her cousins while a few of the Dove clan visited the grave of POD’s great grandmother who died in the latter part of last year.

With space in our bellies for tea and cake, we headed back and into POD’s surprise birthday room. The POD Father’s parents had done an amazing job transforming their conservatory which had fairy lights and butterflies on the windows, balloons and soft toys on the window sill. It was lovely and a miracle POD had not seen it up to that point. There was also an impressive princess cake and POD took great pleasure in blowing out her candles before opening her birthday presents. It was a long day for her but she behaved impeccably until that evening – it was inevitable the tiredness would kick in at some point! Boxing Day at the POD Father’s parents is just as bigger day as Christmas Day with another amazing feast. Before enjoying the wonderful spread, we headed to a local lake for some fresh air. POD got to feed the ducks then was back on the fire chief bike before taking time out to whizz down a fireman’s pole and embark on a spot of climbing.

The journey home took three times longer than the journey there but we kept ourselves occupied with much silliness and I Spy. We also managed to get ourselves on Absolute Radio, requesting ‘When Doves Cry’ by Prince when we were stuck on the M25! Thank you to everyone that has taken the time to stop by here (and more recently POD Travels) over the past 12 months. Here’s to a fantastic 2016, Happy New Year folks!