December 30, 2013, admin, Christmas, Family, Holidays, , 0
Regular readers of the blog will notice I have been taking a well earned break this last week whilst we spent Christmas up in Edinburgh with family.
Our Christmas began last Sunday as we traveled up to Gateshead in a very heavily laden car to spend the night at a hotel before traveling up to Edinburgh on the Monday. On the way Little Miss A had her first driving lesson!
Once we arrived, the Little A’s wasted no time settling into the hotel room and it soon looked like a bombsite!
We decided to go for a wander around the Metro Centre to look at the Christmas lights and soak up some of the festive atmosphere. Although the car park was packed (and I nearly got into a fight with someone who stole the space we were waiting for!) the center itself wasn’t horrendously busy and we had a leisurely couple of hours looking in a few shops and Little Mr A also got to build a LEGO Christmas tree decoration to take home with him.
For tea we decided to go to the restaurant next to the hotel which was an all you can eat buffet. With two permanently hungry children, this was perfect and they munched their way through lots before we headed back to the hotel room for a very disturbed night’s sleep! I never realised how much Little Mr A shuffled and moved around in his sleep!
On Monday we made our way up to Big Mr A’s parent’s new house in Edinburgh. The Little A’s spent the afternoon building dens and dressing up in Granny’s scarves before a little peace was restored as they sat down to watch Toy Story.
On Christmas Eve we all headed out for breakfast at Frankie and Bennies before catching the bus into Edinburgh to take a look at the German Christmas Market. I think we were all very jealous of Little Miss A snuggled up in her pushchair as it was freezing!
Although we had really wanted to take Little Mr A on the outdoor skating rink it was extremely expensive so he had a go on the carousel with Big Mr A instead. Although Big Mr A put up some protest, I think you can see from the pictures how much he enjoyed himself!
Once home (and warmed up!) it was time to open the Christmas Eve Box. Little Mr A was delighted with his new Spiderman onesie and was also very excited about the reindeer food which he couldn’t wait to sprinkle all over his Gramps’ lawn!
Hoping for a relaxing Christmas Eve once the Little A’s had gone to bed unfortunately didn’t happen! Little Miss A was up until we went to bed about 11 o’clock, possibly due to the excitement but more than likely she was teething, again!
On Christmas morning Little Mr A excitedly came through to us at just gone 6 with a stocking for both him and his sister from Santa. We had gone a little bit mad with stocking presents this year and they were overflowing everywhere – in fact Little Mr A had to have two stockings!
Once stockings were open we somehow managed to have breakfast and get dressed without Little Mr A opening any more presents. Then the real fun began…present opening! Little Mr A was delighted with all of his presents, particularly Skylanders Swap Force which he had asked Santa for and it resulted in a little ‘happy dance’!
Little Miss A was in a very grumpy mood Christmas morning (not helped by the late night on Christmas Eve!) so unfortunately we don’t have many nice photos of her! Despite her tears, she does really like her new Merida doll!
After present opening Gramps’ went to fetch Great Gramps and Little Mr A wasted no time in ‘helping’ him to open his presents when he arrived.
We had a lovely lunch with Big Mr A’s sisters and their family with everyone chipping in to help.
All in all it was a lovely day that passed by far too quickly!
On Boxing Day we all headed over to Big Mr A’s sister’s house for lunch however, there was time for a cheeky Costa on the way. The Little A’s had a great time playing with their cousins and checking out all of their new toys.
On Friday I could hold him back no longer – Big Mr A wanted to go sales shopping. We got some great bargains with our Christmas money and stopped for lunch at Pizza Hut.
On the way home we noticed something wrong with our car. It was chugging along and wouldn’t let us drive above 40mph. This was not what we needed the day before we were due to travel the 300 mile trip home! After a few calls to some local garages it appeared that most of them were now closed until Monday or, in some cases, 6th January! The places that were open were fully booked and we began to panic. Come Saturday morning the car still wasn’t working so we phoned the RAC. By some stroke of luck (which usually never happens to us!) he managed to find the fault and actually had the part on his van! Thankfully we got home with no further problems and a huge sigh of relief!
Apart from a little bit of a dodgy end to our week away we have had a great Christmas and are now looking forward to a relaxing week at home together before the fun of school runs and work takes over again next week!
Hope you have all had a fabulous time too!
