A bit too big.

At the weekend we enjoyed our annual trip to see Father Christmas.

It was so different to last year. Instead of 2 scared little people I followed 2 self confident and self assured little monkeys into the room and the proudly told Father Christmas what they would like for Christmas. The photo is amazing as well - they have grown enormously and not only in size. Prior to the actual meeting we traversed the winter wonderland - a massive barn bedecked with as much as possible to alleviate the boredom of the usually epic queue. Arriving moments after opening time helped as the queue was less epic than expected and we travelled through enjoying it all, waiting only a short moment for our turn to take a ride on the train.

After this we went to choose a tree - I love a real tree, I love the smell and the fact that they are not regular. We managed to choose a tree together - it didn't look that massive in the garden centre, just bushy. My first hint of the problem to come was when it wouldn't fit into the metal drum they use to wrap the tree. It took 2 men pushing and pulling it to wrestle it through. The second clue was when we tried to get it into the car. It wasn't as tall as last year (that tree had about 3 foot cut off in order to get it into the house) but it was a lot wider. The third clue was Andrew trimming the base in order to get it to fit into our stand,

Once in the house, still wrapped, we were happy with the height. It didn't touch the ceiling. Andrew very slowly unwrapped it from the bottom, trimming out branches here and there and, once uncovered we turned it to fit in its allocation space. So much wider that it seemed in the garden centre. The kids loved it. After leaving it to settle they helped us to cover it in lights, tinsel, decorations and paper chains. It looks amazing.

This tree was a great choice for one more reason - it has no formal 'top'. At the moment we have an old star topper that has been in use for many years but neither of us like it. we have been looking to replace it and struggling to find the right topper. I am not a fan of angels, the star is a bit boring. My dad's topper is the best - a Tasmanian Devil dressed as an angel complete with halo and biker jacket. The search will continue but for this year we can manage without one as they tree has no where to put one. Perfect.

This is only our second Christmas as a family, it is hard to believe that we have been a family for less than 2 years as time has flown and I can barely remember life without them. Christmas this year will be different as we can do more, I am less scared of over facing them and, maybe because they are older, they can cope with a little bit more. We have so many new experiences to enjoy - oldest's first nativity (as a proud shepherd wearing a shepherd's costume and not his Captain America suit as first requested) and the pantonmine plus parties and so much more. We will not get our family day alone this year and I am ok with that.

In other news our visitor, Elvis the naughty elf has not been as good as hoped - more on his antics separately.