We have had a lot of hard Christmases in a row. Not for any terrible life reasons, and this is going to sound rather counterintuitive, but it's mainly because we have had a lot of small babies a lot of years in a row. Let's just recap:
Christmas Memory:
2018 - Ezra was 10 weeks old. On the way to Christmas dinner with husband's family we were informed that 5 year old cousin was attending with an active hand foot and mouth infection. We waved through the window and headed home to eat leftover and questionably old fish pie.
2019 - Ezra was just over 1 year old. I don't really remember this Christmas. There are a lot of videos from around 5am where he's wandering around the house. He didn't sleep well.
2020 - Covid Christmas in Wales. We were under lockdown, and then extra big lockdown for November, and then the government said we were going to be allowed to mix with our families as long as we stayed at home for the start of the month. Then they closed all the stores and then 2 days before Christmas the government said we weren't allowed to mix houses afterall and then we had a super awkward at home christmas. Oh, and I had a 3 month old.
2021 - This one was kind of fun actually. I think we cooked a dinner and had Andy's family over. My brother visited! But also I think it was still covid awkward.
2022 - My brother visited and we all went to Andy's family but his grandma's 3rd husband ended up in hospital and it was all very unfortunate and awkward.
2023 - We had 2 month old twins and life was impossible
2024 - We had 1 year 2 month old twins and life was still impossible.
This year we decided it was too many hard Christmases in a row and we booked a 5 night Christmas holiday to Bluestone - a holiday resort in West Wales. We booked a 4 bed house and my brother came with us. The resort park has a swimming pool with slides (which was open on Christmas!) and an indoor soft play and a outdoor kids adventure play area.
This was also a test to see how the twins do away from home since we've booked more holidays this year. The twins have never slept away from home before. They have slept in their own cribs since they were born. They slept in beds on holiday. It went OK. Except for one night where Clara stayed awake till midnight and then woke up Aubrey who then stayed awake until 3:30am. Of course that one night was Christmas.
But besides one difficult night, the trip was pretty good. Ezra had a great time and cried when we had to leave and took a video of the whole house to remember the trip.
We had been to Bluestone in 2021 when Lily was 6 months old:
And here she is now (5 years 2 months old):
Christmas dinner. We had smoked brisket (slow cooked), mac and cheese, corn on the cob, and roast carrots. It was really good. I kind of want to get a meat smoker now.
Ezra and Lily Opened presents on Christmas. We did most of our presents on Hanukkah but brought a few for Christmas morning. We've decided we are not a Santa family - Santa only gives presents to kids that haven't had 8 nights of presents already.
Santa did a parade on Christmas eve. Here he is waving to all the kids. Moments later both Lily and Aubrey catastrophically melted down and had to be carried home. It was very cold.
Ezra and Lily got tickets to Elf School for Christmas. It was cute.
We rented a golf cart to get around the resort and decorated it like christmas. 
Ezra and Lily Opened presents on Christmas. We did most of our presents on Hanukkah but brought a few for Christmas morning. We've decided we are not a Santa family - Santa only gives presents to kids that haven't had 8 nights of presents already.
Here we are carrying 5 days of groceries back to the lodge.
Overall it was a fun but exhausting holiday. I am not terrified of future holidays. My brother was a great sport about helping with kids and staying with us, but I am aware it is A LOT to spend 5 nights with 7/5/2/2 year old kids.
Christmases should get more fun and easier. I don't think we will do Bluestone again (it was very much a "we haven't been on holiday in years" kind of expense) BUT it's fun to think about all the Christmas traditions we can now make as a family.
Looking forward to catching up on everyone else's Christmas adventures in blogland...
Saying ‘it was a not bad Christmas’ = tell me you have young kids without telling me you have young kids. The bar is so low for the holiday, right? Your getaway sounded perfect and I am glad you had an extra set of hands. Their uncle was probably less bothered by any of the kid shenanigans since he doesn’t deal with it 24/7/365.
ReplyDeleteI am agog over the situation where someone brought a child with active HFM to a holiday. Stay home!! What in the world!!
Our Christmas was also not bad overall. Christmas Eve and day were the best. The gathering with all my siblings had some major peaks and valleys. We came back last night instead of this morning as there is a blizzard warning for today. I was not sad to leave a bit earlier…
From the experience I can confirm that Rachel is right - it is a lot to spend nights with so many kids, and you are also right - it is not at all bothersome to spend five nights with the shenanigans. In fact, it was exactly what I was looking for and a delight to be able to spend the time with my nieces and nephew. Rachel is a superhero for everything she does and I am always in awe that she musters the energy to do it all, day in and day out.
Delete@Lisa - Because we were new parents we didn't fully realize how weird the HFM situation was... we just avoided it with our kid. But looking back I should have been way less OK with it as it was super odd and the ended up spreading HFM to other members of the family!
DeleteClearly Uncle was Ok with it as he's now commenting here - but I am glad that the overall goodness was confirmed both ways.
Peaks and Valleys sounds about right for most family Christmases - its a lot ot stay with other people. Enjoy your blizzard time at home...?
I love that The Uncle confirmed my suspicious that he was not at all bothered by the shenanigans! I had kids quite a bit later than my parents so I was the aunt around the shenanigans and I was never bothered by it because it was such a novelty for me - and I loved being around my nieces and nephews, melt downs and all!
DeleteYes that is honestly TERRIBLE to bring HFM to a family gathering! It's terribly contagious and it can be quite bad for adults to get it. I"ve heard horror stories. Knock on wood, we've never had it! But we've had every other bizarre rash under the sun, I swear.
I only have two kids and Christmas was always SO exhausting when they were little. Also, each each it seemed someone was sick.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you got away, glad this year wasn't bad, and also glad you will likely have an easier Christmas at home next year as the kids continue to grow older.
Kudos for all the effort of making this special and memorable and it really does look like a lot of fun.
(I remember trying to get my kids to sleep when we were on holiday and I can feel my blood pressure rising just reflecting on how stressful it was!!!! Thankfully, that is one thing that gets MUCH easier as kids get older.)
I also only have two kids and bruh it is hard. Even with the two! Rachel, you are a champ. Do you ever get mad? You must be but I never see it in your posts. You are always very philosophical and stuff. I love it. The posts give me a much needed reminder that I shouldn’t sweat the small stuff.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, loved the pictures and merry Christmas!
Daria from NJ
Oh Daria "do you ever get mad" made me laugh... I think it's that I'm never blogging if I'm mad at my kids, because usually I am too busy with my kids, so the only time I have to blog is when my kids are asleep or otherwise occupied and then I can be philosophical. I definitely get mad.
DeleteYour Christmas Eve party looked amazing! I will go back and read the rest of your holiday recaps soon. I don't think i'm very good at not sweating the small stuff... I think there's just too much bigger stuff happening that I don't even see the small.
Good for you for booking a getaway! Even if not everything went to plan, you had some fun and didn't have to do a full "hosting event" at home, and you had your brother there to help. That's wonderful.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like it went as well as it could have traveling with 2 year old twins. The picture of Lily then and now was very cute. Next year will be easier.
ReplyDeleteOne of our worst holidays ever was when we traveled across the country to have Thanksgiving with my husbands family and ended up spending it with just the 4 of us in a bad Airbnb because my husband noticed spots on his hands when we landed and was diagnosed with hand foot and mouth disease.
7 (7!) hard holiday seasons in a row definitely merits a resort holiday or two. Love your Santa philosophy. Our older kid has been asking why he doesn't bring gifts for adults and somehow the "adults can buy their own stuff" argument isn't sticking. -rachel
ReplyDeleteI also meant to comment that the comparison photo of Lily in the same spot and pose nearly 5 years apart is delightful. - rachel
ReplyDelete