We arrived in Perth early Christmas morning after a luxurious 6 hour plane ride. As luxurious as it can get with two kids under three I guess. We were blessed enough to get one of the new fleet of Virgin aircraft, with individual touch screens in the back of every seat and comfy reclining seats. The boys finally fell asleep after about three hours of flying, only to wake up on arrival and not settle back to sleep until 2.30 in the morning, which happened to be 4.30 our time.
Christmas here was amazing. It finally felt like Christmas. Having been so sick for this entire month, as a family we have done very little that felt much like Christmas. I made rum balls with the kids and we wrapped some presents together and that was the extent of it this year, other than lots of conversations about Jesus’ birthday.
Nathan realised this year about Santa. He recognised that the ‘Christmas man’ appeared everywhere in shops with the Christmas trees at this time of year. When we asked him what the ‘Christmas man’ did, he informed us that he was there to let the big people know it was Christmas time. He’s such a gorgeous kid.
Nathan and Elisha both LOVE their cousins. They are enjoying both playing with and being babied by the older kids. Nathan is freely giving hugs to them all, and to his grandparents. I am actually quite surprised at how quickly Elisha took to everyone. He was happy to go for cuddles straight away. He has settled so much since I’ve stopped uni!
I wish these times could happen more often. I really want Nathan to be able to maintain this relationship with his cousins. It’s just so hard though. It feels as though we don’t get many family holidays ourselves, because any week break that we have tends to be an extended family trip. Whether Perth or North Queensland. But those family relationships are so important, especially now that we have kids. Two years to us is very little, but it’s half of their life at the moment!
We have about a week left, and we’re trying desperately to see who we would like and make the most of every day with the kids. It’s hard to keep in mind that making the most of a day with the kids sometimes does just mean letting them play and bond with their cousins at home. It’s also the first time I’ve had Tim around this much in about six months. I don’t want to waste that, but it’s not really the priority. It’s at the back of our minds.
We’re just really enjoying this time with family. It would be so lovely if we could meet our new little niece or nephew while we’re here!