Penguin Attack: Happy Feet and Happy Day.

The little girls fell asleep early, the elder ones didn’t, Maddy in particular being in a state of high dudgeon over everything. But eventually it was all as quiet as it is in the poem (we actually managed to read that from the book this year, we normally misplace it in the preceding days and i have to print it out!)

Father Christmas came. Lucky girls 🙂

Josie thrilled by the penguin in her stocking and a variety of other penguiny bits in there too; Maddy overjoyed by DS Pony Friends, Fran enraptured by Colour Me Beanie and horse books and Amelie loved up over a snuggly tiger. FC put fewer, more personalised gifts into stocking this year, which went down well. Several loud thank you’s said to the room at large by the big two 🙂

After a family breakfast they opened FC big presents of Lily Dolls stuff for the big girls, Sylvanians for Ams and a Polar Bead Frame for Josie (she adores those, very odd!) and then we went upstairs to find the presents from us. Fortunately, as it turned out, we’d hidden the biggest family present, so we could pace the day a bit and that proved to be a good thing. We gave Maddy her DS first, as she is hopeless at waiting and simply gets herself into a pickle if she’s wondering what else might be under the tree. Unfortunately, i’d pretty much goofed her day up anyway already 🙁

A week or so ago i told her that i hadn’t been able to get a DS and they were all sold out; she replied that she was fine with that and actually, could she have some plastic dinosaurs instead and get a DS for her birthday? (Phew) Got the dinos but of course also got her the DS and forgot to re-align her expectations to take this into consideration, so she opened it, panicked and went and hid it in her room so she didn’t have to deal with it. I then made it worse by giving her a DS decorating kit which she stuck on and then broke down over because she didn’t want it on it. *Sigh* It can be so hard sometimes and i hate that it effectively comes across as her being ungrateful, when she completely isn’t being 🙁 Max and i spent most of the day watching her with bated breath as she just got worse and worse and eventually i just found her sobbing in her bedroom with sheer overload. We managed to rescue her, she hadn’t yet actually retreated under the bed, and she spent the rest of the day pretty much absorbed in the dinosaurs 😆 (Could have saved myself £100!) She loves the DS now though and the Mario sticker is decorating the computer 🙂

Fran had requested surprises and a variety of things from PlayMerrily (sale now on!)  and Max had gone to great lengths to get some Dungeons and Dragons stuff together for her since she has got very into that type of game playing and creation of board games in general. She was thrilled, her face was a picture and they’ve had loads of play with it already. (Good for maths, lots of reading and writing etc etc 😉 ) I also gave her Cordz, which she has loved doing, a crochet set in a case, Cooking Mama and Pokemon, some clothes from Pumpkin Patch (nearly outgrown that shop now!) and heaps of books on horses, Moomins, history and more. She was pleased. Felt very grown up of her not to have a particular “must have thing” and just be happy with surprises.

Amelie had a “year of the trash” with a HSM cheerleader outfit, pink and sparkly princess crowns, shoes and so on and goodness knows what else. At the last moment (given i didn’t manage to get her a DS cos she wanted pink) she begged for one of the dolls i sell and so got Tidoo Bright  which turned out to be a major hit, she loves her. It is a very nice dolly. She also got DS Puzzle League which she and i both really like so she was a very happy girl.

Josie bounced from Sylvanian Penguins, to Penguin DVDs to Penguin lunchbags to Penguin books, to Penguin jigsaws. She did get a couple of non-penguin things, but mostly, it was penguins. She now has a penguin shelf in her bedroom, with them all lined up so she can admire them 😆 Happiness was made complete when Auntie Greer gave her a fantastic Penguin Backpack and book. She was in heaven. Thank You Auntie Greer, BN and girls 🙂

Max and i decided about 2pm that Xmas dinner seemed like so much bother, so we had ham, egg and chips instead!!!! Perfect and timed to perfection to get us back upstairs for Doctor Who. Amelie howled like a babe at the end. Sensitive girl.

I was delighted with ipod transmitter, pjs (Josie repeatedly told me for the week beforehand that i was getting these but that it was a secret and she couldn’t tell me!), cd of The Beautiful South and enormous box of Lush, themed in blue by Maddy 🙂

Max was equally delighted with a haul of books by 2 favourite authors – should have given him them later as i think they contributed to the lack of Xmas dinner!

Finally tucked up the kids and we went not much later!