Thanks for coming over from LadyBug Home & Designs this is my third post for #12DaysofParenting, you can read my first post here which also explains a little about what this is about.

Do you remember what Christmas was like before you had children? It seems like a whole lifetime ago doesn’t it? Have a read… maybe some of these will ring true with you too.

Buying presents

Then
Presents, especially for the other half were planned meticulously months and months in advance. All presents were wrapped as soon as they were bought and put away for safe-keeping until the big day.

Now
Presents for the children are bought months in advance after scouring the internet for all the best deals. Gifts for your other half and family? Well they are left to the last minute when you end up panic buying and end up chucking a wad of cash at some gadget for your partner in the vague hope it will be something he will use. Present wrapping is now a marathon session that last HOURS. You have to be canny enough to have hidden the wrapping paper from your children so they don’t twig that they aren’t actually from Father Christmas.

Christmas eve

Then
Back in the day when I still lived at home Christmas eve always involved drinks out with friends and we would inevitably end up in the local nightclub, either Options or Volts. I would not see Christmas Day until about midday and it was of course with a very sore head. This carried on after I moved out, the only difference being I would wake at midday and head over to my parents for Christmas lunch.

Now
Our first couple of Christmas eve’s after we had E involved the frenzied building of a train table and a wooden play kitchen. I can’t believe it took us two Christmases to learn not to buy big bulky presents which we couldn’t actually assemble until the night before.

These days I actually have to remind myself to sit down and have a glass of bubbly or wine because I am usually running around making sure everything is set up ready for the big day.

Where did I put the reindeer food? What are we going to leave Father Christmas because someone ate the mince pie and neglected to let me know. And of course there is always that niggling feeling that you have forgotten to buy something very very important…

Christmas Day

Then
A lie-in for as long as possible to try and sleep off the hangover. Begrudgingly have to wake up because I have to go to either my parents or the in-laws to spend the day with them. Spend the rest of the day trying eat and drink away the hangover, watching the Queen’s speech and doze infront of the TV after Christmas dinner.

Now
Up at the crack of dawn because I am more excited than the boys about seeing their faces when they open their presents. Realise they are still fast asleep so set about stomping about abit to wake them up (please tell me I am not the only one that does this?) Enjoy videoing their reactions to their presents each year, making the madness of the prepation beforehand all worth it. Now, suddenly I am the one in charge of cooking the turkey with all the trimmings. How did that happen?

Christmas with the boys and helping them create the magic that goes with it all is what I live for now and although I think fondly about Christmas pre-children I wouldn’t change what I have now for the world. The boys are only young once so I intend to remember and record every single moment.

If you’d like to continue the blog hop take a look at Kiddy Charts post, you will also gain further entries into the grand prize draw.

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Our Christmas code word is: Mush

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Read my other 12 Days of Christmas posts:

• First day of Christmas – surviving the holidays
• Second day of Christmas – My list to Santa
• Fourth day of Chrismas – Our family traditions

Related posts:

The Boys Most Played With Christmas presents On the first day of Christmas…surviving the holidays On the second day of Christmas…My list to Santa this year Sleep deprived and not getting enough sleep