Isn’t five years old an awesome age for Christmas? Poppy chose and decorated the tree herself, prepared all the traditional things for Santa, had wonderful conversations with the mall & retail Santas she met and was fully engaged in the whole process of the countdown – including identifying the date with her advent calendar every morning in December.

Having her Uncle Christopher arriving on Christmas Eve was an excellent addition to the excitement of the season.  Singing carols at the cathedral steps in Nelson on Christmas Eve was really fun. Lots of presents delighted her this year…. especially the amazing playhouse GranJan and Yogi built at the farm, complete with shop window and all the frills for a little girl.  She also loved the mermaid bike from Santa and the pogo stick from Uncle Chris.  The candy necklaces in Santa’s sack were a wide-eyed surprise on Christmas morning… she had asked every Santa she met for some, including the Santa who called from Santa Call – a wonderful experience she talked about a lot.

A big thank you to GranJan for the lovely Christmas dinner at the farm.  We had a relaxing time playing in the sun and enjoying all the family time without rushing anywhere.

Unfortunately, nothing arrived from her Dad in time for Christmas (apparently it’s on the way) – so she was a little disappointed about that.  We sent an awesome gift over to America that I recommend to anyone with relatives they don’t see a lot – a photo book which we picked up from Grab One on sale [a big 30cm x 30cm hard cover photo book with 50 pages, incl. nationwide delivery] from Photo Deals. We made two books, one also for GranJan and Yogi with photos from activities and highlights throughout the year.

Here is a Christmas wish from Poppy to her relatives overseas – and video of her opening her presents.