Christmas Eve

Ok - So I'm writing this from Melbourne - Christmas Eve seems like a long time ago so not sure if I actually remember much.

I decided Ellis was going to school on Christmas Eve (after Wed nightmare day). I was hoping I could leave him there till 2:30 so he would nap and then be all fresh for our Christmas Eve dinner at Tanya and Keith's house.

On the way there, he mentioned that he wanted to stay till 7:30 - tempting, I said, but school will be closed and you'll be all alone.

There were still lots of kids at daycare so I didn't feel too guilty.... really doesn't feel like Christmas, so that helped.

Got home - didn't go much - Cyp got home, we cleaned, repacked.

We headed out at 2 to get Ellis. He didn't want to see us - "7:30 - you were supposed to come at 7:30." Fee his teacher says "Ellis didn't nap today."

great - figures.

We then hiked in the heat to the train station where in a moment of weakness I bought some gummies (it was Christmas Eve after all) and fed them to Ellis so he would be hopped on sugar when we got to Tanya's.

Dinner was great - the kids ran around like maniacs, didn't eat their dinner and then still got birthday cake (it was Keith's birthday). It was so nice to be at someone's house - sitting on the patio, enjoying the nice Queenslander breeze - I almost started to get excited about our move. Except I had read an article about kids drowning in backyard pools. ugh. Don't want to live with a pool no more.

We headed home about 8 - Ellis was way overtired. He started hopping around on the train

"i Have to PEe! i have to pee!"

I sat there and stared at him for a moment - "move to the floor, move to the floor!" Then I got my brainwave and whipped down his shorts and underwear and threw on a diaper - there were only about 3 other people on the train.

"there you go - pee away."

Strapped him into the stroller after we got off the train as he was buzzing around and I was worried he'd run into the street. That caused a major tantrum. This was a very different Christmas Eve.

Got home eventually - got out the milk and cookies for Santa (heh) and the carrot for the Kanga and went to bed.

I think telling Ellis that Santa wouldn't come if he was awake may have actually been a threat that worked this time.