Christmas week 2014

You could say that Christmas 2014 was the first 'settled' Christmas Marguerite and Jude have had in a while following their years in Boston and their stay at The Park in Dunmurry last year.  It was great to finally be settled for Christmas 2014.  









In the days before Christmas Ben would have a couple of phone calls to Auntie Emma or Granda Crossan.  They must have been asking Ben what Santa Claus was bringing him because he would keep saying, 'traaaccttoorrr!!










Marguerite and Ben preparing to go in and see Santa at the Victoria Centre in Belfast.

At this Christmas Ben was 2 years and 2 months and therefore just about old enough to know that a punter going by the name of Santa Claus existed.












In mid November Jude recorded The Polar Express on the TV and made the mistake of showing it to Ben a day or two later.  What followed was 6 or 7 weeks of this film being shown at least once every day.  Jude reckons he now knows every line in that film. 










That's how Ben learned about the whole Santa Claus gig ..... and truth be told there probably is no better way of explaining this to him.  It's all right there, perfectly told, in The Polar Express. 












A quick visit to Ben's Uncle Kevin and Aunt Mary's house was made on Christmas Eve to exchange some gifts with Grace and Rhiannon.  













Before a quick visit to 56 Brooke Drive where Ben got to play with his wee cousin Ruairi. 














Christmas really did come early for Ben as he got this class chair from Michael, Seaneen and Ruairi.













Marguerite got an early present too.
















Ben and Ruairi having fun. 















There's just something about this pic that would indicate these two may grow up to be two wee messers!












Later on Christmas Eve and the scene was set ......














...... Ben was early into his Jim-Jams .....














...... and the evening was spent pushing his small tractors, trains and cars up and down the floor.













Now it's late on Christmas Eve ...... wait ...... it's early on Christmas morning ...... very early ....... like before Ben got up ....... wha? ...... yes sometime around then ... and Marguerite is opening her first Christmas present. 










Also up bright and early is Jude.  By this stage Santa had been and gone but it was a bit early for Ben to be up ..... ehhhhh yes .... anyway ......  Jude's first present was the latest David Bowie CD 'Nothing Has Changed'.  Nice!
  




 


 

All Jude wanted for Christmas was a dart board - he's easily pleased.  He claims he was good at darts at a time ..... back in the day like.  You'll have to take his word for it.  He likes to spin a yarn about how his older brother used to 'smuggle' him in the back door of a Portaferry pub so he could play on their pub dart team .... before he would promptly win his game .... and then be just as quickly smuggled out the back door again.   






Jude searches below the tree for another one of Marguerite's gifts. 

Marguerite was spoilt rotten as usual!!















Christmas morning ...... the calm before the storm. 

Every moment with a wee baba is special but Christmas morning is the best!










Before you knew it Ben was up ....... and at last he had his tractor.  














To say Ben loved this tractor is a big understatement.  It must be said that this is one cool tractor! 













Just how Santa got the tractor down the chimney is hard to figure out but the patio doors were left open that night so maybe he got it in that way.  Unless you sit up all night and spy on Santa then it is hard to understand these things.











Ben loved all his toys, including this wee maze thingy and his cool new fire engine. 














And he quickly fell in love with this cool remote control tractor / digger. 














'Happy Christmas Mama'. 

'Ahh, thanks so much Ben'. 













'Ok Mama, it might be your gift but I'm opening it', was maybe what Ben was thinking as he got tore into this one.













Every now and again Jude can do something daft and as Marguerite and Ben took the wrapping of this present they soon discovered .......












......... that one of the gifts Jude had got Marguerite was the exact same thing as a present he got her last year ....... a silver bracelet out of the exact same Swarovski shop!  Have you ever heard of anything like that before.  Seriously you can't make this stuff up.  Wha? 











Christmas morning breakfast time.
















'Ahhh class ..... a Superdry hoodie, nice', said Jude as he opened this gift.  














This present was ...... well to steal a funny line from The Polar Express it was ....... 'just a bunch of stupid underwear'.  Imagine getting underwear as a Christmas box ......... I mean all multi-coloured and stripes and all ...... wha?  Even Ben's laughing at that one!

Christmas morning 2014 ........ perfect!

After a late breakfast and a visit to Clonard Monastery for Christmas Day Mass  ....... 











........ next stop was to Granny and Granda Crossan's house in Brooke Drive where Ben wasted no time in getting ripped in to this great present of a remote control car.












The opening of the Secret Santa gifts is always great craic.  Here Michael opens his cool new remote control helicopter.












For Jude's Secret Santa gift he got a Man Utd track suit top and vouchers for his favourite record / music shop.  Perfect!

















That's Jude's new Man Utd top sitting beside Emma. 













Marguerite got a set of nifty hair curlers from Jude and as you can see here in this pic they worked well.   Here is Marguerite opening her Secret Santa gift which was a really cool watch.











One of Dee's gifts was a Dart Board.  They must have been going cheap this year!! 

After the Secret Santa gifts were all opened Marguerite, Jude and Ben headed back up to Glenavy ............

......... and got settled into preparing their dinner.














Marguerite did a grand job getting everything ready.













An awful lot of effort goes into making a Christmas Dinner ....... and truth be told it's always worth it ...... because it's always great.  Just like today's. 

Over there to the left is a great book Jude's cousin Gabriel got him.  It's called 'Someone Suggested We Form A Hurling Club', and it is a history of Ballygalget hurling club.  Jude spent a good few hours stuck in that book over the Christmas holidays.




After all that hard work Marguerite was glad to get settled down.

Happy Christmas from 23a Pigeontown Road!

Aye yer hats!!


Hats on!!







Hats off!!

Marguerite and Jude had great craic setting up these pics on the camera's timer before running around and posing like so ......











........ and so .....















........ and so. 

Ben pulls his first cracker ......















...... and gets a funny hat for his efforts!

Ben playing with the gift his Granny and Granda Crossan got him.













These days Ben has pretty much taken over these 'second' living room.  Still without a permanent name it's been called the music room, the bottom living room, the funnies room, the other living room ...... among others.










Regardless of what it is called Ben loves chilling out down here.  Maybe it should be called the chill room or the cool room. 













Anyway, everyone gets to mess about in this room .... even the big kids.  Christmas Day was a very busy day and eventually .......












...... Ben ran out of steam.   Tonight he insisted on taking his remote control tractor with him!













In the days just after Christmas Glenavy, and Pigeontown Road in particular, was beautifully laid out in a light covering of snow.












Ben got to explore a little on his tractor ......














........ and check out what the neighbour's dogs were getting up to.













Ben and Jude are out getting some fresh air .....














...... and going for a spin on the tractor.




   

Jude would pull Ben around the house .....














....... doing laps ........















..... for maybe an hour or two.

Kerry, Michael and Rebecca visited for a few hours and got to get out and about in the snow. 

Thankfully there was room for both Michael and Ben on the tractor and cart.

Check out Marguerite's cool designer wellies! Wha?

Today Jude took a couple of cool pics ....... like this one.  He like the contrast in this pic from the extra large tree on the left to Glenavy Chapel in the distance on the right.  Cool, wha?












Michael and Ben having good fun out in the snow.













Here's another one of those cool pics, this one looking out across the back garden and adjoining fields.  It's a real winter country scene!












The next day Marguerite and Jude's friend Tom visited.  Tom hung around with Jude in America.  Here he is with his wee daughter Aimee and his sister Eibhlin.











You could say Ben got good value out of his tractor this Christmas ........ here he is again this time with Aimee driving.













A happy boy.














It took about an hour to walk a few hundred feet and back, especially as Tom was co-ordinating events!












Marguerite and Tom catch up on the craic.














It's never too cold for a football match, at least not for Ben and Aimee!













It's good to be home and it's good to keep the friendships formed in Boston alive and kicking after having returned home.  Left to right: Aimee, Tom, Marguerite, Jude, Ben.      

Talking of friendships formed in Boston ..... here's Clare visiting too.














Marguerite and Ben having fun over Christmas.














Paul and Trisha also visited.  Here is Trisha with Ben and Marguerite.













Jude, Marguerite, Ben, Paul and Trisha enjoy the craic.   Tonight they went down to Lilly Johnston's in Glenavy for dinner and a couple of drinks, then back to No. 23a for plenty of laughs and some more drinks. 
  
And that just about wrapped up Christmas 2014 and into 2015 we go.  

Happy New Year!