Last Christmas/This Christmas

Christmas 2009

It's funny the difference a year makes. 365 days aren't very long but when you're not even one, it's a very long time and makes a huge difference in who you are and what you experience. This time last year the Boy had to help Fifi open her presents and she sat at our dining room table in a high chair, flinging roast potatoes around like it was going out of fashion. She looks so tiny in the picture to the right, not yet one, with short fine hair but even at that age she knew what she wanted.

The Boy too knew what he wanted that Christmas, and it was Buzz Lightyear. I remember driving down to Symths Toys on the A1 in a near blizzard to buy him Buzz and he still plays with him nearly every day a year on. Even though Fifi was three months older than he had been for her first Christmas, I don't think she was aware as he was- she certainly wasn't as interested in presents. I think the opposite was true this year, in terms of opening presents at least. Fifi rampaged, collecting presents, opening them and hardly looking at what was in them before moving on to the next one. She loved opening things. I absolutely adore the way she says "Peppa Pig" in a high pitched excited voice, it's magic and makes me want to hold her tight. We'd never have guessed how much she'd like her toy hairdressers set, role playing is something they both love doing.

Christmas 2010

In fact one of the things that's struck me over the festive period is how well the two of them play together now. There is constant dialogue  between the two of them. When it isn't guttural snarling at any rate.The Boy is often solicitous and keen to show his little sister how things work and she is also keen to play with her big brother and proudly show him what she can do. And at not even two yet, there is plenty she can do.

I don't know what Christmas 2011 will bring but I hope with all my heart it's a happy one.