December 1997

As we approach Matthew's first Christmas we are all getting very excited! Matthew is now a very settled and happy baby - he has begun to sleep through the night regularly. We are looking forward to being able to spoil him rotten. We want him to know this is a special time of year... and also that he is special.

In the run up to Christmas we took Matthew to see Santa, and he was thrilled. He got a little present, and we got a souvineer photo of his first trip to see santa, but wasn't really bothered. I think he just knew how happy we were, and he loved the grotto with little mechanical elves and penguins. Then just before the end of term the nursery threw a party for all the children, Matthew got to see Santa again, and painted us a Christmas card. He loved helping us to put up all the decorations in the house.

Karl and I have put aside a £100 budget for Matthew's Christmas presents. His main present from us will be a toddle truck, and we are getting him a toy kitchen/activity center from Santa. We decided to spend the rest on lots of little presents so he would have lots to open, and we would be able to swap and change his toys around to give him more choice after Christmas. Dispite having to wade through the Christmas crowds we really enjoyed shopping for him.

Karl is still away during the week, and now I am also having to go away for a week. Luckily I will be working near to where my parents are, and they are more than happy to look after Matthew during the day. Matthew is taking all the disruption in his stride... it's like he thinks "wow what exciting thing is going to happen next?" The next exciting thing was a trip up to see his Nana and Grandad, and his new cousin who is six weeks old. The car journey is five hours long, but Matthew was in so much anticipation that he was awake and happy for most of it!

We are actually spending Christmas with my family, because they celebrate Christmas traditionally - as a family holiday, and religious festival, which is how we want Matthew to think of Christmas. So we were heading off on another long car journey, just days later. I can hardly believe how well Matthew is coping with all these car journeys.

On Christmas day Matthew was overwhelmed. He began to get the idea of opening presents, but only opened about a third of them today. He managed to open the all of them over the next week. He really enjoyed Christmas dinner though. He tucked into his turkey and roast potatoes beautifully, and even managed a little christmas pudding too. On boxing day we had a huge meal with tweleve of us and Matthew is just loving it. I am pleased that he is a sociable baby!