Merry Christmas, and the Boys are One!

 Wow, this year went really quickly and also agonizingly slowly.  Somehow we made it!

First, we had a very enjoyable Christmas.  On Christmas eve, we had a nice hotpot dinner including our hardworking and wonderful aunties.  I then trekked out for an hour at 9 pm to buy stockings and stocking stuffers.  It was pretty tiring and I ended up walking nearly 20,000 steps that day but I was very pleased with the result.  

We were up very early on Christmas Day - Teo woke up at 4:30am. 

I got Michael an underarmour tshirt and base jogging leggings, a pair of Adidas cloudfoam sneakers, and a bunch of fun socks.  He got me a set of PJs, an instax square camera and a very pretty dress from Alice and Olivia, which I wore through all of our Christmas celebrations.  The kids got so many things: Lola got a Jolly Phonics book, a floor puzzle, a magnetic dollhouse in a book, a bead set, a backpack, a board game, a light up dancing doll, a bunch of hair things, a bus... Al got a fire truck (Lola's pick), a Leapfrog phonic bus, a light up cyclist, a Sophie giraffe wood stacker, magnetic tiles, a police car, dining utensils.. Teo got an ice cream truck (Lola's pick), a Leapfrog phonic bus, a light up cyclist, fingerpaints, a police car, dining utensils...it is all a blur.  The presents came from us, from the aunties, from Lola's friends, from our friends. 

 

As you can see, it took a very long time to unwrap everything.  I think generally, Lola completely understood the concept of unwrapping, Teo kind of got it, and Al was pretty clueless/disinterested (until the item was unwrapped).

This is a still from a video of Lola's reaction to Auntie Lyn's present, a dancing and singing doll (probably the stealer of the show):

We finally calmed down for lunch, but even then Lola was wearing the evidence of her presents - bunny ears and cute hair clips galore.

On Boxing Day, we had friends over for oysters, caviar, sashimi/sushi and champagne.  It was extravagant and fancy and fun.  Our kids all played together and there were no temper tantrums or typhoons, amazingly!

On Sunday, I had another friend come over for lunch and we enjoyed a repast with Lola sitting between us quietly.  In the afternoon Michael and I headed out to Cyberport and enjoyed some time together outdoors with the kids.  We managed to catch a stunning sunset.

 

On Monday the 28th, it was the boys' birthday!  I marveled that exactly a year ago at that time I was on the operating table getting my stomach cut open so we could meet our two boys.  We had absolutely no idea what they would look like, what their personalities would be like, whether they would be healthy or okay, what it would be like to have twins...there were so many unknowns.  But now here we are. 

We had one family over (also an older daughter and then younger twin boys) and the playdate actually went pretty well, except at the very end when the cakes (one raspberry dome and one chocolate hazelnut crunch) came out.  We had a bit of a meltdown on our hands as Lola, who had skipped her nap in her excitement, could not handle that the birthday singing/candle lighting/order was not exactly as she wanted it.  She needed to go to her room multiple times and made it out just in time to see her friends leave with half the cakes (chocolate and raspberry), which only made her more upset.  Bless.  

The boys got some great birthday presents, including shirts, pants, and a lot and lot of books.

Sadly in the chaos I got no pictures of the spread of food, the cakes, the candles, the balloons...truth be told, I barely got any pictures with the birthday boys themselves, unfortunately, and as you can see here even they were pretty unwilling participants in the process.

Happy happy first birthday my handsome darlings!