Today was a good day

It was 27 degrees, the sun was shining and the sky was a brilliant blue with not a cloud in sight.  We pulled out our Christmas tree and all the decorations and Ella and I decorated it together while Lucas was asleep upstairs oblivious to us loudly singing Jingle Bells over and over at Ella's request.  Christmas this year is even more special as Ella is starting to understand a little bit more about it and the excitement on her face when we mention Santa is something else.  It was so nice to decorate the tree together, although I never realised how territorial I was over the decorating until having to decorate with a two year old!  I'm a bit anal with the placement of all the ornaments it seems.

Poppy brought Ella her very own Christmas tree from the farm so she decorated it just the way she wanted.  I love the smell of fresh pine trees but unfortunately the smell makes Tim's hayfever play up terribly so we have to keep her tree outside and then we have a fake one inside.

After decorating the tree we spent the afternoon playing in the sun and eating watermelon and to top it off daddy was home early to play with the kids.  Tim just started a new job last week and he finishes now at 4.30pm and so is home by 5pm each day now instead of 6.30-7pm.  It's amazing how much a difference that makes.  Tim can actually play with the kids after work instead of just kissing them good night.  He helps with the bathing and we have dinner at a reasonable hour and can actually relax and talk to one another after dinner instead of rushing around trying to get our things done before going to bed.

We've finished dinner, the dishwasher is stacked, the house is tidy (relatively), the kids went to sleep without a peep (for the first night in I don't know how long) and I'm about to sit down with a cup of tea and some Ben & Jerry's.  It's the simple things, as they say.