Holly, Ivy and Mistletoe

It is three more sleeps until Christmas, and Mole and Hedgehog are beyond excited.

Now that Mole and Hedgehog are waking up to the joys of the festive season, it seems Christmas is coming full circle and is now totally about them. Everyone always says Christmas is about the children, but I'm only now really getting it.

It was not until Mole was born for example, that I announced to my mother that I was ready to relinquish the Christmas stocking to the next generation. Mole duly received my thirty year old stocking in ceremonial recognition of this. Mole has been hanging this stocking from her bunk bed since October and telling me repeatedly what she would like to find in it. These consist of mainly jewellery, make-up and things for her ‘babies’. Not gender specific at all then.

Mole is very concerned as to how Santa will get into the house, as we don’t have a chimney. I said he can always get in through the letter box, to which she replied “But he won’t fit mummy”, “Well, he can always magic himself little” I try hopefully. Mole looks dubious.

This weekend we have the meeting with Santa in his grotto, which I’m hoping will go better than previous years, when Mole either went mute, cried, or ran away. So she can get it from the horse’s mouth about what his plans are for breaking into our house.

Hedgehog is not so vocal about her wish list for Christmas, mainly parroting whatever Mole says. But like Mole, she is obsessed with my jewellery and make-up, bags and shoes. She likes to squirrel them away into remote corners of the house, until I say with a hint of desperation in my voice: “Hedgehog, do you know where mummy’s XX is?”, and she will wonder around aimlessly in a circle going “Ummmm”.

We’ve reached the point in December when all the preparation is done and we can now sit back and enjoy it,thank god. Mr M&H has had a particularly bad work week, in view of the fact that Mole and Hedgehog have taken to coming into bed with us at 4am, when we're too weak to fight it or put them back in their own beds. I've had a chat with Mole about this though, and last night I only had to get up three times to keep them in their room. We'll tackle this in the New Year.

I’m most looking forward to the crib service at our village church on Christmas Eve, singing carols, putting the sherry and carrot out for Santa and Rudolph, waking up on Christmas morning with Mole and Hedgehog opening their stockings on our bed, and having eggs florentine for breakfast. Then there is Christmas lunch with Nanny Brown Hair, followed by our weeks stay in Ceredigion with Granny Purple Hair from Boxing day until the New Year. I'm imagining Winter walks on dramatic Welsh beaches, taking Mole and Hedgehog to the cinema to see Paddington 2 and getting cosy by the fire.

Each year we seem to add another Christmas tradition to the mix. This year it's been more about being thrifty yet still fun. So forest foraging, making our own cards, seeing how much glitterglue we can cover the kitchen table with and making our own wrapping paper (aka potato stamping on plain paper) has all featured, and it's been surprisingly fun, so I reckon it's staying.

Mole’s great question of the month came when we were driving home last week and she called from her back seat: “Daddy, why do the trees stay out in the dark?”. Sometimes it makes me look at the world in a whole new light when seen through Mole’s eyes.

I mean, why wouldn’t all the trees come inside at night like the Christmas trees do?.