To ask what made your day lovely today?

[Cheaplousyfaggot]

DC are asleep and I have no one to do a Merry Christmas toast with....so i hope someone might join me in a virtual toast?

I have had the perfect day. Nothing extraordinary but just exactly right. Its been a while since I have said that about Christmas, or even thought it possible to feel content.

Loveliest moments include DC helping with christmas dinner, DC1 recently declared he wants to be a chef when he grows up and did everything with me. So lovely having the cheerful company and help.

My day was perfect from start to finish. Meal was delicious but the company was superb. My parents and all my kids plus partners.

When not eating or opening presents there were board games. Ages of participants 23, 22, 21, 21, 20,12 plus Nanna and I and we laughed and laughed and laughed. It was loud and joyful and so much fun.

Perfect day, my heart is full

I got to watch The Snowman whilst cuddling my 3 year old twins. I've lost the dvd, failed to find it on amazon or Netflix and have such happy memories of watching it with eldest. Also, one of twins is really not a cuddly child, so those cuddles, especially when combined with overt enjoyment was super special

I've had a few things that have made my day a absolutely amazing,

Firstly my daughter loved the gifts she had. To see her little face glowing was a brilliant start to the day, then spent the first Christmas I've had with my dad in 24 years.

I also got lots of gifts From my husband, who has very rarely bought me a gift In the 8 years we've been together

Everything.

Good time on the park run.
Lots of champagne.
Plenty of amazing food.
Huge horde of family getting on well.

DS11 and DS8 didnt get a single electrical item from Santa and were more than happy with what they got. They have several sports they are very active in so got things for these, clothes, books, sweets, shower gel etc. I noticed a lot of DS11s friends on instagram showing off their Playstations when they already have an Xbox or their new Iphone X to replace their iphone 8 etc and I mentioned to DS that this was the first year for a while he hasnt had something electrical or even a game for his xbox or anything like that and be was genuinely suprised as he hadnt even noticed he was too busy playing with that he did get. I said did he want me to take a pic of him with his stuff to post on instagram like his friends and be said no because imagine if someone didnt get much it would make them feel bad.

My 11yo son made the dessert which looked and tasted like something out of Masterchef.
First time one of my kids have helped with Christmas food prep and I loved it, he was so proud of himself and it was just a great moment for us.

Wine.

Wine made my day lovely.

DS1 slept until 7:30 am and said that all his presents were amazing and DS2 has just learnt to kiss and it's so sweet. Also his annoying Baby shark toy made him laugh each time it played.

I've had a lovely day today too, the kids were really grateful for everything and everyone helped out and was appreciative. Had some nice family time watching a film and the dinner was delicious. Good success:-)

Today DS2 was a ball of overexcitedness and flitting between being lovely and being horrendous. But when my parents gave presents to DH and I, he thanked them both for giving presents to his mummy and daddy. It melted my heart.
Seeing DH's grandad so happy and relaxed after a miserable year.

My family are all really lovely people, kind to each other and all get on well despite being very different. My ds was angelic all day and the latest addition to our family, a super smiley four month old, is so cute I could eat him...... great day here!!

Kids delighted, actually emotional and these are teenagers, amazing presents from my husband, beautiful weather for a walk round the lake, really relaxing calm day - dinner, movie, wine - time for bed. Lovely day.

My DD (nearly 2) when MIL and FIL arrived this afternoon. We hadn't told her they were coming. She literally ran around shouting "nanna yay! Grandad yay!", taking their shoes and coats off and waving hwr hands around. They hadn't brought presents (opened them earlier) so it wasn't that, but was just because she was excited to see them, it was so cute and i think they were chuffed.

I have been feeling really bad about Christmas.
Didn't even get half the decs out this year(too much time had to be spent on other things this year)
Bought far less for my son than ever before but didn't realise how very little it looked until wrapping it up on Christmas eve.
He did get the thing he asked Santa for, but it was something small & cheap.
I accidentally set the fridge on it's highest setting so no roast today as it froze in the fridge overnight.
Honestly I spent most of the day with a fake smile on my face, biting my tongue wanting to apologise to my son & wondering if I was going to cry after he went to bed.

Then, he sat down next to me this evening, sighed, gave me a big hug & said " I wish this day didn't ever have to end. This is my best Christmas ever."

Ive had a lovely day,my unpleasant blood relatives stayed away ,so thats 2 years and 3 months without put down comments,my neighbours went out for the day so i didnt have to listen to mr barry white voice booming through the thin walls.Ive had unchristmassy things to eat,marmalade on toast,bacon sandwiches and more marmalade on toast and mugs of tea.The best bit of the day was reading mumsnet classics,the one about overheard arguments

I woke up and was ready for action the minute I heard the children getting up, their lights clicking on and squeals about stockings. They’re above us in the house so we kind of sat at the edge of our bed waiting for a stampede down the stairs. They didnt come down for ages and we just sat listening to them talking to each other and showing each other their very small and what I thought were fairly insignificant toys. They chatted and played in the hallway between their rooms sort of above our bedroom door, so we just sat and listened and listened for nearly an hour. I mopped down to turn in the tree lights, my husband nipped down to do us coffees, and after a while we called up to them and said errrr Merry Christmas! They got all excited and shouted out “mummy and daddy are AWAKE!!!” And bolted downstairs to us, telling us what cool things Father Christmas had brought. So we went downstairs together to the softly lit tree, and they were just blown away by the very few, but just right, gifts we’d got for them. So grateful and gracious, sweet and kind and all showing each other and telling each other how they would definitely be sharing with each other. Was all just lovely and gentle and magical. I then was pretty much in the kitchen for the day while my husband played with them and helped build their toys while listening to carols. Once dinner is done, which was just perfect if I do say so, my husband does all the cleaning and clearing away while I then relax with the children, we watched The Grinch, and then Zog twice (!)which I’m glad we recorded. Once the cleaning was done we got the kids into yet another pair of new pyjamas, gave them shortbread and hot chocolate while we had Baileys, and played guess who and scrabble. They’ve gone to bed late and now half-pissed while my husband snores away on the sofa downstairs. All in all, perfect in every way. I’m so proud of my children, they have their moments, and the threads where the kids act out of character and ruin everything are not something I’ve never experienced, but not today. Today was spot on, yummy food and lovely family, I aimed to keep things understated and somehow it was even better. I think what helped, and it sounds mean, but people were due to come to us but asked if they could change tomorrow, and I gladly agreed. I can and have cooked and hosted many times, but it’s much easier and more fun to host with leftovers and cheeses and stuff, you can give everything and everyone your full attention then.

My DD cried with joy over and over again about her present and said this is the best Christmas ever (in fairness I don't think we have had a Christmas that she hasn't said that yet!

My DS and amazing DIL hosted both sides of the family for the day. There were four generations and an extraordinary mixture of relations, including step mothers, step brothers and half brothers. Some combination of the two extended families meet up several times a year at big family events and really enjoy each others' company. We had such a great day!

These are lovely.

I was worried our eldest would think Christmas was going to be boring as just us as his little brother has aspergers and we've learnt the hard way travelling round to attend big family Christmases are very stressy. For him and me

But it's been a chilled out joy. Presents great. Dinner yum. Board games ace. Had silly Christmas sing song. Went to see neighbours with gifts and had a giggle. Wore our PJs until we had an evening walk (borrowed neighbour's dog)
We are all doing that thing of looking at each other thinking "love you, you are brill".

And only 2 minor meltdowns from DS2. Result.
Happy Christmas.

I made a lovely dinner all by myself and didn't get even slightly stressed, which is unusual for me. This year, I was in the mood to cook and dh wasn't.

I find roast dinners difficult. Therefore, usually either dh makes Christmas dinner, or we do it together and bicker a fair bit . You see, our approaches are totally different. Dh has a flair for cooking, can do many things at once, and improvises. I am plodding, methodical, predictable and competent. I cannot improvise or multitask. For this reason, I don't often do roast dinners, because there's too much going on at once.

The low stress was due to me cheerfully and assertively repulsing dh's several attempts to get me to cook in his style. "No, I'm not doing an apple pie today. I have already decided what to cook. Besides, we don't have exactly the ingredients I would use for it." "Have some snacks. Dinner will be later than you would prefer. You know that if I rush, I'll get into a mood, and nobody wants that." "I know you don't like the mashed potato, the gravy and the cheese sauce to be done ahead and microwaved. But I need to do things one at a time, and that means reheating some things." Such conversations are frequent when I cook, but I rarely manage to be so clear and calm when dh is trying to instruct me!

Getting up at 9. Being in pjs all day. Watching loads of telly. Eating my body weight in cheese. Playing board games and laughing lots.

Bumped into friends at lunch out. They are having building work done and it transpired their house is a building site with no Christmas tree, heating or kitchen. So we insisted they spent the rest of the day at ours. Stretched the buffet out and had a wonderful, impromptu Christmas afternoon. It was really special - although I wish I’d bought a bit more food!

Grateful children. I got them some reasonable half-decent presents, but I didn't feel inspired this year and there was nothing awesome. I felt slightly guilty about that. It might have been a bit of a letdown.

The teen claimed to be delighted with the many pairs of silly socks I gave her. She does love silly socks. The 12yo went on and on about how perfect her new duvet cover was. They liked everything. Both thanked me for an excellent Christmas. I could tell they meant it.

The teen asked whether I was disappointed that she'd be leaving a few days after Christmas to spend a fortnight with her BF and his family. I said of course not, and that we appreciated having her with us for Christmas day. She said there was no way she would ever want to be anywhere else but with her family on Christmas!

Six teenagers in the house today, we didn't give them the WiFi password and they all sat and played monopoly while the adults caught up over wine. Also cooked rib of beef and Yorkshires pretty well ...