We are very fortunate and blessed to have families who love and care for us in the way that ours do. We are able to come on holiday, be cared for (and spoiled), and have a time to relax.

Thank you Gogo, Gramps, Granny and Grandpa for opening your homes to us and caring for us deeply. Because you are always there, always constant, it is easy to forget how privileged we are to have you in our lives.

We love you lots.

Today was a slow, relaxed, and peaceful day, and Grace took some time to play with all her toys in detail. She watched her new Tinkerbell DVD, spent quite some time playing with her GoldieBlox, the Barbies got a good check-up with the doctors set, and a new train track was built.

Go fish with Gogo

No really, wings are in this season

Peek-a-boo!

The reading rocket

Eli’s favourite gift – his Harvey Harvester WoW toy.

Grace’s favourite gift – her Doc McStuffins doctor’s set

Thanks for the awesome remote control! When I’m done with this I’ll go and play with the doorstop for a while 🙂

Gogo goes all reindeer on us

Granny’s beautiful Christmas tree

Washing Donné’s old Barbie’s

Trying out his new Superman slops and hat

Just being cute

Train set fun for the whole family

Christmas is a strange time. The air drips heavy with expectation – expectation that somehow on this one day of the year the magic of Christmas is going to happen and everything is going to be perfect.

And yet this great expectation just leads to a greater disappointment. The presents aren’t as great as expected, the family doesn’t miraculously mend bonds that have been broken for years, the after-meal chatter is just not quite as jovial as desired. The perfect Hollywood family Christmas is just not a reality.

But there is something that is real, very real, and that is love. We can’t control how other people behave, we can’t control how other people feel, but we do have control over ourselves and how we respond and treat them.

The only true magic of Christmas is love, and it is something that we all have to give.

May your heart be filled with love, and may you know the love of those around you this Christmas. Have a blessed Christmas!

Lots of love from the Drennans

Merry go round!

Eli’s fort

Attack of the naked baby!

Oooh, look what I snuck up and found (and note Gramps’ shirt colour)

Slip and slide fun

Helping Gogo decorate the Christmas tree

Morning beach fun

Eli gets a rinse after some play time at the lagoon

Day one and we’ve played in the sprinklers, spent time with “Gogo, gogo, gogo, gogo, gogo, gogo, gogo, gogo, gogo, gogo,” played hide and go seek, gone to the lagoon and had a family swim. Grace has also done the usual, take-out-all-my-toys-that-I-haven’t-seen-since-last-time-and-play-with-them-all (briefly) routine. It is good to be here and to be together with our family.

Eli is all set and ready to go see the grandparents…and he is doing one of his favourite activities – playing in the car. He is actually quite a wild hooligan in the car. He doesn’t really push the buttons or pull the levers, but he does climb over everything like it is his personal jungle gym.

Can we go yet?

Sprinklers are fun!

Eli is really enjoying trying to draw