So here we are, the last Living Arrows post of the year! I just want to start by saying a big thank you to Donna at What The Redhead Said for continuing to host this linky, and to everyone who reads and comments on my posts every week.

In the last few months I haven’t really been blogging very much but every week I write these posts, with a little bit about what we’ve been up to and a photo of each of the boys. I started this blog back in 2013 as a family diary and I’m so happy that even when I’m going through a phase of not writing very much, I still have these posts as a record of what we’ve been doing and how the boys are growing and changing.

We had a lovely Christmas Day this year. The boys were super excited on Christmas Eve but went to sleep without too much trouble. We had my brother staying over so we had a few drinks and played some board games, and after a late-ish night (for me at least) we were lucky that the boys didn’t wake up until 7:30!

I usually only share individual pictures of Toby and Gabe in my Living Arrows post but for the last three years I’ve taken a photo of them by the fire on Christmas Eve in their new matching pyjamas so I wanted to include this one too…

On Christmas Day we opened most of the presents at our house first thing then went to my mum and dad’s for the rest of the day. They don’t live far away and usually we would just come home in the evening but we decided it would be nice for us to stay over for a change. It was a bit of a squeeze fitting everyone in the house but we did it – the boys even managed to sleep in a single bed together without any waking up during the night.

Since then we’ve mostly just been having some quiet family time at home. Barry took Toby and Gabe up to see his mum on Friday while I went to see Cats at the cinema with my mum (if you haven’t seen it – it’s bonkers but if you’ve seen the stage show and liked it you’ll probably enjoy it!)

Yesterday we had a brief trip out of the house to the garden centre where I took this week’s other pictures. It’s got a little play area outside so the boys had a chance to run about a bit – they were going a bit stir crazy in the house so a bit of fresh air was definitely needed!

It was so mild too – I can’t believe it’s the end of December and we were just out in jumpers!

We’ve got a few things planned for this week – a visit to see friends and a trip to a play centre but I’m sure there’ll be plenty of time at home too. I’ll be back next week with my first Living Arrows post of 2020 – I’ll be heading into my 7th year of writing these posts every week and I’m not planning on stopping any time soon!

I always like to finish my last post of the year with the first pictures from January just to compare how the boys have changed…

You can’t really see much of Toby’s face here but he definitely looks much older now he’s got his two front adult teeth. He’s still wearing that coat this winter though!

And I think Gabe just looks exactly the same as he did a year ago! We don’t have to turn the cuffs of that t-shirt up anymore though so he must have grown at least…

I hope you have all had a lovely Christmas and you have a fabulous New Year whatever you may be up to – I think we’ll be staying in with a glass of wine and maybe a board game or a film, and I’ll be lucky if I manage to stay awake until midnight!

Until next year….

This is my ninth year taking part in this linky celebrating childhood, based on a poem by Kahlil Gibran, “You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth” .

If you’d like to see the rest of my Living Arrows posts you can find them all here.