And just like that 2017 is done. 12 months, 12 Me & Mine pictures. I love this project for making sure we have a family picture from every month, because I know we definitely wouldn’t have them without it.

December was just all about the lead up to Christmas for us – now Toby is at school the preparation starts early! They were practising for the nativity for weeks, and Toby made a very impressive cow. He didn’t actually sing for most of it but he did very well at joining in with all the actions. We also had a Christmas fair to go to, and he had a Christmas party too. Safe to say we had one very excited and very exhausted boy come Christmas Eve.

Even though Gabe is only two and four months (I keep saying he’s two and a half but we actually got another couple of months before we get there), he definitely seem to understand some of what was going on with Christmas this year. He loved all the Christmas decorations and the lights. And he was an absolute superstar at his preschool party. The parents were all invited for the last half hour – the kids sang a few Christmas songs, and then Father Christmas came. The children went up on to the stage one by one to get their presents and Gabe was the very last one of about 20 kids. And I thought he would get upset, or at least want to come and sit with us but he sat so patiently on the carpet and waited right until the end when it was his turn. We were so proud of him.

We had a lovely Christmas this year too – we spent the morning at home, where the boys opened a lot of their presents before we headed to my mum and dad’s house for more presents and Christmas dinner with my parents and my brother and sister-in-law. On Boxing Day we went up to see Barry’s parents (if you read last month’s Me & Mine post, we haven’t had any more car sickness incidents since) for even more food and play time.

Since then we’ve mostly been hanging out at home – Toby has made a good start on the epic jungle lego set he got for Christmas and Gabe has mostly been wanting to play fruit and veg bingo from a set we’ve had for a year! Kids eh?

We’ve still got another full week of school holidays to go which is going to include a trip to IKEA, finishing some jobs around the house, and hopefully a bit more time out of the house.

We’ve all getting a bit stir crazy in the house so despite the weather not being great we headed out for a walk along the coast with my dad today – it was a bit windy but I think we all feel better for having blown away the cobwebs.

I couldn’t finish another year of Me & Mine without my now traditional compilation picture – I love having these to look back on every year to see how much we’ve all changed.

So that’s it – the Christmas decorations are down, 2017 is over and tomorrow we head into a new year and I’m looking forward to seeing where it takes us.