A Christmas angel...

My own wee Santa

Swapping roles to be Rudolf

Every year I try and do a Daddy/Daughter Christmas Day in the run up to the event itself. And this year's had a strict itinerary which got followed to the letter.

9.30am Shove Mummy out the door on a spa day, with instructions not to come back till late.

9.31am Cushion and blanket the lounge to make cosy/comfy seating and watch "The Polar Express".

11.12am Start making my Grandma's famous date krispie recipe with Emily. 

11.33am Head out to Lidl to do Christmas shop for the local foodbank. Slight jealous jelly incident with Emily, but other than that all purchases happily sent to a good cause.

12.23pm Lunch. Not much eaten as excitement building for afternoon's events.

12.34 to 1.23pm Jumping School and Cushion Attack.

1.24pm Head to train station ridiculously early as Supreme Being is intensely excited about trip to Glasgow. Promised that "it's OK to be early Daddy - we can play games". I'm not convinced.

1.31 to 1.51pm A very long 20 mins of eye-spy with 4 year old jumping up and down with excitement.

2.06 to 3.15pm Tour of festive market, spotting 2 ginormous Christmas trees and whizz round on the merry-go-round

Delight on the merry-go-round

3.15 to 4.06pm Theatre trip to see "The Night After Christmas" (highly recommended for 3-6 year olds). Massive snacking of mini-marshmallows throughout (don't tell Mummy) on account of poor lunch effort.

4.06 to 4.15pm Massive sprint across town with flagging 4 year-old on shoulders "Don't worry if we miss it Daddy, we can get the next one." (It was an hour to wait - too long for eye-spy). We made it - just.

4.37 to 6.02pm Chicken and chips - Emily's favourite. 

6.02 to 6.28pm "Daddy I'm sooo tired. Can I watch Peter Rabbit? Pleeeeeease". Of course.

6.28pm Storytime.

7.03pm Bed and sleep.

Daddy/Daughter Christmas Day done. Major success - celebratory bottle of beer drunk.

And then 5 days later, my little angel was an angel in the nursery nativity. Tear in eye at an oscar-winning performance. Wonderful. Boy am I excited about Christmas this year.

Vidoeclip: We wish you a Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone