HAPPY CHRISTMAS

Christmas as parents has been quite something for us. Four years ago I was pregnant with Olly, two years ago I gave birth to Billie and last year we spent Christmas Eve in Accident and Emergency. The only quiet one we’ve had of late was Olly’s first and that was when I decided to entertain eleven people at Christmas with a three month old baby and a kitchen the size of a postage stamp!

The Christmas that I was pregnant with Olly had all the trappings of a nativity play. We were due to spend it with Steve’s folks in Ireland. I had been feeling odd for a few days but put the thought of being pregnant to the back of my mind when I saw the World War One plane that I was expected to board in order to reach our destination and fears for my own mortality started rushing in . Despite assurances from my old man I was clinging to the seat for the whole journey. When we hit a bad storm near Cork I was a mess. We landed in dreadful conditions, just as the power totally failed at the airport and all roads out were announced impassable. We hired the last car in the place (for twice the normal rate) and tried to get to his mum and dad. We gave up just by Limerick after a tree fell across the road in front of us. With the storm raging furiously around us we knocked on hotel door after hotel door, and were turned away from every one. I joked about Mary and Joseph but was feeling very poorly and worried. At last after what seemed an age, we found a hotel, wet and cold we struggled with our bags to the room. "All we need now is a star," I said as wed the bedroom door; and there on the wall was a reproduction of Van Gogh’s ‘Starry Night’!

Needless to say it wasn’t Jesus I was presented with the following year, but he was a wonderful cherub full of life and vigour. He also had more vitality than the whole motley crew I had at my dinner table that year. These were all my childless mates who I, in my naivety, felt would enjoy Christmas dinner with our new family. Despite it being a lunch invitation, some of the guests didn’t arrive till 3 or 4 and one turned up at six. I felt hot and bothered and unappreciated and the 'brandy butter on the pudding' was when I went to look for some of the guests who’d disappeared only to find they’d made themselves up a couple of beds in the lounge and were sleeping off their hangovers.

The following year saw the arrival of Billie on December 17th just in time for Christmas. To be honest, that Christmas is a blur of relations, wrapping paper and extreme tiredness, trying to juggle the needs of two babies and too many visitors.

But it was last Christmas that brought home to us just how important our babies are to us. We were both feeling rather cocky, as we were completely prepared for the big day by 9.00pm Christmas Eve: ‘Pride Comes Before A Fall’ has never been so apt. I left the stair gateand Billie (still up and about of course!) crawled up the stairs. A few seconds later we heard bump, bump, bump and rushed find Billie lying at the bottom of the stairs. Luckily she began to cry straight away (which is a good sign apparently). Immediately an enormous bump the size of an egg appeared on her forehead. Both of us were crying and apologising and rushing round gathering up Olly and Billie and making phone calls to parents and hospitals and fifteen minutes later we were in A&E being attended to by our very own Angels. Billie was kept in till early Christmas morning and we heard the chimes of midnight ring out from a hospital radio as we held our precious darling girl and each other and cried.

So Christmas is coming around again, and we are hoping for a peaceful one. Olly is listening at the window every night for the sound of sleigh bells and Bill has managed to remove and smash all the decorations that are within grabbing distance. We aren’t bothering with turkey this year as we want the day to be as stress-free as possible (she said, tempting fate!) But however you spend it and whoever you spend it with we wish you a very happy Christmas and we hope Santa brings you all you desire. We know we're lucky enough to have what we want. Happy Christmas.

Quote of the Week

At the local garden centre looking at various nativity scenes.

Olly: ‘That's Mary and Joseph and Jesus. There's the shepherd and the Angel and there are the three kings.’

Me: ‘That's very clever Oll, did you learn that at nursery?’

Olly: ‘No. The Tweenies.’

Juliet Jones lives in domestic chaos with husband Steve, son Oliver (aged 3) and daughter Billie (aged 2) in Hertfordshire.