Merry Christmas from Montreal

We spent a lovely Christmas with Steve's parents in Montreal. We arrived on the 22nd and had a couple of days to hang out and play with Granny and Grandad and the cousins before the big day. So here a few pictures taken on Christmas eve of the boys in their new pjs from Granny.


Sorry this is the wrong way up but I love this picture of Duncan- look at those gorgeous eyes!


Christmas Day in the Riff household starts with stockings in bedrooms followed by a wait at the top of the stairs until Granny rings a wee bell. Tadhg, as you can see, wasn't really into the waiting part.Here's the living room as it looked as we came downstairs. Again, sorry, if I was at home I'd make this a little less orange, but you get the gist... super Christmassy and cozy.

Here are the boys' Santa presents. A marble run for Brendan and...

...a rocking giraffe for Tadhg. Both were appreciated but the marble run had to have been the biggest hit overall. We'd recommend it to any almost-three-year-old.
After opening some presents, the cousins came over then we all went over to their house for a yummy big breakfast with Shannon's family too. After that, Steve, Tadhg and I went for a walk while Brendan slept, we got hold of all my siblings and Uncle Phil on Skype and then we all had Christmas Dinner together and watched a movie.
Last photo for now of Tadhg lying on our new carpet from Ikea. We've been coveting this for a while now- it will most likely live in the boys' bedroom for the time being. A soft landing on the floor should Brendan fall off the top bunk :)

We have more photos which will go in the web album. All in all a wonderful few days despite sickness and tiredness and some very energetic and mischievous boys!

The evening we arrived Tadhg had a tummy bug (thank goodness it didn't strike a few hours earlier during the nightmare car journey- it took 13 hours to get there in stormy and icy conditions). Over the next few days we all caught the same bug but we were lucky with the timing again. We were due to fly out on Saturday afternoon and Brendan was throwing up in the middle of the night so was all back to normal by the time we headed for the airport. Fortune smiled on us that day (although he did then manage to poo in his pyjamas just as boarding began for the long flight. By the time we got out of the bathroom we were just about the last to board and the staff were a little impatient with everyone. There were only minor delays, one due to the plane having to return to the gate after we had started taxiing to eject a passenger who was "a little too full of the holiday spirit" as the captain put it. Not to worry... the rest of the flight was uneventful and the boys slept well.