Keeping kids calm
Children love christmas and if my children are anything to go by, they all get very excited and rather hyped up before christmas, especially on christmas eve. Here’s how we controlled their excitement this year.
On christmas eve morning, we all made cookies for Santa together as a family.
After this, we felt it was most important to get out, whatever the weather was doing!! After the horrendous storm the night before, luckily the rain had stopped and the winds had calmed down, but there were enormous puddles!! All adding to the fun. We met some friends and all went for a scoot to the park. It is surprising how much fun you can have in a very wet playground.
The puddles were huge and we found worms swimming about on the bottom of the slide. The children loved wading through and splashing about in the puddles together. I think they played with the puddles more than the play equipment.
The children had lots of laughs and giggles together with their friends, burnt off loads of excited energy, got very muddy and soaking wet. We actually poured water out of their wellies. By the time we got home, the children had to get straight in the bath (before lunch) and were so loving their new pyjamas they got that morning, they dressed in their PJ’s. That has got to be the earliest getting ready for bed ever!!!!
After lunch it was time for some family games.
This was followed by some den building in the lounge and all snuggling up together in our den to watch Muppets Christmas Carol.
This was a fantastic day with lots of quality family time and fun.
My plan to keep the children busy together really worked well and everyone stayed calm (relatively) and well behaved all day. I am one happy mummy! I would recommend this routine anytime of year, when needing to keep children calm. It took effort, but lovely effort, after all, this is what family is about.
Then after bedtime…..Santa came…… 
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ooh love your christmas fireplace shot. perfect!
Thank you
Good planning! Love your stockings and sacks by the fireplace too
Thanks x
Lovely Christmas Eve. Brave going in the playground flood
The playground puddles were rather deep, but great fun
What a lovely way to spend Christmas Eve, as you say quality family time spent having fun together. Those puddles were very impressive and I can just imagine how much fun they had splashing in them. Thanks for linking up and sharing your christmas fun!
Thank you, we did have a lovely day
Lovely post – I really like the photos of the muddy puddles at the park! Your fireplace is beautiful x Hope you had a wonderful Christmas. #CountryKids
Thank you, we had a lovely Xmas, hope you did too
Oh, this all looks so lovely! Glad you had such a wonderful time x
Thank you x
What a wonderful post, sounds like you all had the best time. We huge advocates of getting outdoors and den building is just brilliant. Love that last photo before the mayhem that is Christmas. Thank you for joining #whatsthestory, lovely to have you – must link up with your linky
Thank you, it was a really lovely day, to me christmas is not just about christmas day, but the who;e christmas period
The kids all look like they had so much fun scooting and splashing in puddles. And what a den!
It was all great fun
Sounds like a fab day. I always remember Christmas Eve being trying as a child, and I’m sure it was even more trying for my mum! Definitely a good idea to have so much to do.
It was a really lovely day. My kids would have been so wound up high if we had not done so much with them, couldn’t keep it up every day though
Absolutely love that den! Happy christmas to you all…
Thanks, happy Xmas to you too x