As twelfth night approaches, we’ve been clinging on to Christmas for as long as we could – and we’ve saved some real festive treats until last!

We’ve crammed in as many friends and family as possible, including a quick visit from Katharine and Emilia, and a trip to Woking to see Marie, Pete and Harry for a delicious pub lunch.  In between courses, Matt and Pete took the children out into the sunny pub garden for a spot of hide and seek to give us ladies time t catch up properly!  Alex and Harry searched hard in the bushes…

And Sophie just ran around like a wild thing looking thoroughly vibrant and gorgeous!

On Saturday morning we hosted an Agar brothers reunion at our place for a couple of hours for a bit more Christmas gift exchange and a lot of playing!  For the first time we managed to get all eight of the Agar cousins in one room together.  It was quite a sight seeing then cousins, aged from 1-13 years old playing together.  Our house suddenly felt very small (especially considering the two eldest are taller than me!)

Alex got on particularly well with his 7 year old cousin, Max.  Here they are in a rare moment of stillness together, Alex engrossed in Max’s game!

We made a vague attempt at a group picture, but the two littlest weren’t keen at all – but here’s the best we managed to get (Sophie wouldn’t go in the picture at all unless I was with her!).  Here’s Sophie, Oliver, Max, Jessica, Alex, Thomas, William and Edward Agar:

As soon as the Agars departed, my friend Jo arrived from Newcastle for the evening.  She was greeted by Dinosaur Sophie, who was modelling one of her favourite Christmas presents from her Auntie Margaret!

After a quiet afternoon of movies and naps, we headed out in the cold to our festive finale – Christmas at Kew Gardens.  I’ve been wanting to go to this for ages, and was so excited to finally make it – and I wasn’t disappointed.  The one-mile trail of lights and music through the gardens was wonderful.  The paths were lit by a range of gorgeous light installations, and at key points, beautiful light and music shows brought the buildings and unusual trees to life.

The children were completely dazzled by it!  They loved watching performers dance with fire!

And had a great time at the quaint Victorian funfair that marked the midway point:

Sophie particularly liked the lightshow on the massive greenhouse which was accompanied by ballet music, and I liked the chandeliers hanging from the great old trees!

It was such a wonderful way to end our Christmas holiday – we’ll definitely go again – and are inspired to visit Kew Gardens again in the daylight to see more.