"Sit on the toilet, here he comes Squeeze and tween your festive buns!"

We hadn't even reached December when Opeie decided that he knew exactly what he wanted to get Mrs M for Christmas. I love it when the boys are really passionate about something and for Opeie, Knowing how frequently Mrs M uses emoji's (especially this one), this gift was going to show his beautiful doting mom exactly how he feels about her....

I think it complimented the reindeer shaped washing up brush he also chose nicely.

I hope you all had an amazing day.

"Christmas isn't a season. It's a feeling."

While most families are reaching the peak of their Christmas excitement this evening, in anticipation of the visit from that jolly red chap. For us at the Gifts from the pirates HQ it is just another night, as every other year Santa makes a special delivery to us on boxing eve as Seth isn't with us. Although December 25th doesn't feel the same without him here, we can't avoid the festive cheer as we have had an amazing month in preparation for the big day.

Making the house look Christmassy is such a huge thing in our house, last year thanks to the boys grandparents we ended up with a second Christmas tree and this year the boys were desperate for one in their room so two became three. Me and Opeie spent some time making paper chains from extra copies of The Grinch we had to make their room feel even more festive.

We had had a LEGO Santa and Reindeer (wearing a dickie bow and polka dot jumper) that we had built, adding a splash of colour to our kitchen window since late November but Mrs M and the boys were desperate to get some lights up. They did make a huge difference to everyone's festive cheer, which was awesome.

Last weekend in preparation of the special day we all went out for a walk (in the cold wet weather) in search of holly, ivy and other greenery to make our annual wreath for the door although the night we were all going to make it the boys were off playing with their friend so Mrs M made the lovely wreath herself.

This morning we were all feeling really festive and tonight technically not being our Christmas eve, the opening of the final doors on the boys LEGO calendars meant that we couldn't get away from the fact that it was the day before Christmas day.

So today we fully embraced the fun filled family day and spent the afternoon together making (Opeie friendly) gluten free gingerbread cookies...

And a pretty awesome gingerbread house if I do say so myself.

The weather hadn't really been great so me and the boys did our usually Christmas LEGO building session and came up with a festive looking mini Star Wars AT-AT and Tie Fighter.

Although we wont be celebrating the big day officially tomorrow it will be nice to have that extra day for preparation. A HUGE Merry Christmas, however you are spending your holidays this year. We hope you and your families have an amazing time together.

“The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree is the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other”

Seth couldn't wait to get out of school today as he knew that tonight we were putting up the Christmas tree. In many houses I'm sure that families have very elegant tree's dressed to a specific colour scheme that matches other festive decorations in the house. Our tree is not one of those, imagine one of those 'old curiosity shops' but in tree form.

Mrs M has been collecting Christmas decorations for about 10 years so as you can imagine we have quite a collection and there is a bit of everything on our tree. Some brought, some homemade. There's memories from the start of our relationship and reminders of people that are no longer with us. As Mrs M pointed out earlier its not to everyone's taste but it means a lot to us and we love being able to get it out every year.

After an eventful year of Lego building with the boys we have added a couple of home made decorations to the tree. Myself and Seth made a Christmas bauble which if you have tried to do this yourself you will know is a nightmare trying to build a sphere from Lego bricks, If I'd have had hair i probably would have pulled it out. For my Birthday this year our friends Chris and Michelle brought me some Lego Head pepper and Salt shakers. We had some already which Mrs M had broken so we were very greatful of the replacements. I found a use for the broken one and made a bauble.

We love a good mustache in our house so Mrs M was very happy last year when we walked past the window of Urban Outfitters and she spotted this Mustache bauble which obviously was going to be coming home with us. Strangely we found a cracker tonight from last year in our decorations box, which we pulled and inside...... Was a Mustache which Opeie wore for about half an hour.

Being a HUGE Dick Bruna fan, Miffy does tend to pop up a few times on the tree too...

The Mug above was from a Hotel in Birmingham that we stayed at a few times over Christmas when we met. We still try and go there a couple of times a year as staying there is always lovely. It may seem strange having a mug hanging off the tree but these things as odd as they seem are really important to us.

When we started seeing each other we brought these little mice from Cath Kidston and although they are not actual decorations they have ended up on our lovely tree.

Every year we buy or make more decorations and every year Mrs M is adamant that they will all fit on the tree. To be fair i didn't think we were going to manage it this year but bless her she stuck to her guns and they are all on display. We will eventually have to buy a second tree but it is a lot of fun to watch her and the boys find branches that dont have a decoration on.

Last year we had a big wooden Miffy on top of the tree but we decided on a change this year, Mrs M thought that we should have something Batman but then she spotted Ben & Holly in Seth's room so we thought Princess Holly could make her Christmas tree debut.

Well another year of Christmas tree erection has gone, i do look forward to walking past it for the next month it always puts a smile on my face. Now to get on with decorating the rest of the house, i think were going to make Lego decorations for Seth's room which should be interested so dont forget to check in on us soon.