25th-29th December

Hello, 

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas surrounded by friends and family. I certainly had a lovely Christmas day, even if there were a few faces I didn't see in person (we caught up on Facetime or spoke on the phone).

Just before we went to bed on Christmas eve, Liv left out an apple for Rudolph and a couple of mince pies for Santa, apparently Liv and Rudolph are on close enough terms to call each other 'm8'! I'm sure the Sharpie made the apple taste extra good...

On Christmas day Liv and I woke up pretty early and we were downstairs at 8:15. We had rather pretty, personalised stockings waiting for us. 

After we had all unwrapped various gifts, it was Cleo and Flossy's turn to have some fun... They both rather like wrapping paper, or to be more specific, completely destroying it.

Liv and I got onesies for Christmas, she a pepperoni piece one and I, a Princess Leia one:

It even has Leia hair! 

We went to Mark and Marie's for Christmas lunch, they did a delicious roast turkey with all the sides. I'm not a huge fan of turkey, but the way Mark cooked it was delish. Marie's banoffee pie for desert was a fave of mine, I might have had seconds of that ;). 

Mark got a tripod with remote shutter for Christmas, so we had to have some group shots:

In the evening we watched the Doctor Who Christmas Special, although I can't say I thought much of it, but it's all part of the tradition. 

It was a fun day, spent with lovely people, just how Christmas should be. 

The next few days were spent largely relaxing at home. On one day we went to Universal, but it was shockingly full, even more so than some days in the summer! Even our go-to ride The Mummy was 75 minutes!! Usually on a busy day it's around 30 minutes, so that was an indicator of just how busy the park was. We did go to Simpsons Land and have a Donut Sundae from Lard Lad Donuts, it was a fattening pink iced donut with ice cream and whipped cream. Perfect. 

Liv and I did get on the RipSkate and Liv even tried the rollerskates, but it's fair to say that was a massive fail! I wish I'd videoed her most epic fall of all... I'm not being that mean, we did both laugh hysterically, not just me.

It took a ridiculous number of attempts to get that shot for Livs to put on her Instagram account... Instagram's very fussy apparently. 

We also made Gingerbread Oreo Milkshakes by blending up Gingerbread Oreos (no surprises there) and mixing it with ice cream and milk, we added a splash of maple syrup for good measure. They tasted really good, quite Christmassy, if milkshakes can taste like Christmas?! 

Today, we went to the Kennedy Space Center. I've never been before and I really enjoyed it, it was very interseting and quite mind blowing to see the technology that put people on the moon. 

The first thing we did was go on the bus tour, it was about 40 minutes and took us around launch pad's 39A and B. We saw where they launch rockets from and where all the control goes on. We also saw the assembly building where they build the rockets. 

At the end of the tour we were dropped off at the control place of the Saturn V launch, the rocket built to take people to the moon. We went inside the building and saw the exact computers used in the launch. 

After our pretend-launch, we went into a room with a huge rocket on display, it was strange to be so close to something like that. It was very impressive. 

Back at the Visitor Complex we saw replicas of the Mars Rovers and had a go at landing on the moon. Dad was commended as the best lander of the day, of course!

We also had a go sitting sort of like the astronauts would be for launch:

It's a tad uncomfortable...

Dad and Debbie bought us jumpers and I found a pin for my collection :). It was a good day out, very interesting, intriguing and inspiring - space and the way people have explored even just a fraction of it is pretty incred.

Right, that's about it for now, I'll be back in a few, but if for some reason I'm not, I wish a very Happy New Year to all my friends and family,

L

xxx