Our Christmas this year felt like a microcosm of 2022 as a whole - just looking for a bit of quiet time to relax after a period of intense turmoil, only to be hit with crisis after crisis.

The plan was to spend some quality time with Claudia's family over the break. We went to visit on the weekend of the 16th - 18th so that the kids could meet Diana (a close family friend who hadn't been able to meet any of our kids any sooner due to a combination of living in Devon and The Situation). I then headed back home by myself, since I needed to work the following week - which gave me 4 days completely alone at home.

In the meantime, Claudia had Evie and the twins in Bracknell, with her parents and sister helping her out. At least until her parents came down with food poisioning just before Christmas. And the twins came down with a cold at the same time.

The interesting thing about twins is that although they do most of the same things, they very rarely do them at exactly the same time. Which is why when they wake up overnight because they're sick, it tends to be one at a time - in this case, Lucy took the evening shift, waking up between 10pm and 1am, while Rhiannon tended to start her run after about 2am and going through until 5ish. Of course, then Evie would wake up around 6:30am ready for the day, and be met with either an exhausted parent or aunt.

In the meantime, there wasn't much I could do from afar apart from offer emotional support via WhatsApp (which is about as useful as it sounds), and get through the backlog of cleaning and odd jobs around the house. By the time I arrived on the evening of the 22nd, Claudia's parents were feeling better which was a relief, but the twins' run of unsettled overnights continued unabated.

Christmas Day itself was actually a pretty relaxed affair - everyone was well, much food was consumed, and Santa made his first appearance for Evie and the twins (pulling out the big guns in the form of a balance bike for Evie). It was still a relatively quiet day, seeing as everyone was either sleep deprived or recovering from illness.

Unfortunately, the second and third curveballs of the holiday were about to hit. On the evening of the 26th Claudia's dad hadn't been feeling too well, and by the following morning he called 111 for help. One visit to an out-of-hours GP later, and he was swiftly referred on to A&E for further investigation. He would then spend the next 24+ hours in A&E before being admitted due to issues relating to his kidneys. Luckily, doctors were able to make some interventions to relieve the pain, and he was discharged a few days later on the 29th - although he will need surgery in a few months time for a permanent fix.

Upon Claudia's dad's admittance to hospital, the twins decided that this was the perfect juncture to point out that they had contracted conjunctivitis and that their colds had not, in fact, actually gone away at all. Cue a renewed round of overnight sleeplessness for all, due to either:

  • Being a baby with a cold and conjunctivitis
  • Looking after a baby with a cold and conjuctivitis
  • Attempting to sleep in (or adjacent to) a room containing one or more babies with a cold and conjunctivitis
  • Being in hospital

We finally let Claudia's parents house return to normal on the 31st, and visited some friends for NYE. In total, we had three couples (all with kids under 3 years old) and so it was a manic afternoon of toddler play, followed by some pretty relaxed escape room boardgames before fireworks at midnight. Amazingly, the twins obliged to postpone their nightly crying session until after midnight, so we were all together for the countdown. Of course, usual service resumed later that night (around 4am).

And so now, here we are back home and ready to face another year. It really does feel a bit like we've run a marathon since the twins arrived in April 2022, and after the last couple of weeks we've just sort of flopped over the finish line. This year is shaping up to be another big one for our family and friends, so hopefully we get a second wind soon...

Yours etc,
Patto