Christmas come early - by Theo

Tomorrow we're heading to Cirencester for Christmas Day with my parents - Kate's mum is also joining us - and we're hoping to get away reasonably early. Realising that presenting Rosie with a full stocking from Santa, then demanding she abandon her new (or newish - Santa's big on second hand) possessions to get into the car for an hour was just begging for a tantrum. So we decided to go all European and arrange for Saint Nick to come a day early, after Rosie's nap.

Rosie woke up from her nap a good 40 minutes earlier than usual, catching us a bit unawares (Santa hadn't even begun putting Daddy's stocking out), and the sight of a big pile of brown paper parcels outside her door freaked her out a bit.

When she finally calmed down, she became engrossed by the first present she unwrapped - a squeezed ball-globe - to the extent that she didn't unwrap another for a good half-hour and barely went on her new (£3.20 on eBay) trampoline except to retrieve said ball.

That soon changed when she discovered the joy of chocolate money, and then the hunt was on to find more. Luckily, as there wasn't any, she was soon engrossed by some new books. Predictably, and rather depressingly, the four Spanish books weren't as popular as the single English one - a 'Little Princess' title.

As Mummy's mango bodycream threatened to become a point of contention (Rosie wanted to open it and, probably, eat it - "I like mango!"), we wheeled in the big package which grabbed her attention. "It's Thomas!"

I think she's going to be hugely disappointed when she discovers that it's merely "a" Thomas. Still, plenty of fun to be had in the meantime.