On Christmas day we stayed at our house (for the first time.) I was the second one up Dad was first(because he was going into work) I pounded down the stairs to the stockings ,the first thing I noticed was a particular present under Ivo's ,recently mine, stocking.After staring at this present I finally noticed Santa had left me a note

'Dear Niamh

great stocking

thanks for the food s.c'

I ran upstairs to find everyone except Alex awake. Mum told me that it was me who woke her up and she woke Ivo up.

The next day we set off at 8 o'clock in the evening to Dad's parents (who lived three hours in a car drive.) Ivo was asleep for literally the whole journey. I was bringing one of my presents a Teksta puppy which could do a backflip and Ivo brought one of his, the Batcave. About halfway through the journey it started to SNOW! While Alex,an annoying older brother, was talking about how wonderful it would feel if he could throw a snowball at me I hoped we could pass by a snow-covered meadow.

When we arrived it was one in the morning. I was starving. I was happy there was food on the table really glad.It was one fourty-seven when I finally got to sleep.The next day there was a party,it was soooooo much fun. Though food and tables was a bit complicated my favourite part was... PLAYING THE NAME GAME!!!!!!!!!!!

The next day we went to Ireland to see Mum 's parents. The boat we went on was on calm seas. Ivo got a coloring book,I was reading and Alex too was reading. When we arrived it took FOREVER for the luggage to come off the ferry. When it finally came we grabbed our luggage and found that Grandad and Uncle Cathal were waiting for us. Instead of going to Grandad's house we went to Auntie Martina's house for food. It was fun eating the food and opening the presents and watching Alex and Anton,my cousin playing Carcasonne (a game we gave Anton.) Finally we all,not Smarty (Martina)and Anton went up to Nanna and Grandad's house for bed.

The days passed swiftly and slowly but finally the time came to the end of our time in Dublin. True New Years Eve had been a laugh staying up late, playing Qwirkle,and 45 card game. Though now it was time to go HOME All of us had to get up at 6 in the morning because our boat left at 8 in the morning. When we were finally on the boat we did different things dad and Alex played a game me and Ivo were stenciling what seemed like year we were finally HOME!!!