Setting to work...
My helpers! Although they look a little peeved here (not anooooother photo, mummy!), they are normally quite delighted to help out!
me in my apron :)
Diabetic apple cookies for Granddad!
Muffins in the oven
Flapjack mixture mmmm
Some stuff setting
spreading chocolate on top of our 'millionaire's shortbread'... yum
some of our little holiday packages...
we decorated tins and cookie jars for granny, auntie and Liam's teacher, but we forgot to take photos of those... oops.
Liam was cast as one of the Three Wise Kings in his class nativity play this Christmas. You can get great kid's costumes in Spain so, needless to say, I picked this one up for him on my quick trip to Barcelona. It was a perfect fit! He took the whole 'royal role' very seriously, making us call him "King Liam" or "Your Majesty" for days!
Is it my imagination or are our kid's names perfect for kings? King Liam, King Malachy and King Lorcan ;) ha ha ha... shame we're anti-monarchy!! Anyway, King Malachy looked good in that crown too!
On the day of the play there was a tiny bit of stage fright involved ;) King Liam misplaced his myrrh... but it was recovered just in time. The entire cast were great and did some lovely singing for all the mums, dads, brothers, sisters, grannies, grandads..... etc...
three kings!
On our way home after the show
The rest of the royal family
No sooner were we all back from Euskadi when I took Lorcan to Barcelona for his second check-up with the surgeon who operated on his cleft lip back at Halloween. He was almost 8 months old and it had been almost 2 months since his operation. 
Despite it being such a fleeting visit, I still managed to organise a ladies night for my Mammasita friends at our old flat in Rec Comtal. It was great to see Laia, Silvia, Beatriz, Helena and Circe. We laughed our heads off and enjoyed a gorgeous meal made by chef extraordinaire, Beatriz :)
Lorcan got the all clear from his surgeon, Dr. Parri, who said he was making great progress! So it was back to Dublin for us.... Christmas was looming near!
This is our advent calendar. My auntie Dilla from Scotland sent it to us for Liam's second Christmas and we've used it every year since. I fill up the little pockets with chocolates and we count down the days to Christmas (ok, I confess we've never actually started on December 1st,... that would too long to wait!)
...and this fancy sash around our telephone table in the hall :)
... all way fancier than our little table-top xmas tree we used to put up in Barcelona. Of course, we couldn't resist putting that up too... with Rudolf proudly sitting on top!...
We spent our last day in Usurbil with Luis, Saioa and Nora again...
Gimme five!
The boys had great fun... and Nora, as always, was only delighted to have the hustle and bustle of her cousins around
Lorcan and his dimpled grin!
So the ONLY not-so-good thing about our trip was the return journey. I suppose you can't really complain when your tickets have cost you 1 cent eacg (plus tax and charges -i.e. about 100 euros for a family of five to travel Dublin-Biarritz return) but that still didn't make it any more pleasant to undergo the SEVEN-hour delay we had on our way home :(
So no those things that look like fairground attractions in the photo collage above are nothing of the sort: they are vintage toys that were on sale in one of the aiport shops in Biarritz.... believe me, with three kids and seven hours to kill in an airport, even photographing a shop window seems good entertainment.
"La Abuela" enjoying some time with her littlest grandchild, Lorcan :)
Chubby-cheeked Nora looking thoughtful
Squeezing the most into our last day in Vizcaya, we had a little family get-together in Gallarta in the afternoon and a lovely dinner party at Marije's in Algorta that night. Here you can see: Jaime and his mum chatting over lunch, colouring pencils for little hands, Malachy enthralled by Uncle Nach'os aquarium, Lorcan and Uncle Nacho getting along just fine, beaming Liam with Abuela and Lorcan, me fooling around with my own reflection, Luis looking serious whilst Liam digs for gold, cousins Leire and Nora and cousin Jon hanging out with Jaime and the boys.
And here we have Abuela (granny) again and some ornaments in her home, Liam looking like he's meditating, tiny cousins Lorcan and Nora, Auntie Vanessa trying to get a grin out of Nora and Uncle Juanra doing same, Javi and Lorcan (ready for bedtime) and cousin Jon being laid back, which is what he does best ;)
And here, for some reason, Jon managed to reappear... beside Javi and the lads and then there's Marije feeding some supper to her darling Malachy. We had a lovely dinner party at Marije's and her big boys Jorge, Miguel and Jaime entertained our little boys while we had dinner and chatted with our friends: Marije, Javi, Lola, Anabel, Marta...
Lola, pictured here kissing Lorcan's sleepy head was heavily pregnant when that photo was taken. She thought she had about two weeks left to go but ended up running overdue and having her baby almost a month later!!! Ignacio, who we still haven't met yet :( was born on January 8th in Bilbao! Congratulations Javi and Lola! The newborn baby pictured here in black and white is actually a photo of a photo of our lovely Liam when he was born! And the last pic, well that's me and him messing around :)))
All our boyos together! Lorcan, Liam, Aritz and Malachy.
Fun snaps from a lovely day. When the rain eased up we couldn't resist visiting the animals and taking a stroll. Then the kids had a go on David's drum kit, which made their day.
Eating at David and Eva's is always a treat, with their own free range eggs and delicious produce from their own vegetable garden mmmmm
painting and clay modelling with Saioa...
Amorebieta and dinner at the Harrison Hotel with Unai and Sigor...
Lorcan at 7.5 months