OUR MERRY MIRACLES

For Casey Edwards, 43, this time of year means so much

- MISHAAL KHAN

Fetching the pot of felt-tip pens and some paper, I laid everything out on the kitchen table.

'Who wants to write a letter to Santa?' I called across the room to my girls, Charlotte, then 10, and Matilda, nine.

'I want a baby brother!' Charlotte announced in reply.

'A little sister please!' Matilda said.

It was December 2021 and my partner James, then 41, and I exchanged glances and laughed. That Christmas, we bought the girls baby dolls and to make them giggle, James propped one in each arm and posed for a photo. We laugh at that picture now because if only we'd known then that it was a sign of things to come.

EXCITING NEWS

James and I had met online in January 2019 and our relationship progressed quickly. I'd recently split from the father of my three children, Josh, then nine, Charlotte, seven, and Matilda, six, and James had three sons from a previous marriage, Joshua, then 21, Lachlan, 17, and Noah, 12. We agreed early on that we didn't want any more children. I laughed. But now Charlotte and Matilda were both asking Santa for a baby and it got me and James thinking. Maybe a baby would be a lovely addition after all?

It was September 2022 when I found out I was pregnant and we couldn't have been happier. 'I can't wait to be a big sister!' Matilda grinned. Then, at our eight-week scan at the end of September, more news. 'It's twins,' a sonographer told us.

James and I were so excited and the kids were overjoyed. 'Christmas wishes really do come true,' I said to the girls.