Will Johnston's special Christmas

Will Johnson (far right) with his sister and family. Photo / Supplied

COMMENT:

Christmas will be a little different for me this year.

As usual I'll be heading to Wellington to see my family and oldest friends.

What I'm hoping for on Christmas Day at my sister Katie's house is to be bombarded by my 2-and-a-half year-old nephew, Nico, singing his new favourite song: A B C D Emily Z, Twinkle Twinkle Paw Patrol. Yeah it's a banger for sure. I imagine for his parents it was lovely the first 85 times.

Ah it'll be cute as hell and he'll be followed round by a slightly smaller shadow — his 16-month-old brother, Luca.

Then they'll rip into presents with the furiousness only a toddler who's still in love with the packaging more than the present possesses. Then someone will have a meltdown because someone stole the shiny paper to put in the bin and then someone will poo right in the middle of that meltdown.

I'm hoping the pooer is a child. Though nana and granddad are getting on a bit, so, who knows.

So mum and dad (nana and granddad as they're now known) will be there.

Mum will have her high-pitched affectionate 'nana voice' on for the children and everything they do will be the most amazing thing she or anyone else in the room will have ever borne witness to (equal parts cute and annoying).

Granddad will have a slightly blank stare of a man who's pack-horsed a box of gifts and
food up the drive and has a dodgy knee and is potentially all ready for the post Christmas lunch snooze ... but it's only 9.30am.

My sister's partner, Diogo, is originally from Brazil and his mother is staying with them from Brazil for about six weeks this summer. So she'll be there being the amazing childcare service that she is.

She speaks not a lot of English, so our conversations are somewhat stilted or translated, but she is just the kindest soul. So it sounds pretty standard as a Christmas, right? Why is it different this year?

Because Katie and Diogo will be married!

They're getting married on Christmas Eve and I'm going to be their celebrant! There's literally going to be eight people at the wedding and I think that's awesome.

It's totally them, it's chilled out on the lawn of a vineyard in the Wairarapa and it'll be 10 minutes, a lot of taking the piss and they'll be husband and wife. I think it's beautiful and I'm just so proud that I can be involved and help them do that!

They are amongst my very favourite humans. I don't use the word honour very often because it means a lot to me, but I'm going to be so honoured to do that.

They got engaged up here in Pilot Bay last summer. They initially gave the rings to their 2-year-old, he almost threw them like stones into the water. Jury is out on who will be bringing up the rings this time!

Merry Christmas! Have a champagne for me at 6am when Katie, Diogo and I will all be having ours ... In front of Paw Patrol no doubt!

• Will Johnston is the local 9am-3pm host for The Hits Bay of Plenty 95FM. He's also a celebrant and MC. Follow Will on Instagram on @radiowill.