Deck the Halls - The Christmas Tree

The tree looks stunning this year and the photo really doesn't do it justice. Why is it so hard to get a decent picture of a Christmas tree? Incidentally, I'm a new convert to wired ribbon on Christmas trees. I just love the way it looks!

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I thought I'd better get around to taking some pictures of the Christmas tree before it dies. The trunk of this specimen is so thick that we had to hammer our tree stand on to it, which means that there isn't even the tiniest gap in which to get water into this poor thing. Thankfully it only has to last until Christmas eve, as we will be visiting family after that. We'll be buying a new Christmas tree stand next year though as there is no way on Earth we are ever going to get it off this tree again!

I think the tree is beautiful this year, though it kills me to have coloured fairy lights on it. I much prefer the rather more tasteful white fairy lights (the yellow coloured ones, not the bright white LED ones), but we put the coloured ones on because the Podlings love them. Tom and Lily decorated the tree with a little assistance. I rearranged the ornaments slightly after they had finished, hung the ones on the higher branches and put on the ribbon, but I haven't changed it drastically from the way they decorated it. There will be time enough for white fairy lights and tastefully decorated trees when the children are grown and I will miss their childish clusterings of ornaments on the lower branches of the tree.
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Emma's first ornament. Tom and Lily both had Gisela Graham ornaments for their first Christmas, so I chose one for Emma's first ornament too. Lily's got damaged last year, so I plan to pick another one of these up for her as a replacement 'First Christmas' ornament.

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We started a tradition when Tom was a baby of buying the Podlings one Christmas ornament every year. They really enjoy hanging their special ornaments each year and when they move out and have a home of their own they will each have a collection of ornaments ready to go on their first Christmas tree. When they were babies, we chose ornaments for them, but we now let them choose their own. The outing to choose these special ornaments has become one of the family traditions that I really look forward to each Christmas. Allowing them to choose their own ornaments has resulted in some interesting selections though. Tom chose a huge monstrosity a couple of years ago that I now hide at the back of the Christmas tree every year!

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This year I treated myself to a special ornament. This tiny glass robin reminded me of the story my mum used to tell of Father Christmas's robin. Every time we saw a robin in the garden she would tell my sister and me that it was watching us and would fly and tell Father Christmas whether we were being good or naughty. Those beady black eyes kept me in check for many a year!
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I love this glass owl that Lily chose as her special ornament last year. I shall be loathe to part with it when, many years hence, Lily takes her ornaments with her to her own home.

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Bring on the clowns

Tom is in centre in the large red wig

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This morning I got to watch my little boy singing and dancing in his school Christmas concert. This is a huge thing. At the start of the school year, Tom would be taken crying from music class as he didn't like the noise of other people singing. It was a struggle to get him to stay in the room, let alone join in. A few weeks later, he is on stage in front of a room full of parents, not only singing and dancing, but clearly enjoying it. What a transformation! His teachers are fantastic and have brought him on so well. It was such a treat to see him really joining in with the other children and he looked so cute in his clown costume. I am so proud of him I could burst!
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As usual I have blanked out the faces of the other children in line with my personal policy not to post pictures of other people's children on the Internet without their parents' permission/knowledge.
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Deck the Halls - Dining room edition

Our festive dining room. Yes, I need to clean the hand prints off the wall. It will get done eventually, but I have two young children and a baby and therefore very little time...please don't judge me! On a completely unrelated subject, I officially hate the radiator on that wall and would love to get a cabinet to cover it at some point.

The dining room is looking wonderfully festive with the two beautiful quilted advent calenders that my mum made the Podlings adorning the wall. Tom is particularly keen to come down and discover his treat each morning. My mum is in the process of gathering the fabric to make an advent calender for Emma for next Christmas. They take an incredible amount of work, so she's getting a head start.

The embroidered tablecloth was a gift from Mark's parents from one of their trips to Cyprus. We also have matching napkins, but unlike the rest of the world we take the tablecloth off when we eat as I don't want the Podlings to ruin it!
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I gave up trying to get a decent picture of the light fitting, but I have decorated it with red and gold baubles and artificial candy canes. It looks great.
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In the centre of the table is a glass vase filled with red and gold baubles of various finishes. I can't claim the credit for this idea, but I can't for the life of me remember were I originally saw it. I think it's really effective though.
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A detail of the tablecloth, showing one of the cute, if slightly evil-looking Santas that decorate the edge.

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I haven't decorated the sideboard, so I haven't bothered to picture it, but I plan to get a potted poinsettia to put on it.

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So there you have our festive dining room. The photos don't really do it justice as it looks much better in real life. Incidentally, I feel the need to apologise for the quality of some of my photos lately. My camera isn't consistently giving me the picture quality I know it is capable of and I can't work out why. It's probably Podling related!

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Deck the Halls - Playroom edition

I have just about finished decorating the house for Christmas, so I thought I'd share some pictures of my festive home, starting with our playroom/ family room. Although we call it the playroom and it is where the children have most of their toys, the whole family uses this room a lot. I just find the term 'family room' somewhat cumbersome. I wanted to do something in this room that we'd all enjoy, but I have focused my efforts on the fireplace and mantelpiece.
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Firstly, I draped some artificial greenery around the mirror and hung up the stockings. I'd like to get the Podlings personalised stockings at some point, but for now Tom and Lily are using the stockings that my sister and I had when we were children. Emma will use our 'baby' stocking this year as it is her first Christmas.

I'm rather pleased with my Christmas mantelpiece. Nobody did Christmas quite like the Victorians and since Charles Dickens is my favourite author, it seemed appropriate to put my copies of his Christmas stories on display. In the centre is the wooden candle arch we bought in Germany a few years ago when we were visiting some of the fabulous Christmas markets over there. I've also put out a dish of chocolates and a dish of toffees, since Christmas always allows us a chance to indulge a little!

The copy of 'The night before Christmas' on the mantelpiece is the one my mum read to my sister and me every Christmas eve, so it is rather special. She would read it to us at the dining room table whilst we drank hot chocolate and ate shortbread. Looking at it brings back happy memories and it pleases me to have it on display. I love the illustrations in this copy, but although I will read the poem to the Podlings this year, for now I am using a book that has brighter illustrations to keep them more engaged. I'll save the Arthur Rackham illustrated version until they are a little older.

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That's pretty much all I've done in the playroom, but I hope to share my other Christmas decorations with you later in the week. I may have trouble getting access to a computer this week, but we're in the process of sorting that out.

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Expensive taste

Emma is about to start costing us a great deal of money.

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For reasons I won't go into, Emma is being formula fed. We have been using Aptamil as I think it is a good formula and my first two babies never had any problems with it . Tom was premature and I was never able to get him to breastfeed and I successfully combination fed Lily with Aptamil from about 8 weeks. It was natural for me to use the same formula for Emma, so we have been buying the powdered form and she has been taking it from a few days old. She has quite a delicate appetite and has always drunk much less than the average amount for her age. She never finished her feed in one sitting, was very sicky after feeds and only went 3-3.5 hours between feeds during the day. Every now and then we would give her a carton of ready made formula and she always emptied the bottle and looked for more. It was quite clear that she loved the stuff!
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Earlier this week, I decided to take the plunge and put her on a trial run of ready made formula only. It has only been a couple of days and it has already made such a difference! She now takes a full feed every time and has already increased her intake by an ounce a feed...much more in line with what she should be taking. She seems much more content and now goes four hours between feeds during the day. She also seems to actually enjoy her feeds now and, crucially, brings up much less afterwards. It has made such a difference that we have now decided to switch her from the powdered form to the ready made formula permanently. Sadly this is going to cost us an extra £12 a week, bringing our monthly formula bill to around £80! Ouch! The girl has expensive taste, just like her mother I guess!
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Nothing but the tooth...

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This evening at bedtime, Lily unveiled her plan for making cheap dental treatment available for all. She went upstairs clutching a ten pence coin she had found and as she climbed into bed, she tucked it neatly under her pillow. "It's for the tooth fairy." she explained. "I put a coin under my pillow and the tooth fairy will come and bring me a shiny new tooth."

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O Tannenbaum!

Emma loves the shiny decorations.

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We got our Christmas tree on Saturday afternoon and it is a beauty. I picked out a lovely Nordman fir (low needle drop...hooray!) that turned out to be quite a lot bigger than it appeared in the shop. It's nearly seven feet tall and we had to drive home with the tree sticking out of both back windows. Mark and I had a bit of trouble getting it in the car and it was a chilly ride home! Thankfully, we are having the tree in our conservatory this year, so the size isn't a problem.
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The Podlings spent a happy hour decorating the Christmas tree on Sunday afternoon. I have to admit that I felt obliged to rearrange the decorations slightly when they went to bed! The tree is so large we will need to buy a few more decorations as our current selection look a little sparse. A good excuse to browse the Christmas section of my favourite garden centre. I love December!

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Emma hangs her very first bauble on the Christmas tree (with a little assistance from Mummy!)
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