Meeting Poppy

Our newest niece, Poppy Olivia P-

Chritsmas eve was particularly special this year as we got to meet our newest niece. Poppy was born on the first of December and is the second daughter of Mark's youngest brother Ryan and his wife Carrie. Her big sister, our delightful niece Grace, turned one in September and she seems, so far at least, to have taken being a big sister in her stride. They met us at church and then we went back to Mark's parents' house for the rest of the day where we got to indulge in lots of lovely newborn cuddles. She is so precious!

Congratulations Ryan and Carrie and welcome to the world Poppy!

It's no secret how much I adore newborn babies and my beautiful new niece is no exception. I loved getting to meet her.

The eldest grandaughter with the youngest grandaughter, both with flower names. Lily is in her element here...she adores babies.

Poppy has an incredible amount of dark hair. Her hair reminds me of my girls, who both had lots of dark hair when they were born (particularly Emma), although they were both blond by the time they were one.

Uncle Mark with his newest niece. Here is a man who is used to holding babies!

Everyday Moments

Everyday moments in December, because I want to remember the little things.

Christmas Cutie

Little Emma all ready for Christmas jumper day at school, complete with tinsel round her pigtails. So adorable I could just eat her!

Gingerbread House Fun

The Podlings' after school festive treat today was to build and decorate a gingerbread house whilst eating gingerbread men.

Decorating a gingerbread house has become something of an annual Christmas tradition now. The Podlings all work together on it and it is a real joint effort and something they all enjoy. Even Alex had a go this year. He sat and watched the others for a while, before stretching up on to the table and sticking sweets on to the house. Obviously all of four of them ate at least as many sweets as they put on the house, but that is part of the fun! It gives me so much pleasure to watch the four of them co-operating on a task (believe me, it doesn't happen often!). 

The children had been to see Peter Pan in pantomime with the school this morning, so Emma naturally came home and dressed up as Tinkerbell. She also wanted to wear roller skates just like the Tinkerbell on stage did, but I suggested that perhaps this wasn't a good idea!

Alex joins in

Naturally, many sweets were consumed!

Feed the Birds

Today's after school festive activity was to give a Christmas present to the birds. Yesterday afternoon we made fat baubles (a somewhat messy and very smelly activity) and today we hung them from the Rowan tree in our front garden along with gingerbread men and apple stars. It looked so pretty with the fairy lights twinkling at dusk. 

Festive Treats

I love December! It is a busy month, full of excitement and anticipation and I like to try and make special family moments amidst the busyness. I love to welcome the Podlings home from school with a plate of festive treats and maybe a new picture book or Christmas craft. Today after school the Podlings came home to homemade krispie cakes, a new Christmas story ('Lucy and Tom at Christmas' by Shirley Hughes) and paper chain kits so we could make paper chains like Lucy and Tom do in the story. We read the story together and then the girls had a lovely time making the chains whilst we sang along to Christmas songs. A very simple, but pleasurable way to spend some quality time together in a busy month.

Alex was perfectly content just to sit and watch whilst enjoying his chocolate treat. He is such a happy boy!

Decorating the Tree

We thought it best to decorate the Christmas tree after Alex was in bed. The Podlings loved going through the box of decorations and picking out their own special ornaments from previous years and hanging them on the tree. Once the special ornaments are on, we fill the gaps with red and gold baubles. I love our tree of memories. Decorated by the children and filled with ornaments that have special meanings. It may not look like the ones in the magazines, but to me it is far more beautiful.

The following morning, Alex's whole face lit up when he came downstairs to find a big tree covered in sparkly things in the lounge. These moments are so precious.