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.

Our Annual Ornament Trip

We marked the start of advent with our annual trip to the garden centre so the Podlings could pick out their Christmas tree ornaments. As usual Tom chose his first, a china snowman that is really a bell. For Alex we picked out a blown glass car with a miniature Christmas tree tied to the roof. It couldn't be anything else for our car-obsessed baby boy. The girls took ages to choose, but eventually Lily settled on a white sparkly deer and Emma, a lover of all things snow, picked out a sparkly three dimensional snowflake. We had a lovely time looking at all the Christmas decorations and enjoying the lights. I always look forward to this family tradition that marks the start of the Christmas season for us.

Passport Shenanigans

I needed to get a passport photo done of Alex. So that went well!

'It doesn't matter how many times you call my name, Mummy, my feet are more interesting!'

'Hey, look over there!'

'I'll just move away from Mummy's carefully neutral background and then pose beautifully. That'll be funny!'

'Ooo look, my other foot!'

'Your attempts to distract me are futile.'

'Alright, I've had enough now!'

This was the best picture I could get. I hope it passes muster! Thankfully they are more relaxed in their photo requirements for children under six, but I hope they are in a generous mood!

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