School Hair Accessories

One of the few positives of going to a school with high turnover is that many of our friends give us their school uniform when they move. {many expats, immigrants who start in the city, families who outgrow apartments, home buying is prohibitive in the city etc} We have lots of friends who come and go {which can be heartbreaking at times but we feel blessed to know so many people the globe over}

I'm lucky to have a big box filled with every sort of uniform.

Some of these I've been holding onto for years waiting for Miss G to start school.

A couple of our uniforms were a little worse for wear and not suitable.

I saw a family member on facebook refashioning her kids old uniforms into hairbows and scrunchies and thought... aha! Just the idea I needed.

I have had lots of fun making scrunchies (haven't done that since I was 12 or so!!)
and little hairbows to match the girls school uniforms.

A wonderful way to recycle any old uniforms you might have.

To make a scrunchie

Take 2 rectangular lengths of fabric {about 50cm x 8cm}
sew down the long sides.
Turn out and you will have a rectangle.
Pin elastic at one end and pull through the fabric. It will scrunch up as you go.
Sew the two short ends together to make a circle, enclosing the ends neatly.

For bows

Sew 2 small rectangular pieces of fabric together {12 cm x 8cm approx}.
Go around all sides of the rectangle leaving a half length undone on the last side.
Turn the fabric out and you will have a little rectangle.
Handstitch hole closed.{or if you dont care about visible stitches, run through the machine}
Fold the fabric concertina style 3 times - giving you a little bow tie look.
Holding the fabric together run it through the sewing machine in the middle.

You can choose to leave it like this -
 and just attach onto elastic for a headband {I sewed the bow straight onto some white elastic}
you can also sew it straight onto a hairband {I used those soft style ones}.

For a more finished look I attached a 'knot in the middle' by creating another very skinny rectangle. When used this way hairbands and alligator clips can be hot glue gunned onto the bow.

Basically these are just mini versions of bow ties Tutorial here

This are fairly quick and easy and kinda addictive. I see 20+ bows coming from one old school dress.

Off to School!

Last week while the older girls were sleeping over at the neighbours I got to witness my two younger playing with the toy food and playing babies. It was sweet and touching and I almost shed a tear that it won't happen too often now that Miss G is off to school.

Don't get me wrong, I think she is totally ready and willing to go to school. But are we?

When we bought her school supplies (in early jan) she thought it meant she was starting school in two days. She sung and danced her way through the westfield shouting

I'm going to school! In two days I start school!

I said to her 'that sadly I have decided that she is too little to go to school and that I changed my mind and that she has to stay home with me instead.'

She looked me square in the eye and said
"Don't worry mummy. I'll draw you a picture while I'm at school".

This will make you happy while I am away.

... see the kid won't even miss me.

She has been talking about school every.single.day since her sisters finished school last year. She thought after Christmas she could start school. She askes every day 'how many weeks/days still I start school' (she prefers hearing 2 -3 weeks etc as that sounds a smaller number than 25 days etc )

Every time a child starts school I worry that I haven't taught them enough. Did I spend the right amount of time teaching them the important things of life that will now be diluted by other people and other influences. Do they understand how much we love and cherish them and will be their support in tough times and that WE are more important than any friends or teachers could be?

It's a little step into the world. It's a special time, one that I will only get to experience four times. At my third time I'm not really worried or anxious at all. I'm more excited for her.



Next week when it's just me and miss N staring at eachother...


... missing our little firecracker Miss G...

Then perhaps we shall know what we have lost. Never to get back.




Cherish your little ones. They don't stay little forever.

***

Perhaps it wont be so easy afterall. Miss G cried today when she realised she won't be coming to mothers group with me anymore. She realised she will only be able to see her best friend on Sundays. When I told N not to worry when her older sister was mean to her - that we'll have all the toys to ourselves next week, she realised Miss N will get to do our usual fun stuff and that she won't be with us doing it.

Here's to school yard tears!

We all gotta grow up.



Now she's back to all excited about it.

Obviously we are on the same page. Excited but understand what we will be missing.


Only one week left!

Birthday Weekend

Wah!

I wanna go back to where there was utter silence, massages, spa baths, sleep ins, stunning views and all meals where prepared for me

The epic double birthdays have been. Also written about in previous years as "THE Birthday"


I was spoilt because I turned our birthdays into a four day fest!

Friday Night = Girls night party

Saturday = head to Clear Mountain lodge and have couples massage, Dinner on the mountain and spa

Sunday= Sleep in lots, go to late church head back home and have roast dinner and cake for daddy's birthday

Monday= Me and the girls go swimming, sizzlers and a long sleep and Thai takeway for my birthday dinner.

The Mr was pretending to be indignant when I said the cake might not be ready for his birthday
(we were late home) and I said

"Don't worry... we're TWINSIES....

if not cake today, then tomorrow.

If cake today.. leftovers for tomorrow"

Being overshadowed by someone else on your birthday does have limitations but in someways it makes me love The Mr more. I'm thinking about me, I'm thinking about him, I'm thinking about us.

That is the gift that our birthdays give. I find it really strange that a generic birthday celebration can really strengthen my love for him, my ideals for a happy marriage, my belief in being gifted a soul mate, my having to share the date with him, a few days where the focus is US, not individually but together.

As I sat in a hotel room, surrounded by soft morning light, covering our heads in crisp white sheets playing peekaboo

whispering Happy 40th Birthday darling

it was like I was a part of him, and he me, and I was announcing.

our chance at life. at growing. at ageing.

Here is to another year.

xx love you birthday twinsie.




*** we stayed here if anyone is interested. I would say it would have the best views of any hotel in Brisbane. Views of the dam by day, and  the lights of  the entire of Brisbane by night. Our massages at Stephanies were amazing. The hotel was extremely quiet (maybe we just stayed at a quiet time?) but it was so quiet it was almost eerie, yet very relaxing for those of us escaping noisy kids. There were a few things I thought could have been better (when I paid to upgrade to a spa room, I didn't think it would just be a spa in the bathroom 10cms from the toilet :/) and I felt the dishes we ate at Mandy's on the Mountain could have been improved.

Thanks be to the people who gifted us money for our birthdays so we could enjoy the weekend. Whilst we may have had NO physical presents to unwrap on our birthdays, this was a very lovely, much needed gift.

Resolutions

Resolutions! I liked this article over at Apartment therapy about giving yourself the month of January off. Rest, Recouperate, Regroup. Then start any projects you have in mind. Now that's my kind of resolution - cause lets face it, most people fail by the end of January anyways :)

I don't really make resolutions. The last two years I've done the the word thing. Choose a word for the year and then you will have several goals/desires that could come from having more of *that* in your life.

Well I did OKAY at my goal of simplicity last year. Could have been better, but I'll take it as a success.

However this year I have decided to nix that and have decided to focus on my bad habits/failings.

OUCH.

I've actually known about a few of these for a while now, and have tried *a little* but I think a stronger focus would be good.

I talk too much and I talk over people.

Yeah I'm one of THOSE annoying people. I truly don't try to be like this.  However, if a discussion is something I know a lot about{and I know about everything :} or am passionate about, I.just.can't.help.it! Seriously. I have even made goals of 'I'm going to a party/friends house/social function.... I am just going to LISTEN to other people and try really hard not to talk.' and then when I am heading home I hang my head in shame and say I FAILED.

I FAILED AGAIN.

It's funny when my husband has to often ask me ' so how do you think you went in conversations tonight?'  How SAD!

I can't tell you when I read (and saw in the movie) Eat Pray Love about her wearing the sign that says "I am in Silence" - OH HOW I NEED one of those!! It spoke to me on sooo many levels.

I feel kinda sad that people might think 'OH she is so annoying and never SHUTS UP. Never get a word in edgewise. That is not what I want people to think of me. I have several women whom I admire. They are always smart, soft spoken, sweet, loving, helpful people. I cringe when I think I am so far from what I admire.


I don't look people in the eye when I/they talk.

I know. Annoying. I really don't know when I started to do this or not do this I should say. I don't remember having this problem as a teen or early 20's. The problem has definately gotten worse over the years. Looking people directly in the eye while talking to them makes me super nervous. I don't even like to look into my husbands eyes for extended period of time! Freaks me out.

However when you don't do this people think you don't like them or aren't interested in what they are saying. I have been really thinking about this habit ever since this conference talk. It was one of those times where I thought THIS TALK WAS MEANT FOR ME! (yikes) An apostle that had trouble looking people directly in the eye... well now I know there is hope for me!

If I realise I'm doing it, I have been trying harder to look into peoples eyes, but I'm still pretty fail.

I'm a scatter brain

Yep my attention span is pretty low. I get bored and move on. Cleaning for me is doing half of something and wandering away cause I need a break from it and start on something else. Usually it all works out fine but I think perhaps I could learn to be a little more focused. I remember in High school and Uni I seriously did my work in like 10-20 minute increments with activities or timeout inbetween. I found it worked well though and I usually got good marks. However now I see that perhaps my haphazard ways of doing things is perhaps  not the best or time smart. I seem to spend ALOT of time wandering around from one thing to another.

Well I'm sure I have plenty more faults but I think these will take enough work.


So now you all know what I'm working on.. well its not like these habits are secret... those who know me surely already know *rolls eyes*..

But now you can call me out on it...

'you can stop talking and listen to ME now Bobbie.. remember its your goal?'


Heres to a new year of silence.


after tonight, cause I'm having a birthday party ;)

Obliteration Room

This morning I was reading this post over at Design Mom.

It's funny how a person living in France was blogging about something that is in my town.

I wasn't going to share these pictures - just a day out for our family at the Art Gallery but after reading her post about it, I thought, hey, this is a special art installation that I was able to visit and be part of.

That's pretty cool.

and I liked Design Mom's take on what the art is trying to portray

This inspires so many reactions, doesn’t it? From being reminded once again that even the most basic shapes and ideas can turn into stunning works of art, to the more thoughtful connection between how our very presence colors the world around us. And then there’s the mom response, which is more of a resigned sigh that this process occurs naturally a few hours after we’ve cleaned the house!

I hadn't really thought of the mum reaction... but now I totally get that!
and sigh how my life feels most of the time!

I liked being able to see over at design mom how the room looked like before all the stickers... it was definately getting very full by the time we went.

Another room by the same artist Yayoi Kusama who has been producing works for 60 years 

and another one throughly enjoyed by the children -
 We miss you Magic Land by Nicole Andrijevic and Tanya Schultz

Their work draws on children’s stories, creation myths, Buddhist cosmologies, video games and folktales, Pip & Pop create large-scale fantasy worlds coloured with a bright, often fluorescent palette, using cake-decorating tools, intricate layers of sugar, glitter, modelling clay and mirrors.

I suspect these are going to be well looked at art installations. The kids loved them. We were lucky to go on a very quiet day - the day before Christmas eve and there were few people there.

Good luck if you go on a busy day!

Hopefully we can look a bit deeper into the meaning of the art instead of just enjoying 'the visual entertainment' it offered our family.

Goodbye 2011

Have I told you what wonderful friends I have?

I have just had the best four days I've had in a long while!!

A wonderful beach holiday with my family. The perfect remedy for Black Hole Week!

It was bliss!


Now how did this come about?? Facebook of course
(you all know I have a firm testimony of facebook ;)

so I was on there whining about how I couldn't find a nice holiday place :
1. in my price range
2. available the weekend I needed it
3. The cheaper ones had me shaking in my no doona's from the 1980's boots.

so that blessed little chat box popped up and my friend said

"we are going to sydney, would you like to stay in our empty house?"


ummmm that would be YES!

so the very next day we packed our bags and headed off to a lovely four day vacay!!

woo hooo!

I want my friend to know that she is the sweetest giving person ever and so thoughtful.

She really gave me one of the best gifts I've received in a while.


Hopefully I can be just like her. So who wants to stay at my house ?



3 different beaches, road trip to Gympie, new years eve.. what a four days

Late night (8pm :) walk along the beach

With small kids that are usually tucked up in bed at night, I found this night time walk along the beach one of the best things we did. I loved it and want to include some more things like this on the to-do list for this year. Sometimes I forget there is a nightlife out there, for this family who are usually all in the house by 5pm!

Next stop calm waters. The Mr and I said how we couldn't believe hours went by with no one complaining or whining at us. I noticed on our holiday that we took no toys with us and few 'digital' distractions, YET the kids still kept themselves occupied. A good reminder to me for what is really needed for prolonged happy play (new environment, water, outdoorsy, other kids to 'make instant friends with') something I must make sure to include more regularly too.

We spent half an hour watching the most gorgeous pelicans. We were able to walk right up to them as they waited for fishermen to give their offcuts. These two pelicans were as large as our 8 year old. They were HUGE and a little scarey! (even though they were completely friendly!) We got to see their stretchy veiny beaks in action.

The next beach we hit up was a surf beach with nice dumpy waves. The girls were only in about 50cm of water and were getting rolled around big time.

 Watching this black wall of rain head towards us was pretty fun

Next stop New Years Eve - we opted for a quiet night in of dinner, games, Wii, sparklers and glowsticks. We headed up to the local lookout thinking we would be able to view the 3 sets of fireworks at the coast. There were about 100+ other people there hoping for the same thing. However it turns out we couldnt see ANY of the fireworks! We did get the odd glimpse of the top of a firework and we could see the clouds reflecting different colours but that was IT! Most anticlimatic firework viewing I've ever had.

And we ended our holiday with church. How nice it was as someone pointed out that it is very rare to start the New Year on a Sunday. A good beginning for a new year with the right focus.

I had a wonderful end to 2011. Did you?

Black Hole Week

Just cause he is funny

I'm in that hole again.

I mentioned last year here


I'm beginning to think holidays are a bad thing for me.

House is messier
Dinner is not as well prepared (or very last minute or take out or nothing)
I am tired and lethargic
I feel like everyday is Saturday (which explains all of the above)
I don't go to the shops and feel in my head that the shops are closed like its a public holiday everyday


It's funny how when the Mr is actually home and on holidays it seems harder to get out of the house when it should be easier with extra hands to help. We seem to spend less time together {not true but it seems it}  but when he we are busy we seem to make the small moments we are together count for more, discuss more and achieve more.

It's kinda like that saying 'If you want something done, ask a busy person to do it'

While I love holidays I really don't like this feeling at all. Its nice to slow down and all but it seems everything slows down to the point of it creating more pain. I know I should just embrace it. I promise I'm working on it. I just find it funny that the last two years I have noticed it.

I've notice the loss of routine!

The one thing we would all like to leave behind and now I'm missing it??? The problem is I just don't understand it. Maybe the body and mind protest and make sure I have a rest for the last week of the year.  I'm here, I have another helping hand, we don't have anything scheduled so WHY are we out of routine and not organised?

It's even worse when this week between the Christmas and the New year becomes a black hole, because I should be organising awesome things for our birthdays. Every  New Year and our birthdays I seem to be caught unawares {which is why we nearly always have to use our wedding anniversary as catch up for romantic escapes or fancy dinners out}

So rather than get angry at the mess, lack of nutrious meals, lack of organisation, lack of anything productive....  I shall just embrace it

I embrace you - black hole week.

I will allow a week to be stolen from my life with nothing to show for it.

There's always a another year to work on myself coming up.

The new year is sure to sneak up on me anytime soon.


Make that 3 days  too soon

wherein I will be so busy that I will be wishing for black hole week

only 360 more days to wait till it comes back around again!

Christmas Photos

Are you over Christmas posts yet? I almost am!
But I couldn't resist a photo heavy post with some more photos from our Christmas Season.
Hope you are all enjoying what I've dubbed Black Hole Week.

Hope you had a joyous Christmas

I'm looking forward to the New Year now!

Christmas Pyjamas

My true love gave to me.... Christmas Eve Jammies

Each year for Christmas Eve the girls get new Pyjama's.

This year I decided I wanted some white cotton victorian inspired nightgowns.

all vintage and victorian, girls running around the house ghost like {swoon}

I searched high and low and did not find any I liked in a price range I like.

I've very sure that $55 is a great price to pay for handmade nightgowns but times by 4 and I think not.

So I decided to make my own.

Or should I say I decided that my mother in law would help me make my own

cause it can't be that hard right?

Turns out its not! Fairly easy if you go for a peasant style dress. Three pieces!
 I even learnt how to do simple sleeves. I was pretty impressed with myself.

Pretty sure I might have said 'thanks for teaching me mum. Now I know that when the world ends and there are no shops available I'll be able to fashion peasant dresses for us all out of hessian bags...."


Thanks to mum in law for teaching me and overlocking them for me!


I hope the girls love them, but if not I see many opportunities for dress up ideas from these.

An angel?
Olden days?
Choir?
Middle Ages?


Merry Christmas and Sweet dreams!!

Christmas Movie Card

my true love gave to me... A Family Home Movie..

The last five (?) years we've been making a little Christmas Family Movie.

A sort of Christmas card for our friends and family.


So Merry Christmas from Me to YOU

YES YOU!

Thank you for reading this whole year!

I'm Looking forward to sharing more with you next year.

Thanks for the love and comments.

I really do love and appreciate you all and the happiness you bring to my life.


Have a great Christmas and Holidays.



If you're interested... we made this movie by taking LOTS (a few hundred?) of photos while putting up our tree. We (me, the mr and my sister) took turns sitting in the same spot taking multiple pictures while everyone worked around us. I wasn't even watching the phone, I just kept my finger on the button :) 

The Mr has the skills to put all the photos into Windows Movie Maker, adjust the speed (so it becomes sort of like stop animation) and put music over the top. He insists it is very easy. I'm sure it is, but I just take the photo's or shoot the film. He's the Editor :)


Other Movies

2008

2010

I can't believe I didn't upload the other ones. (probably because they weren't that good  or I didn't know how to add video back then :) I just looked through all my archives and didn't find the rudolf and wise men ones. You'll just have to believe me.


Here's to wonderful Christmas movies and memories! I notice from this film that there was an awful lot of running around and back and forth while we put up our tree. And the music over it is a must so you don't hear all the directing, squabbling and talking (from the girls of course)

 We are one loud family.

Grandparents Christmas Dinner

My true love gave to me.... a fancy dinner party...

Our long awaited Christmas Dinner has arrived.

I've been thinking about possible menu ideas for a while now.

And nudging the Mr to decided upon something as he is the one that cooks all the mains.

On the Monday Night Before Christmas we hold our annual Grandparents Christmas Dinner.

So today the

House Cleaned
Food purchased
Spent half the day cooking
Spent the other half making decorations

Now we just await the special guests.

We like to thank our parents for their love and help all year. We love to let our kids have both sets of Grandparents to themselves (though one kid did ask... Are their ANY kids coming to our party?? lol) We love the opportunity to have a formal dinner and get out the crystal glasses. I love to try and decorate and do place settings. It only seems to happen once a year!


I believe we've been doing this tradition for about 8 years. And it just keeps getting better.

I love any tradition where my husband cooks a wonderful meal for me xx
This was his first time doing a baked ham and it was wonderful!


This years menu:

Entree: Creamy Parsnip Soup  (recipe here)

Main: Pineapple and Ginger Glazed Ham with Mango and Lime Mayo ( Recipe here ) Turkey, Asparagus and Beans with Cranberry's and Cashews ( recipe here) , Roast carrot, potato, Pumpkin. Home made tomato chutney ( recipe here)

Dessert: Chocolate Ripple Cake - Buche de Noel. ( recipe here )

Drinks: Sparkling Pear and Sparkling Apple and Liggonberry (from Ikea)

I filled the space above the table with these stars .
Very easy and quick to make! watch out they are addictive!
I plan to decorate the girls room with them when we are done with Christmas.


and yes I did match my outfit to my table decor....

Sleeping Under the Tree

my true love gave to me... sleeping under the tree.

The kids have done this tradition for years. But The Mr and I have only joined them for the last two. {we were usually tucked away in the only room with aircon- while they sweated it out}

I am still loving this cool weather. Last night we were able to drag all our bedding out to the lounge room and snuggle up together to watch a movie and sleep under the tree!

We even had hot chocolate with marshmallows and whipped cream.

and friends dropped randomly by with a plate of treats!!

It's kinda fun to have a sleepout together. We don't do it often at all.


Obviously because Miss G thought it so funny she said

"I've NEVER seen your bed NAKED!"

(ie shes never seen our matress off the base and she thought our room looked weird)

After a sleep by the glow of the lights on the tree we woke to pancakes by Daddy.

Love traditions like these.



{I always feel obligated to not portray a perfect life on my blog ~ I feel sad when I read perfect mcperfect blogs and think how come my lifes not like that?? So I'll share with you that our kids jumped around {from the tv cabinet onto all mattresses} ALOT, were crazy, someone spilled their entire cup of hot chocolate everywhere, fights, and even someone wet the bed as soon as they fell asleep! gah!}


But that's what Christmas is all about right?  Family fights togetherness :)


But when they were all asleep and the twinkle lights all aglow.
My heart could barely contain itself.

Yule Log

One Christmas craft I want to do each year but never do is make a Yule Log.

I also love all the blog posts where people are out in the woods collecting evergreeens and berries and making wreaths and swags and living decorations around the house.

It may be summer and it may be the Southern hemisphere but I decided we would do it too.

We set off on a walk with a bag and some scissors.

Even though we live in kinda inner city, it's a very established area and has more trees, bushes, gumnuts and bits and bobs than many housing estates do.  We have lovely neighbours who don't mind us trimming their plants. Walks further afield we only trim from very overgrown trees and shrubs that hang over to the footpath. We collected a big bag in no time.

We bought it home and laid it out on the table and began to tie our clippings together.

We secured it with string.

And voila you have some festive real decorations.



Mine are still fine four days later.  However in this heat I don't expect them to live long.

A nice walk each week collecting clippings should keep us covered.

A lovely Christmas tradition that I hope may continue.

Gingerbread Houses

My true love gave to me.... gingerbread houses for school parties.

This tradition started four or more years ago when I spent all day making a gingerbread house. At the end of the day I physically felt sick from all the sugar and could not even face looking at the thing! I decided my only child at school, should take it along and share it with the class to get rid of it!

And here I am still making them. This morning they took them to school for their break up party. All the kids were ooohhh and ahhhing so I secretly think my girls enjoy that ;)

To have everything ready for gingerbread houses {and other holiday baking} I start buying a few items each week from October onwards. Things like different lollies, bags of pure icing sugar, condensed milk, choc chips, cooking butter, gingerbread house kits etc all start appearing in my trolley and I hide bags of cooking ingredients all over the house :)

I felt a little bad that I don't really let the kids help. I find making gingerbread houses quite hard. It takes a lot of concentration from me and I can't have the distraction from the kids {the little ones watched a movie} So to make up for it, we are going to make another one on Monday night and let the kids go for it. I would love to be organised enough to make individual houses for them all to decorate. One day!!

I have a low attention span so I make my gingerbread houses in stages. Otherwise it takes all day and I.AM.OVER.IT! An hour or two here and there seems so much more manageable to me. I also don't include the kids in the first few steps as they don't have the patience and are otherwise all up in my business asking 'when will it be ready' because really, sticking the lollies on is all they care about {and eating it}

My steps are:

If I am baking the gingerbread {I didnt this year - These were kits from Coles and Woolworths} I make the dough and roll it out between baking paper. Draw the house shapes on the paper and cut the shapes out. Freeze the dough and you are done for the day.

Cook dough and let cool. Making a big batch of Royal Icing ( I do two egg whites, 2 tsp lemon juice, One 500g bag of pure icing sugar -I used three batches to make these houses) stick house together and hold with some string. {Allow to set so it is nice and strong - I put a fan blowing on mine this year to help it set} I then cover it all up and leave it for the night.

Next day I decorate the house. This is the step children can be added to.


Enjoy looking at your gingerbread house, or if you're like me, send the thing far away where crazy children will devour it in minutes flat {one year the teacher commented the kids were like ants. There wasnt a bit left of the thing, even the icing all over the plate was gone}

The Tree, The Tree is UP!

I got my WISH!

There has been a week long cold snap here in super hot Australia.
Cool breezy weather that's had us scrambling to find blankets again!

This made it perfect weather for lighting candles, sitting and reading and for putting up our tree!

I even made warm spiced Apple Cider to sip!
(it is usually way too hot to even contemplate such a thing!)

My christmas spirit has been in full force!


Yesterday evening I painted my nails red (instant lift!) chose what the kids were gonna wear (yay! a year where not a single person was decorating the tree in their underwear!) and set up to make our yearly Christmas Card Movie (I'm excited it's looking awesome! - speaking of - remember last years Movie? Well shredded paper jumped out of the tree box when we unpacked our tree! Its everywhere again!  I swear that stuff is haunting me!!)

We put our tree up on the first Monday in December. It seemed a long way away, but it does arrive quickly and I was wondering if I was ready. Knowing what day it would be greatly helped the girls. They didn't hound me at all the last month. I could just hear contstant whispers of 'The tree goes up in a week" or in ___ days the tree will be up! Can't wait till Monday 5th..'

Now for school to hurry up and finish so we can sit and relax by our tree.

I love evenings by Tree Lights!!

Grandma's Tree

my true love gave to me .... decorating Grandparents Tree

The last three or so years we have been putting up the Grandparents Tree.

Its so sweet.

On Sunday we had some treats to eat and 'helped' grandma put up her tree.



I think this is like when grandma's ask kids to hold their hands to cross the road (help your old grandma to cross the road - my grandma used to say this to me and I really thought her old! and she wasn't at all!) My parents are young and certainly don't need any help putting up their tree but its nice for the kids to think they are being helpful and generous (when it probably makes more work for Grandma and Grandad!)

Thanks for letting us share the christmas spirit.

Nativity Induced Laughter and Nativity Induced OCD

my true love gave to me..... A Nativity Set for playing/displaying

Have I told you how much I love Nativity sets? {um yes... only a million times!} Last year I decided December 1st would be our Nativity Day. We set our tree up on the first monday night in December so this gives us something to do while waiting and I like that it has become our first focus for the season. Nativity Sets out first to remind us what we really should be thinking about.


They are one of my favourite things about Christmas and I love to see my kids play with them.


The figurines from Nativity sets are some of the most played with things at our house during Christmas. I would totally leave them out all year, if I didn't think the novelty would wear off and that it would degrade part of the joy of Christmas.

That's the fun part of boxing stuff away and getting it out once a year. ~ Just opening the boxes I got out of the roof yesterday was like a christmas in itself for the girls.


Most of my nativities are under $10 or $20 {so it's ok if they happen to break - It has happened once} The Fisher Price kids one was the most expensive. Not many stores sell Nativity so when they do I like to thank them and sometimes purchase one. The little ones make great gifts for Visiting Teaching or for other people who would appreciate it.


I think I giggle nearly everyday during December because of Nativity Induced Laughter.

I find little groupings of wisemen and shepherds seemingly deep in conversation

I find Camels on the roof of nativities where the star or angel should be

I find baby Jesus tucked away in quiet spots

I have to stop children from bringing figurines in handbags where ever we go

I've had the wisemen with signs stuck on them

I swear it sometimes seems those figurines are alive {when I'm not looking} they are always on the move, always conspiring in different corners of my home.


It's so fun.

Except for my Nativity Set Induced OCD { where I cannot rest or go to bed unless I know all nativity pieces are in their correct spots!} These means sometimes alot of searching for moved/lost pieces. However for the most part I love having several sets around the house for my kids to play with.