Christmas is coming!!!

Christmas is coming and as I do every year I race around trying to get all the decorations and trees up before the 1st of December. Well as happens every year I won't quite make it! We've managed to get the lounge room tree up and most of the decorations up around the house. We still have our 2nd tree to do, but unfortunately when I went to put up the lights I found that they were broken. So I did a special trip to the shops today and bought what I thought was a small lot of lights. I got home to put them on the tree and just before I unwrapped the lights I noticed that it said 'extension' set on the side of the box. I turned the lights over and in quite big writing on the back it said that these lights won't work without a transformer. So tomorrow I need to take the lights back and then we can finish decorating the tree. I just can't bring myself to decorate the tree before I put the lights on. I don't know if anyone else has this problem. It really is quite a silly problem, but I just can't do it. It's just not right!! ; )

I'm going to try and write a post everyday of December. It'll be like a blog advent calendar. This year I seem to have a few different things going on to count down to Christmas or just special Christmas traditions. Here goes...

1. The kids each have a chocolate advent calendar that has a little chocolate for them to eat each day of December.
2. We have an advent calendar where you move a felt star for each day of December.
3. Each year when I pack up Christmas I use any unused Christmas paper to cover 24 Christmas books. They sit under the tree and each day of December the kids get to choose a book, unwrap it and we read it before bed.
4. Each year I sew a little Christmas design onto their stocking and date it.
5. I make the kids make something new for the tree each year. When they're little they tend to make something at school which I date and put on the tree. The older kids make something special at home.
6. We have to make special biscuits or treats during December.
7. We always go and visit our local 'Christmas lights' where they always have an ice-cream van (it's Summer here in Australia), and sometimes even a choir or small band. We always park the car, get an ice-cream and then walk around the streets looking at all the Christmas lights. There is a wonderful sense of community as you wander around along with many many other families.
8. Christmas Carols. We usually try and go to a Christmas Carol evening where we pack a picnic (think wine, cheeses, chicken, salads, dessert) sing some carols and watch the fireworks at the end of the evening. I love these evenings!
9. Build and demolish a gingerbread house. This usually involves more eating than decorating funnily enough! It's amazing that the house gets built at all with all the eating that goes along with this activity.

Anyway as you can see we have adopted quite a number of traditions for Christmas that make it special for us. Each year I try and add a little something new. Well this year I've decided to add an activity advent calendar. Here are a couple that I've found that I like.

So I better go to bed because tomorrow I need to go and buy lights, material for my new tree skirt from here, (although I'm going to sew mine as I'm much quicker at sewing than I am at hot gluing AND I think my fingers will thank me!) and also print out my activity advent calendar AND tidy all the boxes of stuff away so that the house looks merry and Christmassy and NOT like an explosion of stuff.

Here are some photos of what we've been up to lately.

Here's Hamish in church at a Christening.

Here's Sammy and Josh sitting in the pews.

At my brother's wedding with a sleeping Hamish.

Sammy and Josh at the wedding.

Hamish's new party trick!

My brother and his beautiful bride.

Isabella watching Mr Snuggles getting a haircut.

Mr Snuggles visiting our house from daycare.

Sammy and Josh go-carting with Scouts.

Hamish can roll over, and over and over now.

'Date night' with my usually moustache less hubby.