Getting ready for the new year

Christmas has come and gone...
The older two spent Christmas with their father for the entire day for the first time in about 10 years!! Usually we would share Christmas day. Either we would get Christmas Eve and Christmas morning or the rest of Christmas day and then Boxing day. It has worked for us for a long time. It was a way for us to both enjoy Christmas time with the children without either of us feeling like we were missing out.

Their dad had asked me about a month before Christmas if it was okay to do alternate Christmases with the children. I hadn't thought of it until he asked, but I thought it was a good idea. We both have little children and the travelling on Christmas day was getting trickier for both of us. This is the first year that the older children don't believe in Santa anymore. A very sad state of affairs!!

So I decided that we'd have a Christmas Eve brunch. I emailed Santa so that he would bring Sammy and Josh's presents on the morning of Christmas Eve. It was so nice to have them open presents in front of us. Santa even brought a present for Dave and us and even for Isabella and Hamish. Isabella was most impressed!!

We had about 20 adults and about 18 children from 10am until about 6pm when the last of our guests left. I used a website called 'Perfect Potluck' to organise what everyone brought. It was easy to use and you could even send it through Facebook. Easy!!

It was a wonderful day, but it meant that we were all very tired on Christmas day. I'm looking forward to next Christmas when the kids will be with us for the entire day.

I've finally put together my calendar for 2012. I have used the same calendar for the last four years and absolutely love it! You can get it here at the Flylady website. The Flylady is a women that helps organise your life. I felt very lost after I had Isabella, stopped work and moved to the country and I needed some help to get me out of my funk. I liked the way that the Flylady sent emails to me giving me a routine to my day and week. I knew no-one and other than looking after a baby felt like I had no purpose. She was helpful in getting me to establish routines that helped with everything from cleaning to cooking and even teaching, coping with holidays and looking after yourself through exercise. Although I don't feel like I need the site so much anymore, I've really taken on board many ways to simplify my life with routines.

I've got all birthdays and anniversaries put into the calendar, I've made a family fun day alternating Saturdays and Sundays each month, date nights for Dave and I fortnightly throughout the year, all the weeks and terms for the year, public holidays and school holidays and a cleaning roster. I've also given each person in the family a colour on the calendar and also a colour for general stuff and then family stuff.
Dave - dark blue
Me - orange
Josh - light blue
Sammy - red
Isabella - pink
Hamish - green
All of our family - purple
General - grey

I've got a gorgeous set of Kikki K coloured felt tip pens which I love and are perfect for this job.

I'm hoping that this year I'll be even more organised than last year. I'm going to stick labels on everything!!

Getting ready for Xmas Eve Brunch

A pity there is no photo of the finished table. A great day!

Baking for Christmas

Choc-chip biscuits made by Sammy.

Pretzel, rolo and pecans. Delicious. Recipe from Michelle. Thank you Michelle!

Carols and Christmas lights

The only photo that worked out unfortunately.

Picnic, carols, too much sugar, fireworks, Christmas lights and ice-creams. Exhausted! A great night spent with great friends!

Christmas with Six Taylors

Front door.

Entrance. Craft room to the right. Dining room to the left.

Welcome to our house. We're having our first Christmas with our newest little man, Hamish. Come on in and have a look around.

Close up of the top of our buffet.

Wreath close up.

Santas on a shelf in the kitchen.

Little shiny tree in the kitchen.

Left side of the couch.

Right side of the couch.

The 'other' tree in the dining room.

On my desk in the craft room.

On our coffee table.

Santa next to our TV in the lounge room.

No mantel, no fireplace! : ( So stockings hung on our colour coded bookcase.

Advent 'activity' calendar in the kitchen.

Top of the stairs.

2011 Christmas Tour of Homes

How are there so few days left?

All my craft stuff out on the dining room table. OMG!! What a mess.

A red-eyed special of the kids in the cinema.

Present ornament.

Snowflake ornament half done.

Ribbon container finally started.

Monday was such a busy day of Mothers Group and Christmas tree decorating at Granny and Pa's house (with the biggest real tree in history) followed by no sleep and then a day of craft on Tuesday with my mum followed by picking up kids from school and then fitting in a Christmas countdown activity. Well it's left me feeling like a walking zombie. And here I am at 10:48pm still on the computer (well my iPhone) and all you'll get tonight is a few fuzzy late night photos. Oh, and you must see Arthur Christmas if you're over 5!! It put tears in Dave and my eyes and the older kids loved it!! Hamish loved it too. No crying from him. Isabella loved parts of it but it was quite scary for a little person. She'll love it next year though!! And what is left on my dining room table so I can finish my crafty stuff tomorrow. The kids will have to eat breakfast in the lounge room!!

16 sleeps

Car got a new wheel bearing today. Dave went to the dentist. Bella, Hamish and I went to Sammy's year 6 presentation assembly. She didn't get anything, but we got to share a morning tea with her which was special. Josh didn't do dance class today. I didn't do tutoring today. We took the kids to their dad early today which meant that it was still daylight when we got there and a decent time when we got home. Usually we leave about 6:15pm and only drop them at 8:30 or 9:00pm. We usually get home just before 10:00pm. Not fun!! Christmas activity today was to eat dessert first. We didn't actually do this as Isabella was the only one that felt like eating something sweet first. Oh well. We'll have to make up for this on another day. Finished cutting all the threads off my skirt!! Yay!!

18 sleeps and a movie night

Today Isabella was at preschool and she was going to be picked up by granny and pa and go toy shopping for her birthday. She was given the choice before her birthday of getting a present on her birthday or going shopping with granny. She chose the shopping trip! I think all the cousins have chosen this option. I think it's exciting to do the choosing with a budget. So cute!

Our movie 'The Rep' and lollies and popcorn.

My trusty Janome!

So today in between housework and playing with Hamish I did some sewing of both the Christmas tree skirt and Dave's Christmas stocking. I managed to finish the stocking today. Yay. Another step closer to Christmas. Dave's stocking has a little Christmas 'emblem' for each year we've been married. It's taken me 7 years to decide to do this for him. I have a stocking that my mum made me and Dave didn't have one at all. I kept saying that the stockings were just for the kids but he really needed one. So I finally caved and made him one. You know how much I love you honey!! Today our activity was a DVD and popcorn. Since Bella was at Granny and Pa's for a sleep over we decided to watch a favorite of Dave's and mine. It's called 'The Rep' and is very funny and filled with way too much swearing. We had a chat to the kids about the swearing before watching it and said that we expected never to hear them use the words they hear in the movie, but we know they've heard them before and if they ever use them they better never use them around us!! We made microwave popcorn (we usually just make air popped popcorn which is very healthy, but we needed the buttery salty stuff tonight) and got out a selection of left over lollies from Bella's afternoon tea yesterday. I don't think the kids enjoyed the movie at all! I think we'll just watch the regular sweet stuff with them next year. We always watch 'The Santa Claus' one, two and three and are looking for something sweet to add to our Christmas DVD collection. Any suggestions?

20 sleeps to go and in overdrive

The day started at 6:15am this morning when Hamish woke me for his morning feed. I grabbed him, unzipped him from his sleep sack and hurried back to the warmth of our bed. His little hands and feet were cold and I tried to warm them on me while I fed him. It made me cold, but also a little less guilty about him sleeping through and not being warm enough. That silly thing they call 'mother guilt'! Hamish feeds very quickly now and so I lay in bed listening to Dave breath and waiting for the alarm to go off before I ventured out of the warm bed. I was very reluctant to get up, but today was a special day for Sammy and so I asked Dave to look after Hamish while I had a shower, washed my hair and blow dried it. I'm pretty quick at my hair now, so I probably only took half an hour and then it was time to wake everyone up, have breakfast, get everyone else fed, dressed, hair done and out the door by 8am. We couldn't have done it without everyone's help and the house was upside down when we left!! I dropped Josh near school and then the four of us drove to Sammy's new high school, parked and unpacked what felt like the whole house to take Hamish and Bella into the high school and keep them quiet while we bought uniforms, book packs, checked bus timetables and paid school fees. The kids were all beautifully behaved and Sammy was so excited to get all her school uniform bits and pieces, find out what house group she is in and watch the high school students perform for us. My baby is growing up! She was very nervous about sitting the placement test and had asked Josh about it. In the end she did well and said that the test was very easy. I think it gives the school a chance to stream students from the word go instead of waiting for their results at the beginning of the school year. It was great to see her dad make the effort to come along to the high school orientation. It took him two hours to get to the school what with peak hour and school traffic. Sammy was pleased she got to spend some quality time with him without Josh or her dad's partner and baby around. I know I try and make the effort for Sammy to spend time with just me, but it is hard to find the time to do that. I hope they had a really nice time.
After orientation it was off to Top Ryde City to catch up with two lovely ladies, Sim and Kez and their four treasures. We gave them donuts and milkshakes and got a caffeine hit while the kids played imaginary games that involved moving chairs around, using the equipment on the activity wall (specifically a plastic phone) and even lying on the floor at one stage. It didn't really matter what they were doing as long as they weren't hurting each other or any passing strangers. It gave us a chance to catch up 'adult' like which is always so good at recharging the batteries!! I'm looking forward to our dinner out without the kids! That will be even better!! AND I'll be able to leave Hamish at home and have a glass of wine!! OMG!!
Dave had a meeting today and was dressed in a suit for a nice change. I asked him if he wanted to have lunch up with me at Top Ryde and he didn't need asking twice! Almost like a date!! We went to a place in the Piazza called 'Grill' something. The food was okay, nothing to write home about. It was the company that was delightful. Yes you honey! You looked great in your suit by the way! I love you!! XXOOXX
Dave left me after a quick lunch to get back home and do some more work before the end of year Scout party and dinner this evening. The weather went from bad to worse and I was sure that they would cancel, but they didn't. Dave suggested that I stay at home because it was so cold. I took him up on his offer straight away. No arguments from me. I'm sitting here with thick socks and slippers on and am still a little cold. What strange weather for December. It's supposed to be our summer!

Our 2011 Christmas decoration. A glass church.

Silver ornament ties to replace the red ones.

After Dave left Isabella and I went looking for a Christmas decoration to buy for this year. I've been looking all over and haven't seen anything I like until today. Today I saw a shiny, sparkly, cute, little church and so bought it straight away. It was from 'Bed, bath and Table'. Love that store. Also bought some new silver ties to replace the red ones on my white and silver Christmas tree.

Bad lighting. It was 8pm when I took the photo. These are at my front door.

I then raced home and put Hamish straight to bed. I needed the break more than him I think! While he was asleep I changed the ribbons on the ornaments on the silver and white tree (the red ribbons were very obvious and although I know many of you are probably rolling your eyes right about now I needed to fix it for me), put up our new church decoration after writing on the bottom of it in permanent marker "Top Ryde 2011". I then finally planted the succulents that I'd been given by my girlfriend Jo from a couple of weeks ago. They look amazing! Thank you.

I have two of these inside now.

 Finally the 'activity' or 'task' for today was to make a treat. Well Isabella is turning 5 tomorrow and for breakfast she would like to have pancakes. Well I cheated slightly and made them tonight already. It meant that the task for tonight was completed even though the older two were out and Isabella was too busy playing school to help. It also means that in the morning when I get up feeling exhausted I can appear to be organised with breakfast when all I'm actually doing is heating up the pancakes. We're going to have them with either banana, blueberries or chocolate chips or chocolate Hershey kisses and maple syrup. I don't eat pancakes so I will be having a cup of coffee and WATCHING everyone else eat the pancakes. No I'm NOT on a diet, but I forgot to buy gluten free pancake mix and I can't be bothered trying to make some just for me. It seems such a waste!!
What a day!! I'm sitting here with Hamish and Isabella in bed, Dave at Scouts and the older two out with their dad. It's 8:54pm and I'm exhausted. I had every intention of doing some more of my Christmas tree skirt, but I think I will finish Dave's stocking while watching tele and then go to bed. But of course not before wrapping Isabella's presents that are hiding in my cupboard.

21 sleeps to go and a bit of something sweet.

Overcast and ready to head to Granny and Pa's house for lunch after our gelato.

Today is Sunday and we were going to get up early to go and watch the cousins doing 'Nippers' at Mona Vale Beach. Unfortunately dear Uncle Howard cut his little finger on a wine glass and managed to sever an artery. Who even knew that you had an artery in your little finger, let alone two! So they weren't going to take the kiddies to Nippers since poor Uncle Howard needed to catch up on his sleep after staying at the hospital overnight waiting to get five stitches. Since we were up so early on a Sunday morning which for us is very unusual we decided to go and visit Palm beach instead. We found it all a bit too lah de dah and not very family friendly at all and so decided to find a nicer beach to take the kids out to for morning tea. In the meantime some massive clouds had gathered and the wind had picked up and so we ended up stopping at Newport beach for a gelato and coffee and some sanctuary from the weather.
After Newport we headed to Terry Hills to grab some baguettes, a hot chicken and a head of lettuce to take along to my parents for lunch. We had a lovely time catching up with them and then decided to head home so that we could get ourselves set up for school and for Sammy's High School orientation day which are both tomorrow being Monday. The kids were also very excited about eating our Ginger Bread house that we had decorated yesterday.
So on activity day four we absolutely demolished the Ginger Bread house! Yum!! I forgot to take photos of it so you'll just have to believe me when I said we made an enormouse mess and they absolutely enjoyed the lollies and icing and didn't mind the ginger biscuit. What did I eat while they were doing this you ask? Well I had a cup of tea and waited for the kids to go to bed and then I opened the enormous bag of 'Hershey Kisses' that we bought the other day from Costco. I couldn't help myself. It's not really my sort of chocolate, but when there's no other chocolate in the house, it will do. No offence to any Hershey lovers out there, but I am a Cadbury chocolate lover through and through and if not Cadbury then Nutella on a spoon will also quiet the late night chocolate cravings!
Not sure what our 'task'(as Sammy calls them)for Christmas is tomorrow yet, but I'm looking forward to finding out. Yes I know that I was the one that wrote out the activities and put them in our advent calendar, but I'm still excited about reading it in the morning. I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!

Twenty three days to go...

Today I had a lovely catch up with a wonderful woman. We decided to do fun activities and so cleaned her house together. Of course my tongue is planted firmly in cheek. She made a delicious lunch and the kids played so well that I almost forgot I had Bella with me. Her little golden locked boy entertained my Bella so well. He had her in stitches. So cute! I hope she doesn't mind me posting a photo of him.

Bella with her lunch and a silly smile.

Another cute smile!

Cutting the just printed activities.

The bits all ready to put together.

The finished product.

Slipped in to make sure it fits.

All the activities in their special place.

Josh's dance trophy.

Last night I ended staying up late to finish the advent activity calendar. (Staying up late seems to be a recurring theme with me lately unfortunately!!) I had to make sure the little pieces of cardboard would fit in our advent calendar. I can't take credit for the hanging Santa though. I bought it quite a few years ago but it really needed an update. So after lots of fiddling with paper, cutting, hole punching and ribbon cutting I ended up with something I'm very happy with. Our activity last night was to finish decorating the house and tree. Tonight was to go out for a treat. We had to take the kids to the golden arches tonight (McDonalds) because Josh had his dance class end of year presentations and it only finished at 6. So a rush back home to pick up the kids after the presentation finished meant a trip to a place that would feed us quickly. Anyway to make this long story shorter our activity for tonight was to visit the video store (is that showing my age?) and get the kids an ice-cream. Here are some pics to see what the calendar looks like and also Josh's trophy.

Christmas count down - 24 sleeps to go

A gorgeous silver bird from a student last year.

A bell wreath I made.

A wreath I bought a couple of years ago.

Today I exchanged the lights and finished our 2nd and 3rd tree (don't judge me it truly is a sickness I have) and persuaded the eldest and strongest child to put the empty boxes under the house. The only problem I see is that our house doesn't have enough decorations around now that we've moved into more spacious digs. This is the only downside mind you and easily rectified by getting or making more Christmas decorations. So today I also visited my local Hobbysew and bought material for a new tree skirt and some felt for some new tree ornaments. When I showed the ladies at Hobbysew what I wanted to make with the calico they were very excited and said they might make one too. So perhaps you'll see a new Christmas skirt there and you'll know it came from me. Here are some sneak peaks of the decorating so far.

Christmas Stockings

1976

1995 and very detailed.

My memories of Christmas since I was a little girl have always included the Christmas stockings that my mother made us. They are made of red and green felt with our names embroidered onto the green top in cross-stitch and three bells on the bottom that still put a smile on my face when I hear them ring. It really wouldn't be Christmas without them and I knew that when I had children one day I would make sure to carry on the tradition. My mother got the idea from my dad's mother who had also sewed a similar Christmas stocking. I don't know that I've ever seen this stocking and I'll have to ask her the story again this year so that I can write it down for my children. What a great tradition that hopefully will be passed on for generations to come.

The stockings my mum made were started on the same year for all three of the older kids. This was in the year 1976 when I was four years old, my older brother was 6 and my baby sister was only 2. The first couple of felt creations were pretty minimalist, but this didn't last long and over the years they became more and more intricate. Each decoration was embroidered on with great care and the year was added next to it. Its funny looking at the little embroideries and thinking back to the year that it was sewn on. She continued sewing stuff on our stockings quite a bit longer than was probably necessary. It was after we had left home that she finally stopped and none of us wanted her to stop! I was 25 when the last date was sewn onto my stocking in 1995 and can remember being really sad that I was finally old enough not to be considered a child anymore.

This is my stocking. It has stuff on both sides.

Not quite done.

Well because Hamish has come along I've had to again make a new stocking. I finally decided to make Dave one too. I'd been putting off making him one because I kept telling him that he wasn't a child, but really he needs to have a stocking!! So his stocking is going to have a little embroidered thing for each year that we've been married. This is all well and good that I've decided to do this, but it also means that I have to not only do four children's stockings, but also put SIX little different designs onto his stocking. Honey, if you're reading this you know that I really must love you a LOT!!

I also made an extra stocking 'just in case' that extra baby that we're umming and ahhing about comes along!! Yes, everyone already thinks we're mad having four. I'll be forty next year and think I've got a couple of years before we decide that we're done with babies, hence the extra stocking.

Sammy's stocking.

Josh's stocking.

Anyway back to the stockings...Each year I usually made a little Christmas design up and sewed it on sometime in December. Since having Isabella I've realised that when I'm packing up the Christmas stuff in January it's quite easy to quickly cut out three little designs to take out at the end of the year and sew onto the stockings. This was making things much easier but since I'm not quite as imaginative as my mother I went web browsing and came upon some Christmas designs that someone shared out in blog land. Unfortunately I don't remember where this was and will try and see if I can find her link and thank her for making my life a little easier the past two years.

Bella and Hamish's stockings.

I printed the designs out on cardboard, cut them out and put them in a zip lock bag that I keep with the felt. That way I can always find them. This year since I've had to make Dave SIX new designs and I don't want his to be the same as the kids I was able to just use the little designs I had and put my own spin on them. Of course some of them I have just copied from my mum!

I'm trying to think of some new traditions to add to the ones that we already have.

What traditions do you have?