It's December!!!

Getting out the ingredients for the Christmas cake.

Boys getting stuck in.
Girls taking a break from the action to read...
but not for long :o)

"look Mommy"

I had to wrestle the spoons off them after a while as they were only mixing the top third :o) after a good mix the spoons could be handed back.

They made the Christmas cake AND two Christmas puddings!

So with the Cake and puddings made the Christmas decorations can go up just in time for December the first!

The advent calendar! Of course there are 4 sweets/chocolates in each pocket.

The Christmas tree. The lights are on the tree but without a free plug socket...well at least they are on the tree :o)

There is always great excitement when the Christmas decoration box gets opened. "Oh yeah, I remember this!" Then we have everyone grabbing at the decorations and putting them on at the same time with Googs putting his decorations on the same branch and Kiki just balancing them in the middle on the tree.

Once the tree is done the other decorations can go up.

Nativity scene from a German Christmas market.

Wreath made with buttons and wire.

Nativity scene that I started to make about 8 years ago and haven't finished. I keep finding the others figures that need to be sewn up throughout the years and believe that I will remember where I put them for the following Christmas and never do. One day I will find them all and finish this scene.

Angels made by Gran

This advent calendar gets brought out every year. I love it. Nowadays it is hard to find calendars without cartoons, snowmen and old father Christmas :o(

This advent calendar is from Cape Town craft market. Its brilliant! In the gold matchboxes, one for each day of advent, there is a tiny wooden decoration and a mini peg. The children peg each decoration as the month progresses - very cool!

Snowman whole...

snowman melted. The children said that they don't want father Christmas to see this one as it is really sad to have a melted snowman.

This is the first Christmas that we have ever roasted our own sweet chestnuts. We have had them at Christmas markets before but never roasted them ourselves. The kids loved it. They get trickier to peel as they cool down and we has to put the last few back in the oven. Googs decided that he didn't really like them. Champ said that they tasted like cauliflower. I had to disagree with that, I think that they have the same texture but not flavour but each to his own :o) The girls loved them. Boo ate them like a squirrel and I just couldn't peel them fast enough for Kiki.

The children are so excited by this time of year that they are even seeing snowmen in their lunch!Making Christmas cards.
Boo saw me painting these so decided to paint one of her own.

And we can't celebrate Christmas without some gingerbread....hmmmm we still have to make a gingerbread house.

Kiki would only use orange and shouted at anyone who went near it and Googs enjoyed swirling the colours.

Painting snowmen.

you can never have too many stick father Christmas' :o)
Snowflakes waiting to be glittered and hung up.

Fun in November

I really mustn't leave it so long between posts as all I can do now is put together random activities. And I start to forget to take pictures. But here is some "stuff" that we got up to in November.

We still have ghosts up. Champ loves October where he makes hundred of ghosts to decorate the house. He works so long and hard on them that I feel guilty taking them down and leave them up until way into December :o)
Here is a cluster of mini ghosts.


Panic not! These are window crayons :o) They drew these pics while Kiki was asleep, the last thing I needed was copycat drawing with regular crayons...probably on the walls :oP

I still haven't finished the curtains for the puppet theatre. It hasn't stopped the kids using it though. Recently it has been turned into a shop. The kids are working really well together. Champ likes to write out the receipts. Boo checks the cash and Googs packs the plastic bags. Kiki just carries the food items into the lounge where she stacks them up and get moaned at by the other for doing so.

Baking with friends

It is getting colder but look...blue sky!

Kiki has been dancing...

and dancing...

and dancing!

The older two had a sleepover party. Boo wanted to have curly hair for the party so the night before we wrapped her hair in rags. These pictures were taken just after the rags came out. Her hair relaxed as the day went on and looked much better.

I was surprised how well it worked...very curly!

Googs and Kiki weren't going to be left out of all the sleepover fun and went to get their sleeping bags. They didn't stay in them for long but they were happy :o)

Christmas boxes

This year the children got involved with Christmas boxes. They are wrapped shoe boxes filled with goodies for children from other countries who don't have much.

The children got to work in one of the sorting rooms. First they helped collect the boxes that were being delivered.

Then they had to go through the boxes. In the boxes there has to be:

Toothbrush

Toothpaste

Soap

Facecloth

Sweets - not chocolate

Something to write on

Something to write with

A soft toy

Something to play with - no dice, playing cards or anything to do with the army.

Something warm

There could also be nothing liquid.

The kids got so much out of it. They came home and starting thinking about children who have less than them. They even offered to give some of their favourite toys! It was a wonderful thing to be part of just before Christmas.

I did feel awful going through the boxes though. Some of them were filled to the brim with items lovingly made or bought. Other boxes just had a toothbrush and some pits of broken toys in them. But that is what the sorters are there for. In the sorting room there are boxes of toothpaste, toothpaste, soap, little toys, crayons, sweets and hats that people have made to add if anything is missing.

Champ is finding items to fill the box that he is working on.

Next year we are aiming to make about 20 boxes with the children's Gran. So far we have a few hats that I have been crocheting