Christmas photo

So what about this year's Christmas photo I hear you ask?  Well I ended up with two possibilities.  You choose.

Photo One

Photo Two

Santa pays us a visit

Well we must have been on Santa's "Nice List" this year because low and behold we woke up Christmas morning to stuffed stockings and presents under the tree.  But let's start at the beginning.....Christmas Eve.

The anticipation of Christmas with it's long build up has our kids unable to get to sleep the night before.  But it was Henry who was very teary and emotional who had the most trouble.  He was worried Santa wouldn't come if he stayed awake all night.  It was around 11pm he finally fell asleep allowing Santa's helpers to get to work.

Around 2.00am on Christmas morning Henry came into our bedroom and woke me up to show me what he found in his stocking.  I was so tired, it was pitch black outside and what the hell was he doing looking in his stocking and waking me up at that time in the night?  He was sent back to bed pronto but was up again at 6.00am and it was then Christmas Day officially started.

We started the day with just the five of us.  Our Christmas morning routine is:  kids open stockings, we all have breakfast, we all get dressed, then wait for Santa to arrive to hand out the presents.  The kids were very happy to see Santa.

With presents open and the lounge room trashed it's time to head outside while lunch cooks.  Bloody mosquitoes and flies tried to spoil the day but nothing gets in the way of a backyard soccer match.

Nanoo and Peter arrived at lunch time for more present opening and Milly happily posed for a photo with Nanoo because she loved her new jumpsuit so much.

I found some beautiful silver napkin rings in my cupboard that I had forgotten about.  My Nan had bought them for me a long time ago and had mine and Michael's names engraved on two of the rings.  I was really excited to use them for our special Christmas lunch.

Bjorn Borg made an appearance at our lunch.  He loves sweet potato.

The official Christmas lunch menu this year.

Cocktail:  Lychee and raspberry champagne

Main meal:
Roast turkey breast stuffed with homemade breadcrumbs, cranberries and pinenuts with a maple orange glaze
Fennel and caraway seed roast pork with homemade apple sauce
Cauliflower, caramelised onion and fontina cheese gratin
Green beans with almonds, oregeno and lemon
Roasted vegetables

Dessert:
GrandJan's Christmas pudding served with homemade vanilla custard and/or icecream

A very big thank you to family who sent presents and cards.

Merry Christmas from all of us.

Gingerbread house

Each Christmas I've managed to break a promise to myself to make my own gingerbread house.  I have in the past bought a gingerbread house making kit and the kids have enjoyed making them.  But let's be honest, it's really eating the lollies as they put them on the house that they like the most.  And if I'm really honest, that's my favourite bit too.  Plus simply the gingerbread in these kits is either ginger flavoured cardboard or pretty ordinary on taste.

The plan was to make four little individual houses we could each decorate.  I drew a design and measured out the shapes to cut but realised once I rolled the dough out we didn't have enough to make the individual houses.  Plan B was executed, more plans and measurements made and hey presto we had a glorious smelling house to assemble and decorate.

I almost came unstuck again when I realised I didn't have any powdered royal icing in my baking stash so needed to make that from scratch too.  It was so easy to make and worked out better than the "just add water" stuff I'd used in the past.  Winning.

Milly helped hold the house together while I piped on the icing and it wasn't long before it had set hard enough that we could start eating lollies and decorating.  The kids all picked a wall each to place some windows and glue their lollies.  The hardest part was holding them back from eating the house once we had finished.

I gotta say, this was the best tasting gingerbread house I've ever eaten and the most fun to make.  We'll be making another next year for sure.

Personal bests

Little Miss Determined received a certificate at Little Athletics the other week.  It as an Achievement Award for getting 10 personal best results in the 2014-2015 season so far. Go Poppet!

Family portrait

I saw on Facebook a link to create your own Mr Men/Little Miss family portrait and thought it would be fun to have a go.  Henry was sitting with me at the time and helped select which characters best suited each of us.

Michael is Mr Clever:
At first Henry had selected Mr Greedy because of Michael's love of chocolate, then he insisted on Mr Lazy as Michael is always on his computer.  I suggested Mr Clever instead as the reason Michael is on his computer is for work, plus he simply is clever.

Me as Little Miss Hug:
Again Henry's pick because I'm always wanting hugs from the kids.  Plus Little Miss Hug is holding a gingerbread man and I do love eating them.

Henry is Mr Forgetful:
Henry fancied himself as a Mr Strong but I think Mr Forgetful is more him due to the number of times he gets distracted and forgets what he's meant to be doing.

Milly is Little Miss Bossy:
Well, there was much debate about this one.  We could have chosen Little Miss Chatterbox or Little Miss Stubborn and she certainly is a mixture of the three.  When we finally settled on Little Miss Bossy she yelled out from another room "I heard that.  I'm NOT Little Miss Bossy."  She then proceeded to have a mini tantrum and between the sobs and tears she cried "I'm not Little Miss Bossy.  I'm Little Miss Stubborn."

Buster is Mr Small:
No doubt with this one.  Enough said.  He simply is.

More art 2014

Some more art works to share, this time a selection from Milly's art folder.

Holy sheet Batman, there are only six more sleeps until Christmas!!!

What the?  How did December just fly by?  I started the month pretty organised.  Tree went up at the start of December.  Followed by some festive house decorations.  I was even more prepared with the advent calendar.  Admittedly I did forget a couple of days, but that's to be expected.  It's happened so regularly over the years it's become a new tradition, just one the kids don't recognise yet.  Even the majority of presents is sorted.  Yet somewhere between the first of December and now it's beginning to all fall apart.  Whatever needs to be done is likely to be done with three children in tow, begrudgingly being dragged from shop to shop.  I haven't taken a Christmas photo of the kids, I haven't planned the menu for Christmas day, presents still need to be wrapped, some presents still need to be bought, the house could do with a clean.  Aaarrgghhhh......deep breaths, deep breaths. Serenity now.

Decorating the tree and listening to a bit of Bing Crosby.

Got our tree set up by the front windows this year.

Milly and I created a festive hanging centrepiece for over the dining table.

Stockings are up.

Some snowflakes and mistletoe greet you at the front door.

Proof that Milly can be thoughtful and sweet.

Goodbye preschool

Yesterday was the end of an era - the preschool era.  We had been lucky that we found an exceptional preschool for the kids to attend and it was sad to say goodbye to them after five years of wonderful care and support.  I won't lie, I cried.  So did they.

As is tradition at the preschool, the last day was a Christmas concert.  If you are a regular reader you may remember last year's concert and Buster's performance (read about it here).  This year he was more cooperative but I'm pleased and proud he remained an individual and added his own touch to each performance piece.  The song from Sesame Street "One of these kids is doing their own thing" always springs to mind when I watch Buster.

At the end of the concert they held a graduation ceremony and each child received a portfolio of some of their art, and photos and stories from their time at preschool.  Henry and Milly, as well as Nanoo came along to watch too.

So now we are officially on school holidays, Christmas is upon us and we are looking forward to next year and what it may bring.

Art 2014

With the end of a school year comes the flood of a years worth of school work being brought home.  Text books, writing books, art and craft projects - it all ends up on the dining table waiting to be sorted.  I admit I love going through it all and thought I'd share some of what I found in Henry's art folder.

Bunnings fun

A quick family trip to Bunnings to grab some things turned into an almost two hour outing thanks to the playground, the kids Christmas craft table and the face painters.  Don't let it be said we don't know how to show our kids a good time.

What's new pussycat?

Buster Bow Wow

Pumpkin head.