Wrapping Presents

Sorry, I've been forgetting to update on our advent calendar fun. I will do that tomorrow. In the meantime, here are Cora and Calvin's main presents. I plan to do a treasure hunt for them on Christmas day.

Advent Calendar Continues!

Here's today's effort, a giant sugar cookie. It's actually yesterday's activity but we were out all day. Today's is glitter snowflakes, so the glitter is ready and waiting! Kitchen is a mess but I'm taking a break. When the dishwasher is finished I will clean the kitchen then we can do the snowflakes. :-)

Day 5

Today's advent calendar says "Pyjama movie day (Christmas movies!)". So here's our collection of Christmas themed films. A Christmas Story is on first!

Getting into the Christmas Spirit

Well as I type this snow is falling here so we're feeling very Christmassy! There's a very nice layer of snow on the ground.

Here's the kids opening Day 1 of their advent calendar:

I should probably mention that I can't actually remember what I wrote in the calendar! So for our advent calendar so far we've had:

Day 1: Watch a new Christmas movie. We watched "Miracle on 34th St" - the newer version. The kids really loved it, so much so that they watched it again the next morning! We don't do Santa here but he's a character to them that they love, much like Postman Pat or Bob the Builder. So this movie is just as magical for them.

Day 2: Read the real Christmas story. We read a version of it that we had taken out from the library. It was interesting because it had far more embellishments than the story does in the Bible, lots of details that I'm sure are made up. But the way it was told really kept the kids enthralled and we will read the Bible version soon too.

Day 3: Paint a Christmas picture. We don't do painting as often as we probably should, so they really enjoyed this. I'll post pictures of that later on today, as I forgot to take pictures of their creations!

Day 4: Go for a winter walk. Well, that's perfect, since it's snowing today. Later this afternoon we'll be talking a winter walk up to the village square, where there is community Carol singing and turning on of the Christmas lights. I'm sure the kids will really enjoy that!

Some pictures of our December so far:

The singing polar bear at JRD in Ellon.

Maia drinking her hot chocolate at the Happy Plant garden centre. She wanted tinsel in her hair, and I love her smile in the first picture! I'm biased but I just think she is so beautiful.

Gappy boy Calvin, he wanted to show his new tooth is growing in.

Cora and Calvin inside ELC in Aberdeen, pretending to be Santa!

The snow here today. It's still coming down, huge flakes, very heavy!

The Coca Cola truck in Aberdeen. Aaron and I thought it was very disappointing, huge queues for free cans of Coke! But the kids loved seeing it.


A day of shopping tired out miss Maia.

Lastly, my homemade tree skirt. I had looked everywhere for one and couldn't find one. Typically, I found one the day after I made this one! But this is special. It's made with a red American Airlines blanket from a trip to Scotland back when we lived in the States. The snowflakes are made from a special white baby blanket of Maia's, that's too small for her to use now. I love it!

Tree Decorations

These are our latest idea.. made from tops from creme fraiche.

Wreath Alternative to Make at Home

Today Cora was at a friend's house so Calvin, Maia and I went to the Happy Plant garden centre. They have a fantastic Christmas display, part of which is pictured here. Santa sometimes "tells stories" too which the kids love. They also have a darkened room with all the different lights and things. We went through that 4 times today on Maia's request!

One of the things that caught my eye in this Christmas wonderland was a wreath alternative made from wood, in a tree shape, with wicker woven roughly around it. It had a bell hanging in the centre. So I picked up a roll of ribbon, and some bells. It took me a while to figure out how I could make it at home. In the end I bent a wire hanger into shape, then wrapped paper towels around each section to pad it out. I then hot glued the ribbon around it and tied on a bell. Pretty simple, took me about an hour. It may not look very professional but I love it and so does the family. :)

Beaver Scouts

Well, tonight was the 2nd week of Beaver Scouts for Cora and Calvin. They really enjoyed it. They had a trip to Morrisons, woohoo! They were actually really excited about it, bless them. They're studying healthy eating, so they were shown all the fresh food, ate some fruit, handled some fish (that was the highlight apparently), talked to by the butcher about meat... all good. Although I think some of the customers thought something weird was going on as there was a crowd of parents standing near the door looking curiously into the fruit and veg section trying to see their children! We did get some odd looks. :)

Calvin is sincerely hoping that the Beaver Scouts go camping or at least for a night away, as he has been wanting to do that for a while now. Cora has been on trips several times with Rainbows and now Brownies. He goes to Boys Brigade and they don't do trips so he has felt a bit left out.

They should have their 'promise' (I don't remember what they call it) in about 4 weeks. I don't know if it's just me but I honestly feel myself starting to tear up when I see them in a situation like that. I can usually hold the tears back but I feel that lump in my throat! Even today I was really proud of them for listening to what they were being told, as I was watching them in the group - many of the kids were trying to run away and literally being caught by one of the leaders. Watching Cora and Calvin standing nicely and interacting with the adults easily as they spoke was really nice. :)

In other news, Maia should be starting 2's group in the next week or two. We went to get the forms and it happened to be at the same time as 2's group was starting, so she played while I filled out the form. She was very upset to leave and kept asking to go back! While she's there I will be taking Cora and Calvin swimming, because at the local pool you can only take 2 under 8's at any one time. If I can get Cora swimming proficiently then she can take the swimming test, if she passes that I can take all 3 in by myself.

Tattie Holidays