Happy New Year......

just to wish you all the happiest of new years!

We are having a big thunder storm here tonight with tons of rain after a scorching day (the sort where you have the blinds pulled down all day to keep the heat out and the fan on to move the air around otherwise you will suffocate kind of scorching hot day!!)

We don't do any big celebrations but just quietly enjoy the excitement of what is a New Year.

Hope you have a wonderful time however you celebrate......

A little collage of our year.....

Happy Boxing (or maybe it could be bouncing) Day.....

Just a little peek at our day yesterday.....

Favourite gifts.....

A silver locket from Santa for Evie


An Australian coin collection book for Isaac (he pilfered quite a few coins from my purse so that he could start his collection!)


A bit of Christmas bouncing



A full Jesse Tree


The completed scene of the birth of Jesus on the Advent Calendar


And finally the children (and Brian) snuggled down to sleep for the night on the trampoline..... I felt someone needed to stay inside and guard the house..... that would be me!!


They were all back in by 3.30am but had so much fun they are planning to do it all over again.... and, no, I will not be joining them next time!

Tradition...... mark 7

Getting ready for THE VISIT...

Although Isaac is 10 and, in his heart KNOWS the truth about Santa, he still loves the whole letter writing and putting stuff out for Santa on Christmas eve before bed stuff (Evie is still very much a believer in the whole lot of it!)

So here they are this year preparing the little treats that they think will appeal to Father Christmas on his journey round the world. This is something that neither Brian nor I lend a hand with.... it is entirely prepared by the kids just how they want to do it...... I just love watching them prepare it all, making sure Mrs Christmas has a little something and not fogetting the reindeers.....

Evie had heard that lemonade was Santa's drink of choice and wanted to give it to him in a nice wine glass!


Here is the plate all laid out by the kids - chocs, neatly labelled by Isaac just so there is no confusion on whose is whose!! - a carrot for the reindeers - the lemonade and a little note....


Evie decided that the big blue tupperware container would be the best thing for holding the water for the reindeer this year!


And finally Evie sprinkled some magic reindeer food on the front lawn just so they would know where to land.....


After they had completed their little snack for Santa we went for a ride in the car to see some of the lights in the houses around our neighbourhood..... it was a great way to finish off the evening before coming home and snuggling down to await THE VISIT.....

Tradition...... mark 6

Party tea....

On Christmas eve we always have a party tea followed by a chocolate fondue (just to get that sugar rush really happening before bed!!)

When we moved into our new house I managed to drop and smash the little ceramic fondue bowl that we have used for many years now and so I had to come up with something else for this Christmas eve.

I picked up a chocolate fountain a few weeks ago in the hope that the children would find this quite an exciting way to eat chocolate at our party and fortunately I managed to hit the nail on the head! (they were both very upset with me for smashing the fondue bowl, it was a bit of our traditional history gone..... not a good thing as far as my children are concerned!)

However, when it came down to it they were both more than willing to jump in and try this new way of cramming as much chocolate (and marshmallows) into their bodies before bedtime.....



Their favourite trick was to perch a marshmallow (or piece of fruit - but I have to say that the marshmallows were a clear favourite) on to the very top of the fountain and watch as it slowly tumbled down the different levels and ended up in the pool of chocolate at the bottom......

It's Christmas (just a little bit early)....

A couple of months ago we started thinking about what the kids would like for Christmas. They get sent money for birthdays and Christmases by one set of grandparents and, as Isaac and Evie are still at an age where they are happy for you to buy a present with the money rather giving them the cold hard cash, we thought it would be nice to put it towards a joint gift for them!

We pondered and asked the children very general questions at random times about what they were enjoying doing at the moment and we came to the conclusion that a trampoline would be the perfect gift for them to share. Whenever we go anywhere where there is a trampoline they always spend a good deal of time bouncing...... and it is very good exercise!

So I went out and purchased a trampoline a few weeks ago and have managed to keep the box hidden in the garage under a huge piece of cardboard so the children were completely clueless that we had got it for them...... until today. Today was the day when my friend was free to come over and give me a hand at putting it together (normally I would have a 'Neil' but he is quite a few thousand miles away so I had to go elsewhere for help this time!).

It was a relatively simple process but definately needed two people to work on it, especially when trying to get the net into place!

Brian had taken the kids out for a couple of hours so it was a big surprise for them when they returned home and we could do a big 'ta-dah' ..... what happy faces they had and Evie declared that when she finished bouncing she was going to hug Brian and I 'to death'!




A big hit I would say.....

Tradition..... mark 5.......

the Christmas tree.

I really find it quite hard to muster up the enthusiasm for Christmas tree buying when the temperatures are in the 30's (as they were yesterday) but today was just the right day for making the purchase - it was quite cool and raining (felt just like Bristol!!)

Normally we would go to a farm and cut our own tree down but I haven't seen a place to do that here so we went to a local shop and picked the finest they had.

The kids always do the choosing.... they fall in love with one and that is it.... no amount of browsing and finding a 'better' specimen will change their minds!

So we bought the tree and then came the task of fitting it into our little car..... ho, ho, ho ..... Brian did not say those words, it was more like "I'm not driving home with a tree hanging out the boot" grumble, grumble, grumble.... but he had to, there was just no way that Christmas tree was going to fit in otherwise!

Back home we man-handled it into the front room and realised just how big it was - tall that is, not broad, thankfully!

How come Christmas trees look a positively average size when in a field or out in the open air but then when you try and squeeze them into your home you find that they have grown about 200%? It's always been a mystery to me and was a source of lots of giggling in our tiny house in Bristol as we tried to maneuver ourselves around the tree while it took up half the front room!

Fortunately the proportions of the house we are in here are more suited to our Christmas tree buying antics and it fitted into the corner of the lounge room quite nicely.

We spent a lovely hour listening to Nat King Cole sing Christmas carols while we placed all our beloved ornaments on the tree.... it was so lovely. The rain kept coming, making it feel even more authentic and by the time we had finished the house had a lovely 'piney' fragrance about it..... bliss!


Here it is all finished..... even got presents under it! Only one set of tree lights has survived for this year so the tree is not quite as 'bright' as it could be .... still, it is very pretty!


The final thing to go on the tree was a star. Unfortunately, when we moved to Australia the customs gentlemen who went through our shipping consignment did not rate my beautiful woven-willow-Christmas-tree-topping-star very highly and had it incinerated! I can't actually remember what we had on the top of the tree last year, but I found a great online tutorial for making paper stars and so today I made one that we could put at the top of the tree to 'finish it off'.


Hope you are having fun preparing for Christmas.....

Tradition..... mark 4......

the children wrote their letters to Father Christmas today.....

I love the chat and banter over what is appropriate to ask for (small gifts) and what is not (the $200 lego set Isaac quite fancies!!)

They are allowed to request three small gifts each and the rest is up to Father Christmas and whether there is enough room on his sleigh for any more.

Isaac asked for a mini Space Police Lego set, the Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets DVD and a bag of chocolate money....

Evie asked for a locket necklace, some new textas (felt tip pens) and some lovely fabric (which she noted in her letter that she would like Mrs Christmas to choose!!!)

Ooooh, I can feel Mr and Mrs Christmas' excitement at being able to fulfil these orders!!

Dressing up.....

I love it when my kids open the dress up box and grab out some odd bits - some are way too small for them, some are way too big and some are just plain random!

Take this silk scarf for instance.....


We have had it for YEARS - I think it came from a thrift store in the USA - but Isaac has a thing for it.

He loves its smoothness and softness and so some days (like today) he puts it round his neck and there it stays like a superhero cape ...... for the whole day..... until at bedtime he takes it off and hangs in on the door knob until, in the morning, he puts it back on again and enjoys another day of its softness!

Traditions..... mark 3....

Do you have this book? If you don't you should get it...... it is one of our all time favourite Christmas books.

We had a copy which originally belonged to my sisters' children but when we moved to Australia I gave it back to her along with a number of other books we had on loan and a container full of Playmobil (fond memories of Fort Bravo and the Indian reservation!)

However, when last Christmas came and went and we didn't have the Jolly Christmas Postman to read I realised just how much we missed it.... it was part of our traditional Christmas reading..... so I bought us a copy from the Book Depository and it arrived today.....yipee!

The children opened it eagerly and took out all the cards, letters, jigsaw, books and games and were enthralled, once again, with this beautiful Christmas classic....



Hope you enjoy your weekend, whatever it holds.

Just can't help myself.....

when I see my children asleep, snuggled up, comfy and looking like angels, I just can't help but take a picture.

An Aussie Christmas......

Isaac and Evie decided to make a Lego Christmas scene this year but wanted it to be a take on their view of an Aussie Christmas......


There is the man at the bar-b-que cooking his 'snags', a parrot in the palm tree, people are sunbathing on the beach whilst two swimmers are chased by a shark (I don't know where they got that one from!!) and the lifesaver is on his way to rescue them (probably should have an outboard motor rather than a pair of oars but still.....)

All the while Joseph, who is driving the 'ute' (van), is looking on with Mary and baby Jesus in the back!

Don't you just love a childs interpretation of things?

p.s. if you want a closer look at the scene just click on the picture to enlarge it.

Today was an ending for our family...... the end of a year in school for my two treasures.

I cannot begin to tell you how excited I was to pick them up from school today and skip home in the rain (infact we had to stop half way and take shelter as it got quite heavy at one point!)

All uniforms are in the wash and will be passed on .... and we will return to life as we know it.

This isn't meant to sound negative in any way of the year they have had in school - they have enjoyed themselves, made good friends, had lots of great experiences, learned quite a bit of new stuff and we couldn't have asked for a nicer school for them to have those experiences in - but homeschool is just what we do and it will be great to be back on familiar ground.

There is a real sense of peace about this decision, so bring on the new year and lets get stuck in!!

Traditions..... mark 2.......

Something that ALWAYS comes out of the Christmas boxes on November 30th is our advent calendar and our Jesse tree.

Both of these beautiful wall hangings were made by Auntie Dottie and Christmas would just not be Christmas without them....

When Isaac was tiny I decided I wanted to have an advent calendar that we could use every year and which did not involve chocolate!!

I had in mind a wall hanging perhaps made out of felt with felt figures that we could put on it and make a nativity scene, a bit like a flannelgraph I guess.... I mentioned my idea to Dot and within no time at all she had come up with this amazing calendar.

My kids love picking out a character each day and building up the story of Christmas until, on December 25th, Jesus is placed in the stable and the scene is complete.


The Jesse Tree was something I read about maybe four years ago now and just thought the idea of reading a story each day in December, building up a picture of events and stories in the Old Testament leading up to the birth of Jesus, was something that would capture my children.... and it surely did.

The first year we read this book (we read The Jesse Tree by Geraldine MacCaughrean but there are numerous versions of different stories you can use for a Jesse Tree on the internet) the children drew their own symbols and placed them on a small Christmas tree which we set up specially for their artwork.

However, in our second year of reading this book we had this fabulous wall hanging made specially (again by Auntie Dottie) on which to hang symbols relating to each story from the book. Some of the symbols I made out of fimo, some from clay and others were buttons with the shank chopped off. I stitched leaf buttons onto the tree, enough so that each symbol has its own place to hang.

All the symbols live in a special Christmas tin and, one by one, day by day, they make their way onto the tree to remind us of some very special stories which we never tire of hearing....


....until the tree is full and we celebrate Christmas day with the final story from the book.

What traditions do you have at Christmas time?

More final things......

Tonight was the Junior School Carol Concert and both Isaac and Evie were chosen to be two of the 'leaders & readers' for the service (I am convinced it is something to do with the accent!!)



They did a great job and I was immensely proud of them for having the gumption to stand up infront of an auditorium full of people..... they're certainly not wilting violets that's for sure.

The Grade 4 choir sang.....


and I realised that this will be the very last time both the children will be in school uniform. They have a few days left at school next week but most of them are casual days or sports days, so I thought I would snap a quick picture of them on their final 'appearance' in their uniforms......


reminds me of their very first day at school in January


boy this year has passed by in the blink of an eye.....

Traditions......

I mentioned in my last post about my kids being kids of tradition, especially around Christmas time.....

They love to do the same things each year, it makes them all excited and builds the anticipation for Christmas day itself - so this morning I was asked, 'Mum, where is the nativity scene?'.

You see I hadn't taken this one Christmas tradition out of the Christmas boxes when I opened them up on November 30th.... I thought maybe the kids may not want to play with it this year..... maybe they were a bit too old now....... how wrong I was.

This nativity scene was bought for Isaac when he was 2 (that was Evie's first Christmas with us) and has become as familiar in our home at Christmas as carols on the CD player and leaving food out for Santa and the reindeer on Christmas eve!

Isaac carefully built the stable (I have to admit that it is falling apart a bit now!)



and without further ado a fully dramatised account of the Christmas story began.....



before it was all placed, very carefully and neatly to one side, where it may sit for a few days or even a week but will, without a doubt, be pulled into the centre of the room and played with again....

Sovereign Hill Christmas browsing (and eating).....

We took a little trip to Sovereign Hill tonight for their annual Christmas shopping evening and as we arrived Brian and I looked at one another and both thought the same thing...... here we are doing things for the second time now..... that means we're not 'newbies' anymore!

We had such a lovely evening and enjoyed browsing, eating, playing, partaking, dipping, listening and panning!

The evening was beautiful, a little windy perhaps but the sun was shining and the sky was blue......

Our children are definitely children of traditions and if we go back to a place more than once they like to do some of the same things they did the first time, so tonight we had to stop by the confectionery stall to buy a lolly for the children and also make a quick stop at the bakers to buy the most enormous Vanilla Slice for me, and one for Brian too..... yum,


- we had to find the bowling alley where each of the kids had a turn at THROWING the bowling ball (and I mean the drop-it-hard-with-a-bit-of-push-behind-it kind of throwing - Evie's didn't even make it to the pins before it stopped.... she obviously needs to work on her upper body strength - LOL!!)



- we had to buy candles and dip them to make them all colourful ready for the Christmas table...... (only this year we had bumpy candles instead of smooth candles!)



- and we had to end our evening down at the river panning for gold......


- Brian can only watch for so long before he has to get his hands in there and see if he can find our fortune.....


Throughout our leisurely stroll round we were treated to music from a pipe band and a childrens choir.....


the only problem was the children were singing the song 'Good King Wenceslas'..... it didn't really capture the moment quite right me thinks, especially when they got to the part about the snow laying round about and being deep and crisp and even!!

Hope your Christmas preparations are lots of fun this year.....