movie traditions.....

we have a tradition in our family that we go to the

cinema on Christmas Eve together....

we have been doing this since the children were quite young

and it's something we really look forward to.....

choosing the movie is a serious business in this house

as we have to all agree.....

the last two years we have been to see the Hobbit movies and

we knew that we were going to opt for the third movie this year....

the problem was that the release date for the Hobbit movie in 

Oz was Boxing day....... seriously??

after a bit of a chat together we decided that we would have to

postpone our Christmas eve ritual for a few days

and so on December 27th we made a date, pre-booked our tickets,

filled my bag with goodies to eat and drink and made our way to 

the super-screen at the local cinema to watch this.....

here is our slightly-dark-but-excited-to-be-finally-seeing-the-hobbit selfie.....

and just so that we felt completely indulgent this Christmas season,

 three days later we went to the Moonlight Cinema in King's Park 

to see an advance screening of The Imitation Game.....

this was our first trip to an outdoor cinema and we took our

picnic rug, insect repellent and lots of snacks.....

it was a fab movie and although Evie was not particularly looking

forward to seeing it she actually came away having really enjoyed it.....

here's a little screen shot from the beginning of the movie.....

it actually makes the screen look rather small, but it was actually HUGE.....

it was lovely to be under the sky watching this movie.....

looking up I could see the moon and stars and the trees 

swaying gently in the breeze that we had that evening.....

it was definitely an evening to remember.....

day fifteen.......

carols by candlelight at church.......

love this time of year when we get to sing

some absolutely cracking songs and remember the

significance of why we celebrate.....

next week, the nativity.....

complete with newborn baby ruby.....

day fourteen......

I love satsumas.....

no, seriously, I really do.....

I could eat them any old time......

but they have a special affinity with Christmas in my memory......

they just kinda go together.....

like carrots and peas.....

{though I'm not so keen on carrots it has to be said}......

and that's why they get a special mention

in my instagram advent......

day thirteen.......

when I was growing up I seem to remember that

Christmas was a time when there was lots

of fun stuff on the telly and lots of sweets

on a little table in the lounge room.....

 it was the one time of year when we were allowed

to indulge in sweeties whenever we wanted to......

{at least that's what it seemed like,

I don't know if I have remembered that with 

rose coloured glasses on though.....}

we don't have a telly these days

{however, we do make full use of the catch-up

facilities that the TV channels offer so we can still get

a good dose of 'what's on' if we want to}.....

but we do have a Christmas 'munchies' table

with tins of sweets, jars of homemade biscuits and

a {rather empty looking} jar of pistachio nuts

{a universal favourite in our house, hence it's 

constant empty-ness.....}

definitely need to go out and buy

some more of those yummy pistachios.....

day twelve.....

ah, the stockings.....

we hang them up every year in anticipation

of Father Christmas' visit....

this one never gets old.....

day eleven.......

in my humble opinion, one cannot 

have too many sparkly lights around

at Christmas.....

I do have a couple of caveats with

my sparkly lights though.....

they have to be white lights.....

{can't seem to get in the groove with the coloured ones}.....

and they have to be static lights......

{otherwise I get a headache}.....

these ones are hanging at our french doors in

the sun room and I love the way they twinkle

all night long....

of course, there are more for the tree,

but we haven't got to that joy yet......

day ten.......

fun times with friends.....

this year we actually made it to the 

outdoor ice rink and the kids both

had a fabby time skating with their

home ed buddies....

I provided the hot chocolate and shortbread biscuits

to keep their energy up....

a vital job, if I do say so myself.....

day eight......

along side candlelight,

you can't get much more cosy than

a roaring fire....

loving our dark winter nights.....

day seven.......

ah, the crocheted starry Christmas garland.....

love it.....

it brightens up any space and makes me smile....

I remember spending many evenings crocheting

this when we were living in Oz and I love that it

still lives with us now, even though we are half way 

round the world from where it was created......

day six.......

bedtime stories by candlelight.....

lovely, cozy, snuggly story times

by the light of the candles around the room....

day five......

handmade Christmas angels.....

this one was made by: my mum {the knitted dress}....

the angel herself {my super sister}....

the crown {that would be my contribution}....

I have quite a few angels that come out at Christmas

but this is one of the only handmade ones

and holds a special place in my heart......

day four......

this wall hanging was made by my lovely sister

and it makes a great accompaniment to go along with

the book I shared yesterday....

each day a story from the book is read and then a 

little symbol is placed on the wall hanging.....

so far we have the sun and moon, 

a fruit and noah's ark.....

before we had this wall hanging the children

drew their own little pictures of the story we had read

and then hung the pictures on a little Christmas tree..... 

I still have the pictures they drew when they were 4 and 6.....

they are just. so. cute.

day three......

books......

we have our favourites and at this

time of year it is a joy to revisit some of them......

this book by one of our favourite authors comes out 

every year and we read it like an advent calendar..... 

one story per day.....

day two......

I love getting the decorations out on the last day of

november and, once the children have gone to bed, 

spending time going through them and decorating

the living areas.....

lots of memories.....

lots of smiles.....

lots of traditions.....

and usually a little bit of Christmas music playing in

the background just to make it all that bit more festive.....

this is one of my favourite keepsakes.....

a fold out book

{which a friend taught me how to make}

and in it are photos and descriptions of some 

of our family Christmas traditions -

there are even two little notes in tiny envelopes to 

father christmas written by the children when they

were really small...... too cute......

so today I have opened and enjoyed 

browsing this book......

and it has made me smile to remember so many

of the things that I love about our family traditions

at this time of year.....

celebrating advent through instagram.....

I decided this morning that I wanted to

take a photo every day during december so I could

record all the different traditions and celebrations 

we love during this beautiful season......

and I decided to use instagram to do it......

not the best quality of photos I'm afraid but

a fun and easy way for me to 'take note' and

remind myself of all I love about this 

favourite holiday of mine.....

day one......

the advent calendar....

in our house we have had a few different 

advent calendars over the years.....

sticker ones, lego ones, playmobil ones, colouring in ones.....

the above one though, has been with us every year since the 

kids were very little and they both still look forward to

revealing a new character to add to the story each day.....

it was a king today......

looking lonely there by himself on the little road

but he will soon be joined by a plethora of others......

aaaahhhhh, Christmas {and a brand new year......}

the beginning of the Christmas holidays was rather lovely

here in our little corner of the world.....

we had two different lots of friends from 'down south' come to stay

with us and it was so lovely to catch up with them and just 

listen to their lovely aussie accents for a while.......

 then, within the blink of an eye, Christmas morning was 

upon us with early wake up calls from the children 

{though they are getting a little later these days than they used to be.......}

however, some things don't change

e.g. lego for the teenage boy......

books for the bookworm girl......

{evie had requested the final book in the Pegasus 

series from father Christmas.....}

and within no time at all the playmobil sabre tooth 

tiger was biting the caveman's head off..... 

what a way to start Christmas morning........

then we went to a Christmas morning service at church

which was completely bonkers and led by a pirate

playing a banjo.......

this was swiftly followed by a jaunt down to my sisters' 

house where we had a wonderful Christmas dinner together,

whilst wearing our homemade hats {made from the cast off

wrapping paper and packaging from the Christmas gifts.....}

let's just say there was an ecclectic range of  hats on

display - some more elaborate than others.......

here's a little photo of them stolen from my sister.....
 

 they're rather fabby for having been made with a
load of old tat don't you think?......

this trip was followed by a quick visit 'up, up north' to
catch up with Brian's family and then we were back home......

phew......

time to ease into the new year now.....

a new past-time.....

what a lovely Christmas we have had here in the

Crawford-Poxon/Carter house......

we shared traditions.....

we shared gifts.....

we shared laughter.....

we shared love.....

we shared time.....

and we had the most lovely of days.....

however, when Boxing day dawned we felt the

need to take a walk and so I suggested we try

our hand at geocaching....

I discovered geocaching a couple of years ago but,

as we didn't own a GPS while we lived in Australia,

we never tried it out....

however, my brother-in-law has a walking GPS

which we thought would work a treat, so off

we set.......

we all set out on foot..... even the littlest

got to join in...... and she was so very happy

about that.....

we walked and chatted and turned-up-stuff
and snuck into Nana and Grandad's garden on the way
to get a drink from the water tap {as I had forgotten
to take a water bottle with me for refreshment.....}
and two and a half miles later we unearthed our
first ever geocache.....

here it is, our first 'cache find'.....

evie got to choose a little gift from

the stash we found and we replaced it with a

couple of other little trinkets....

we wrote our names and a little message

in the log book and hid the box back where

we found it for the next geocachers to find....

evie decided that the best way to travel home would be

on someone elses back...... there's no flies on her that's

for sure......

the scenery, and the company, were lovely

and we decided that we were hooked....

so when Tuesday dawned we decided to have another

go and promptly found a geocache a short drive away

over Exmoor near a small town called Exford.....

we started the walk to the cache from the local

graveyard......

nothing like taking your nearest and dearest to

a graveyard for an afternoon stroll.......

and a little bit of gravestone rubbing.....

this was the lovely little country church where we started......

so very British don't you think.......

there were stiles to be negotiated......

here is imogen checking out the way through

for those with very short legs!

and here is evie showing everyone that her ankle is well and truly 

healed up and she is, once again, able to do lots of running and jumping
over muddy puddles.........

when Imogen stopped to investigate one of the muddy

puddles, we all stopped too and watched her.....

isn't it lovely how the smallest one commands so

much attention...... we spend ages just watching her......

and after a lovely stroll through the countryside and a bit of

a treasure hunt the kids found the cache.....

we had a lot of fun looking through the log book, 

enjoying other peoples' comments and then

isaac got to choose a piece of  'treasure' to take home and

we left a new piece of treasure in its place....

there was time spent nearby enjoying the stream.....

isaac made dams to change the flow of the water......

something he does whenever he comes across running water......

and much fun was had by all.......

imogen even fell headlong into the water but it didn't

seem to phase her, she just picked herself up and 

carried on with squelchy wellies and wet pants......

if you haven't tried geocaching before, give it a go......

it is such a fun way to get out-and-about

with family and/or friends, or just on your own if you like,

and it's such fun finding treasure at the end......

this activity is a keeper for us, that's for sure.....

what a difference a day makes......

after taking some lovely sunny photos of the 

house the other day, I woke up to this......

the view from my bedroom window made 

the countryside look like a winter wonderland.....

the sun started to rise above the hills and I saw a patch of blue sky......

'it's going to be OK', I thought......

 today was the day for picking Brian up from Heathrow airport 

after his mammoth journey 'up north'.....

I cleared the snow from the car, 

and the children helped in their own interesting way.........

but just as we started out, it started to blizzard.........

we got half way up the hill and then lost all traction......

fortunately the man behind us had a 4WD and a tow rope...... 

yay for helpful folk.....

we ended up having to turn around and drive 

{which included some sliding} back to the village..... 

which is right at the bottom of that valley lying ahead of us..... 

needless to say, I was glad to get back with my very 

precious cargo {Isaac & Evie} safely intact.....

Evie was very angry at the snow because it meant 

that we would not be able to be there when her daddy 

came through the doors into the arrivals hall but she 

consoled herself by having a snowball fight with her cousin.......

and building an igloo (using a baby bath to make the bricks!!) with Isaac......

I don't think we will be having a swim any time soon.....

well, there's more snow forecast for tonight and

 I think sledging might be on the cards for tommorow.....