Advent Blog-a-long–Day 3

Just sneaking in, well actually it past midnight but I am still up so that counts doesn’t it.

Today I went to my local quilt shops Christmas party, I was a bit unsure about going as I have not had any classes there since Lachie was born and rarely buy anything from there anymore but it always nice to go and see all the ladies. Two quilts that you can do in there classes next year caught my eye, one is Michele Yeo’s Giant Dahlia, the other is a from a book called “A path to a Civil War” I think this would look amazing with bright modern fabrics on a white background, kind of like how people have been doing the modern versions of Farmer Wife quilts. I would love to do one of them but as I am still only half way through my Dear Jane quilt, I don’t think I should start any major project like Farmers Wife. The one a saw today would be a lot more achievable as the blocks are 12” for the main part and 9” for the two board rows.

Well that is all from me tonight definitely time to go to bed but before I go today’s book was

We only read about 1/3 of this book as it is quite a long story, but it was amazing to see Bastian taking it in compared to last year when we first got it (It was the theme of the Myer Windows last year)

You will have to wait for a photo of today’s Lego item as it is in Bastian’s room and I forgot to take a photo of it before he went to bed

Advent Blog-a-long - Day 2

Yes I know that this is actually day 3 but I ran out of time yesterday to blog so I will do two today, will you forgive me wont you

We didn’t do anything Christmassy today except for having to decide what plate to bring to the Kinder Christmas concert and last day party. When you have a little boy as fussy as Bastian it makes it hard to bring something he likes, especially when his two favourite party foods had already been taken (cocktail frankfurts and fairy bread) so I decided on his next favourite, pikelets.

I have decided that as well as sharing with you which books are opened each day I will also share what was in the Lego Star Wars Advent calendar each day (just in case any of you are interested )

Day One - Republic Cruisers

Day Two – Nute Gunray

And to give you an idea of the size of the pieces, Nute Gunray is the size of a standard Lego person and here they are together (sorry for the blurry image, IPhone pic)

I spent the evening tracing out letters for our Santa Sacks that we have been selling through Facebook, MadeIt, Etsy & Hand-made. Both the Etsy and Hand-made store are closed at the moment as we are not taking any more Santa sack order for 2011 Christmas. They have been selling extremely well with 54 made to date and 21 to make over the next two weeks.

As we were out so late, Bastian & Daddy went to see Puss in Boots at the drive-in and Lachie was with me at my parents while I traced out letters, we didn’t to open and read our Advent book yesterday so first thing this morning while having breakfast we opened and read

Now to go and enjoy day 3 of the Christmas season and I promise to come back and blog about it later

Advent Blog-a-long

The lovely Car is once again hosting the blogging Christmas Countdown. I have an extra busy December this year with activities planned for the boys, kinder outings & concerts and 5 craft markets between now and Christmas.

I am hoping that means that I will have lots to blog about.

Today we started our Christmas festivities with some early presents from Santa

Wrapt books ready for an Advent book calendar

A couple of commercial bought advent calendars, Thomas (with chocolate) for my sweet tooth Lachie and the Cars Activity Advent for Bastian. The Star Wars advent is to share between Bastian & Daddy :)

I have it on good authority that Santa is going to leave the occasional note to the boys on days when we have special Christmas activities or outings planned.

Finally I will leave you with images of the books that were unwrapped and read tonight

Advent Blog-along–Day 11

Today however I do have a wonderful present to share with you all.

I was lucky enough to receive a Secret Santa gift from Ruth for the EB Newbies Secret Santa

Inside all those packages were these items

Some candles, coasters, material (three from Love Birds and one from All Star, I think) a pot holder made into a cone which held some hand cream and chocolates, a some soap (home made?), a babushka key ring and a notepad. Very spoilt wasn’t I

I actually sent to Ruth as well as received from her, however in my rush to get the present in the post, I forgot to take a photo, therefore I will have to wait until she opens and blogs for you to see what I sent her

Advent Blog-along–Day 10

Tonight we went along to the Casey Demons Christmas Party (Casey Demons is a supporters group for the Melbourne Football Club)

And following on from my last post about Bastian gaining more confidence, I was pleasantly surprised when he not only asked to go on the bouncy slide, but actually climbed all the way up and slide down all by himself.

Advent Blog-along Day 9

I have decided to just blog when I can this festive season, to many other things going on in the background that I don’t want to bore you all with here. So some of these post may be a bit delayed (like today I have three posts for you)

In many ways my darling Bastian is a normal rough and tumble boy but then he also has an overall cautious side that prevents him from sliding down slides by himself or climbing to high. So you can imagine my delight when he worked out the other day that our driveway makes a perfect slope for his little push along bike.

At first I felt I was a bit overprotective worried that he might come off and scrap his legs/feet or even worse go on to the road, but do the fact that we are very slack and our driveway does still not line up with our crossover (we have only been in this house for 9 years) he worked out the perfect way to stop himself.

(does anyone know how to add video to blog posts without uploading it to YouTube)

Advent Blog-along–Day 8

I know, I know only 8 days in and I have already missed a couple of days
I have to admit I have been having a bit of trouble getting into the Christmas spirit this year, only reason I can think of is that life it so hectic I find it hard to stop and smell the roses (or maybe it should be Christmas tree ) at the moment. However last night thanks once again to my wonderful parents I was able to finally decorate our tree and the place looks a lot more festive

I also went out shopping yesterday and was very happy that I was able to find and purchase on this, which seem to be quite popular at the moment

Lastly while out shopping my Mum reminded me of one other tradition I have and that is to purchase from Dusk a Christmas candle ornament each year. The last couple of years I have been a bit wary of purchasing anything to breakable, so have stuck to the novelty candles, which get lit on Christmas Eve while watching the Carols. Here is this years purchase, cute isn’t he.

2010 Advent Blog-along–Day 5

Sorry for the lack of post yesterday but we didn’t get home from the city until 6pm (and that was after leaving at 7am) so as you can imagine we had two very tired and somewhat grumpy little boys as well as tired Mummy & Daddy. As always the Wiggles Concert was fantastic we had great seats, on the floor 7 rows back from the front.

You can see in background of this picture how close we were to the stage. Both boys enjoyed it, well Bastian loved it, Andrew has video photo of him going crazy when they come out in the Big Red Car, Lachie just enjoyed jumping up and down on our knees and then of course fell asleep in my arms at the last song.

I had to include this one of Anthony just because I could

After the concert we walked up to Crown Casino and had a look at there Christmas display, I was actually a bit disappointed as they have not changed it much in the last 3 years, however Bastian loved it, especially the hanging monkeys that come down from the ceiling. We then caught a tram to Myer and went to Santaland

Where he got to go on a ride on Santa’s train and then after 45min waiting, we went and met Santa. I must admit when I was told how long the wait would be I was a bit hesitant but it was well worth it.

Both boys look a bit tired as it was towards the end of a long day, and Bastian was not too sure about Santa, but at least he sat there which was a change from the last two years. We mentioned to Santa that Bastian was going to give him his dummy’s and Santa told him that Rudolph has just had a little baby who could really use some dummy’s so that would be lovely if he left his out for him. The only problem we had was that Bastian wanted to know why he didn’t get any of the things he was wanting off Santa, but more about that on a later post.

2010 Advent Blog-along–Day 4

Once again I have decided to join in with

and here are my selected words

Advent	angel	carols
Christmas Eve	Dancer	Deck the halls
family	Frosty the Snowman	Jingle Bells
jolly	Hallelujah Chorus	ho, ho, ho
Marshmallows	ornaments	Quilts
Rudolph	silent night	sleigh bells
Sugar Plums	tinsel	traditions
tree	turkey	White Christmas
wrapping paper

Why don’t you join in to…

2010 Advent Blog-along–Day 3

I had planned to be able to show you a picture of our decorated Christmas Tree tonight, however my darling husband got a better offer tonight then to come home and decorate the tree, he has gone to see U2 in concert, and actually got to meet Bono very briefly before the concert.

So now hopefully we will find some time over the weekend to decorate the beautiful fresh cut Christmas tree which I went out and chose today.

Tomorrow is definitely the start of the crazy part of Christmas for us, up at 6 to get ready and catch a train to the city to see The Wiggles concert, into Crown complex to have a look at there Christmas display, have a look at the Myer windows, trip to Santaland, including a ride on the Santa train for Bastian & hopefully a photo with Santa as well.

All that means that hopefully I will have some pictures for you tomorrow. But in the meantime I will leave you with another one of my favourite Christmas Songs

2010 Advent Blog-along–Day 2

As far as Christmas activities today we did zilch, well if you count cleaning up the toys so we can get the Christmas tree tomorrow a Christmas activity then we did that.

However I thought today I would list my Christmas traditions, and as you can see from the list I am big on Christmas traditions –

1. Wiggles concert in the city – followed by the Myer windows, Crown Christmas display, and a visit to Santa and Santaland at Myers
2. Local Carols concert
3. Christmas Eve Santa comes around on a fire truck and throws out lolly for the children
4. Christmas Eve we make cookies for Santa, last year was the first for this one, and was a bit of a failure but I am confident that this year will be better
5. Watch Carols by Candlelight while madly wrapping the rest (read most) of the presents

I am sure there is more and as the boys get bigger they will change some what

Finally here is the picture that was taken while reading last night Christmas story

2010 Advent Blog-along–Day 1

2008 I managed 7, last year I managed 16 posts so lets see what I can do this year. In case you are wondering what I am waffling about, it is this

So come on join in over here, I know you want to.

Tonight I started my tradition of reading Christmas story before bed, this time it was a bit different to prior years as I had one of each knee. Andrew took a picture but it is late so I will leave that for another post.

I will however leave you with one of my favourite Christmas songs (would not call this one a carol, what do you think?)

Advent Blog-along - Day 16

I have decided lists are a good thing, that being that I actually got most of the things of today's list done all bar starting writing in christmas cards and start wrapping presents. So both of those as well as some appointments scheduled for tomorrow are on my list for tomorrow.

I actually got some christmas sewing done today but it is late and time for bed was along time ago so I shall have to leave it there and promise a more exciting post with pictures for you all tomorrow. That is if there is anyone still out there, if I have not bored to peices :)

Advent Blog-along - Day 15

Today started out with lots of plans, of which none got done :(

But the good news is that tomorrow is a new day so here is my to-do list for tomorrow

Choose pictures for Christmas cards and print out - done
Start writing Christmas cards  done
Make Wrapping paper with DS done
Start at least on of the 2 presents needed for Sunday all done and gifted
Start wrapping presents done
Try to do at least 2 hrs work, done

Well tomorrow is going to be a hot one so I had better get this little black duck off to bed and make sure I get up nice and early to go through my list. Hopefully tomorrows post will have some progress pics of our efforts

Advent Blog-along - Day 14

A few people have joined in on this

so I figured I should as well, not sure if I made the cut off in time or if it even open to international players but it is a bit of fun.

My chosen words are

1. Advent
2. Angel
3. Candle
4. Carols
5. Chocolate
6. Christmas Eve
7. Figgy Pudding
8. Frosty the Snowman
9. Mistletoe
10. Ornaments
11. Plum Pudding
12. Presents
13. Quilts
14. Rudolph
15. Silver Bells
16. Sleigh Bells
17. Sparkle
18. Sugar Plums
19. Table Runners
20. Tinsel
21. Traditions
22. Tree
23. Turkey
24. White Christmas
25. Winter Wonderland

Thought I would post them here so I can come back and mark them off when they are drawn out. Wish me luck

Advent Blog-along - Day 13

Yes you did read correctly. I have missed Day 11 & 12, my excuse is pretty lame as well. Friday I was working all day as I hadn't done much earlier in the week due to Wiggles concert and Christmas tree decorating, I did have grand plans to make up for it yesterday but while I was making a fruit salad for dinner at friends place I had a mishap with a vegetable peeler that result in a fair amount of pain and blood so now I am having to type with limited fingers.

Tonight Andrew, Bastian and I went to our local Carols by Candlelight, we were lucky in that Bastian has a long long (4-5hrs) sleep during the day so he was in a fantastic mood even though he has just gone to bed now. Anyway being at the Carols got me thinking one of the reasons I love Christmas so much is it is a chance to remember years gone by and things you use to do as a child I can now do with my child, or even start new traditions. Also if it has been a crap year (eg as 2008 was for me) it is a celebration of the end of that year and a start of new one, in fact my father pointed out to me what I had written on my christmas card to them last year "Thank you for all your help and support this year and lets all hope for next year to be very uneventful"

I have to admit compared to 2008, 2009 has been a dream and very uneventful. 2010 will be a challenge but I believe in a good way.

So why do you love Christmas, assuming you do?

Advent Blog-along Day 9

Oops I am a day late with this one Telstra has been giving me grief with my ADSL connection so didn't get a chance yesterday.

What did I do yesterday well you will have to pop over here to see. That is all I can say about that for now more pics to come at a later date.

I promise to have something more exciting for todays propert post, a sneek peek of a different kind.

Advent Blog-along - Day 8

Today I was able to open the parcel I received from my EB Newbie Quilters SS.

I got a lovely assortment of goodies

There was chocolates, a panel to make a soft book, some lovely blue material with trucks on it, some white baby print material and christmas tree ornament, and a beautifully made little purse that contained quilting pins, thread, chalk and soap. I already have some projects in mind for some of the peices.

Also today we went and got our christmas tree from the local christmas tree farm, I am being brave and putting out all my breakable christmas decorations as well, just need to teach Bastian to not touch or be gentle. Will see how we go

Advent Blog-along - Day 7

As mention in previous post today we went and saw...


The Wiggles



and there friends

We also went to Santaland at Myer in the city and Bastian got to ride a train


Do you think he enjoyed?



And finally this image is for a friends little girl who I happen to know has a soft spot for a certain dinosaur and will be going see her herself very soon

Advent Blog-along - Day 6

Today we tagged along to a Christmas party with my parents, there boat club one. Bastian was the only child there but he had fun, I can't believe how sure of himself my little boy is. No shyness from this one at all. Santa came with a special little gift for him and he was happy to even have a semi cuddle with him, as long as mummy was holding him at the same time. So that is a improvement from last week.

Tomorrow is a big day, up at 6 to head into the city to see

I hope he enjoys it as much as he did last time, then we are going to have a look at these, visit this and maybe even have a train ride this year (was too little last year) and have a look at display here.

It is going to be a busy day so Mummy better head on and get some rest.

(This post was done last night but I realised this morning that I had forgotten to hit publish)