Christmas Decorating!!

Yay the Christmas season is nearly upon us! We have spent the last couple of days slowly getting our house decorated. Firstly Matilda and I created some tissue paper pom poms!

Then yesterday we got started on our Christmas tree. We decided to go with a red and gold theme this year, we put the lights on only to find they wouldn't work...doh! I wasn't inclined to head back to town so we improvised and used our outdoor icicle lights for now - they look pretty!! Every year we have some Christmas Carols playing in the background. This has stemmed from my childhoos were my mum would insist on it and all us girls ( I have five sisters) would moan and winge but I think we all secretly loved it!! Another thing I have subconsiously taken from those days is my dad used to rig the lights up, mum would put the tinsel on and then us girl would get to work with the decorations and that has fallen into place in this household as well...and I like it! It just feels right if you know what I mean :)

This morning my husband headed back out to work for two weeks :( So again Matilda nd I got stuck into some craft. I saw this really cool idea on another blog about decorating Christmas baubles, I did mine with some pages of an old book, was lots of sticky fun!! We then created some paper chains with the left over ripped pages. Matilda was very keen on mastering the stapler which she was aveltually able to do by herself - with lots of supervision of course to ensure no fingers were harmed in the making of!!



I love Christmas Time!! Coming up I will talk about some Christmas traditions - some old ones and some news ones I'd like to start with my little family :)

Harry - a tribute to his Great Grandad

They went with songs to the battle, they were young.

Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow.

They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,

They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,

We will remember them.

My grandfather, Harold, was in the British Army and involved in many war efforts. He has sadly passed away but I think he would have been delighted to be with his wife, Fran. He really was lost without her.  I remember after she died it was like he was gone as well, he was never the same. I have proudly named my firstborn son after my Grandad, he is my Handsome Harry just as Grandad was fondly named by his wife.

Both my children have been given family names in some way. Matilda has my middle name of Grace. I was named after my great Nanna who was in turn named after her mother, this naming went down five generations. Then theres my little man Harry who is lucky enough to be named after his Great Grandfather as well as having his father and paternal Grandfathers middle name Graham. Just to mix it up a bit my Uncle is also named Graham!!

Frosting

So my three year old daughter has this thing for cooking. Ever since she was little whenever one of us have been in the kitchen she had to be plopped on the bench "helping". Lately she has taken to grabbing mumma's iphone and while hiding under her bed covers watching cake decorating tutorials on YouTube!! So funny!

For fathers day this year she insisted we make a dinosaur cake, so we followed the recipe and created a three year old masterpiece - and she loved every minute of it!! Yesterday we were having a home day so I though lets get creative so we whipped up some cupcakes and I let her go for it..she added the colouring to the butter cream to get these wonderfully garish colours! Perfect were her words!! We were so pleased with the finished product ( a little too pleased as I can't stop eating them ) but the process was what made the whole experience magical. Watching my little girl in sheer delight doing something so simple together. She has picked up all the terminology and was throwing out such words as offset spatula, turning table, crumb layer and many more - she is an amazing little thing!

Further more it really was a positive educational experience from measuring skills, following recipes, colour mixing, fine motor skill development it covered a great many things! definitely something we will do again and again :) 

Generations

On the weekend just gone we were lucky enough to be able to make the trip to Perth to visit family. The most important person to be visited that weekend was my Grandma, my children's Great Grandma.

This was the first time she had met Harry, and boy was she tickled pink to wallow in those precious newborn cuddles, devouring his smell and every look. My Grandma loves babies, I think that's where I must get it from. She proudly looked around at her great grand children and stated how clever she was. And you know what she is right if it wasn't for her none of us would be here or be who we are today. I love my Grandma.

It makes me sad to think that one day she will no longer be around. So sad I don't even like to think about it let alone put those thoughts to paper so I will stop now...