Our Christmas

This week and Merry Christmas

Last Saturday my brother drove 6 hours to come and spend the weekend with us. We went to our local Carols by (fake) Candlelight. It was great! We go every year and I love it because it’s not a huge one and we see so many people we know. The kids run around and dance and it gets dark and things start glowing.

We came home and all went to bed, and then Ed woke up vomiting. And then I started vomiting. Ed was fine the next morning but I spent all Sunday sleeping. My brother left Monday morning and on Tuesday I got a message to say he was now vomiting. It was Wednesday before I felt really right again and I was looking forward to finally leaving the house. Then Lil vomited (for the first time ever.) She recovered quickly and by Thursday we were all fit and healthy. Fingers crossed Dave has avoided the vomiting.

So this week has been a bit of a write-off. Luckily I had finished all my Christmas shopping.

This week also saw the end of breastfeeding with Edward. The stomach bug was kind of the nail in the coffin. He still won’t drink any other kind of milk (I’ve tried cow’s milk, formula, rice milk, oat milk, warm, cold, mixed with yoghurt, and a pile of different cups) but we’ll keep trying and in the meantime make sure he gets plenty of calcium from other sources. Perhaps related, perhaps not, he’s slept through the night in his cot for the last two nights in a row. Something that hasn’t happened since he turned 4 months old. Let’s hope it continues.

Tomorrow we’re packing up the car and driving 5 minutes into town to spend a couple of nights at Dave’s mum’s place over Christmas. It’s nice to be staying close to home this year but it’s nice to get away just a little bit too.

My Christmas break plans are to finish watching Mad Men season 4 and to read as much as possible. I have a pile of books from the library to get through. So things might be quiet around this old blog.

Tonight’s plans are to drink wine, eat some of the peppermint bark I made today, and watch Love, Actually. It’s tradition. I might also paint my toenails.

So, Merry Christmas to you all! Thank you for reading along here. It’s been a fun year.

Humpday Holiday: Christmas in Morocco, Glasgow, and The Hague

I’m recovering from a weekend stomach bug so this post is going to be short on words, big on pictures. With only one more Humpday before Christmas I’m squeezing in the remaining three Christmasses we’ve spent in other lands into this one post. Enjoy! After Christmas I’ll be back with New Year’s Eve.

Christmas Day 2005 – We travelled by train from Meknes to Fes in Morocco. I have three photos from that day:

A donkey delivering coca-cola.

Mint tea.

Our dinner venue.

Christmas 2006 – Glasgow, spent at the home of our friends Jo and Dirk, with dinner hosted by Jo’s mother. I was pregnant with Lillian.

Jo and Dirk’s tree.

Christmas 2007: Lillian’s first Christmas at six months old. Once again we were hosted by Jo and Dirk but this time they lived in The Netherlands.

Tree!

Lil under the tree.

Merry Christmas!

On Wednesdays, for a bit of mid-week escapism, I go on a Humpday Holiday. Guest posters are always welcome!

Christmas Sticks 2011

The wet weather slowed me down a bit this year but as of yesterday the sticks are finally collected and decorated. This year the sticks have lights. Fancy.

We’ve had sticks instead of a tree for the last three years. The year before that, our first back in Australia, we bought a tiny real live tree in a pot that I hoped we could use for a few years but unfortunately it only survived one Christmas. While I do love the look of a decorated real Christmas tree we really don’t have anywhere to put one and sticks are certainly more environmentally friendly and way easier to dispose of afterwards. I was tempted to paint the sticks silver this year but Dave argued that that would cancel out the environmental benefits. It also would have required a trip to a paint shop so they stayed natural.

Last year’s sticks rocked the tissue paper flowers:

Our first Christmas sticks in 2009: (Lillian actually still wears those pj shorts.)

And the tree that didn’t make it much past Christmas 2008:

How cute was she?

 

More Christmas Cheer: Pom Pom Bauble and Clay Decorations

It’s time for the My Place And Yours Christmas Party! How could I not join in this one? All I seem to be posting about lately is Christmas stuff. I’ve already shared our felt circle wreath and button tree decorations and our button tree, crocheted baubles and matchbox advent calendar along with last year’s present projects.

This week I’ve been crocheting more bauble covers, Lil and I made more of the clay decorations we first made back in September, we got started on some present making (which I won’t be showing here), and today she helped me stuff a bauble with pom poms. Over the weekend I also put up the Merry Christmas paper bunting from last year.

These clay decorations are so fun to make. Chontelle from The Wise Robin just wrote a tutorial for them the other day and ours were made basically the same way as she explains.

It must be almost time to gather the sticks and start hanging some of these things!