Christmas Cakes

One of the the traditions in our house is me decorating a Christmas cake each year.  Trying to come up with something different each year is pretty fun. I have several hundred designs pinned for inspiration - enough to last me my lifetime 😁.

So I missed a couple of years - COVID, moving house and shoulder surgery, but back into it now!

2022

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

 2014

See this post for birthday cakes :)

So I bought an Advent Calendar...

It has been a busy start to the silly season - so much so that I decided to buy an advent calendar this year, instead of making one. I saw this one for the princely sum of $10 at K-Mart and I *needed* it! I filled it with some minifigs I had in the cupboard and some from a set they'll get at Xmas (shhhh, don't tell!). I'm loving the Woodland theme that is so strong this Christmas!

And just like that it's nearly Christmas again!

I'm pretty sure that time is speeding up, like seriously. I cannot fathom that it is actually December again. I still feel like I'm in March, or maybe June at the latest. 

But December it is and with it comes the joy of Christmas! 

We have a rule in our house that we don't discuss anything Christmassy until Dec 1st, as Finney has his birthday at the end of November. This year he turned 5 - FIVE!! - so we had almost a full week of celebrations, with the kindy farewell, his birthday, his first day of school and a birthday party on the weekend. This hasn't left me much time over the past few weeks, but I managed to churn out the wee lads' Advent Calendars last night and this morning while they were at school. Phew. Just in time. To be honest, though, it doesn't actually matter when I start something, I always end up finishing at the last minute. Tax returns, school reports, promotional materials for the business. Always just in the nick of time. I think I actually work better under pressure. Just a bit more stressful! Anyway, that aside, their calendars are done and I am happy with them.

I have been becoming increasingly concerned that my kids are becoming too materialistic and are so busy dreaming about what they want next to appreciate what they already have. We have had lists for Santa since February this year. They pore over the Lego catalogues and painstakingly copy each set name and number down for him. They have an expectation of gifts. They aren't pleasantly surprised by or grateful for presents, but expect them. So this year, instead of our traditional gift advent calendars (Lego one here and others here), I have designed an activity one. Some Christmassy, some acts of service, some fun activities. See the list below for details. 



My design this year was taken from Willoday's simple, stylised trees, with some glittery Christmas bling. I rolled up the printed activities, taped with sparkly tape and popped them inside the trees.

 And the activities (in the super fun Budmo Jiggler font):

'Tis nearly the season

Tomorrow is December 1st. The day my brother and I used to await, way back when, with great anticipation. The day we got CHRISTMAS CALENDARS!

This is a fantastic tradition I have continued with my own wee lads (see more here). Finding the 24 (x2) bits and pieces has always been a bit of a challenge, but this year, with the boys' Lego obsession, this task suddenly became super easy!

I've become, over the past year when I have had to replace broken and lost pieces, a huge fan of BrickOwl and BrickLink - two Lego marketplaces where you can order practically any piece you want at a very reasonable price. These two sites made the hardest thing about gathering the wee presents actually choosing from the myriad of accessories and minifigures available. But then, of course, being my OCD self, I couldn't just wrap the wee presents and use last year's calendars. No, no. I had to make Lego bricks to present them in. Rather time consuming (to say the least), but they worked out pretty well :)

So the calendars are up and the boys are super excited about their first present tomorow morning! I haven't told them it's all Lego, but they suspect (and are hoping) it is!

And for those of you who want to know what's in them, the below photos show all the presents. Some days they get the same presents, other days they get things I know they've wanted for a while. Max's are on the left of the calendar boxes, Finney's on the right (except for Santa and the Queen: these are pulled apart and shared between the two of them)

Coffeeeee

It's no secret how much I love coffee, and how, over the past five years, I have come to depend on coffee - (who would have thought those two lovely wee lads would be such terrible sleepers?). I drink flat whites. From my espresso machine with the built-in grinder. I *love* my coffee machine. No, really I do. We take it away on holiday with us!
But all that was just to set the scene, to let you know how much I value coffee. My sister-in-law drinks plunger coffee and I drew her name in the Christmas Present draw (well, that's not strictly true, my husband did, but somehow I ended up organising her present too...). So anyway, I like to give personal presents, different presents, homemade presents, ones that are difficult to put a price on.
Two days before the posting cut-off date I was still trying to come up with something for her, when it came to me in the middle of the night - she uses a tea cosy, so why not one for her French Press? And I even had some insulated batting to hand (a well-intentioned purchase which was never actually made into an oven mitt).

So here we have it, a coffee cosy!

The Magic of Christmas

Remember how magical Christmas was when you were little? The lights, the beautiful tree with its star or fairy or angel perched atop, the treats, the presents and Father Christmas (or Santa or Santa Claus or whatever you called that jolly fat man who travelled around the world faster than the speed of light pulled by nine flying reindeer).

Magic.

Creating that magic for my wee lads is important to me. I make Christmas Calendars (as my mum did for me) and bake Christmas biscuits (Vanillekipferl). We have a tree and add plenty of sparkles around the house. We visit The Enchanted Forest with its beautiful mechanical Christmas displays. We leave biscuits and beer out for Santa (my boys have a different name for him than we did - different era, more influence from American media) and carrots and water outside for the reindeer.

I wonder how much longer this will last. Max is already 5. Won't he find out from friends at school soon? And what about the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy? Other magic I encourage whole-heartedly.

                      

 

Christmas Calendars 2012

Finished and hung, ready for tomorrow. Hurrah!

(And for those of you who want to know what is in this year's calendars, read this post)

Xmas is still coming!

Still working on the Calendars - realised today, with 1 day to go until they need to be hung, ready for Saturday morning, that I forgot to get stamps for the numbers.

Flashback to Kindy: cutting up potatoes to make shape stamps...

I wonder....

Yay! Saved the day. It wasn't so easy cutting them with needy child clinging to leg, but they're close enough -  they're for a 4 and a 2 year old, they won't notice.


Speaking of presents for a 4 and a 2 year old, their main presents, that I have been working on for the past few weeks, are coming along nicely.

They still need to have their bridles sewn down to stop them from sliding up the nose (see horse), I have some bells to sew on the sides, and of course, I still need to attach them to the sticks (which I won’t do until just before Xmas, as it makes them so much harder to hide!)  I'm so excited about seeing the boys' faces when they find these under the tree!


UPDATE - Here are the finished beasts on their sticks!:

 

Xmas is coming...

Which means it's time to start organising and putting together Christmas Calendars for my two little lads. As I said last year, we always had calendars when we were little, and they are for me one of the most memorable things about Christmas when I was young.

Finding 24 little presents is probably a whole lot easier these days, compared to back when Mum was making them, with $2 shops popping up in every group of shops. However, it is still a challenge finding age-appropriate gifts, things that aren't wasteful - toxic plastic toys that break within half an hour - and toys that will be enjoyed and played with more than once. I also look for packs that can be separated, as even at the $2 shop it's pretty easy to rack up a big bill when buying 40 or so little presents!

This year I decided to supplement the little toys with activities - for each I made a card or a ticket to represent what it is we are going to do. Because of this I had to think a little more carefully about what goes on what date, making sure that activities fall on weekends or non-kindy days.

Since I had a number of people ask last year what was in all the packages, I have taken photos and written a list - but don't tell the kids!

Top row is for Max, bottom for Finn. There are only a few days when they get different presents.

From left to right, the 1st - 24th Dec:

1. Picture of Father Christmas from here, along with cotton balls to stick on his beard each day.











2. Activity: Visit Father Christmas in the Enchanted Forest (for a Santa photo)
3. Chocolate coin
4. Farm animals
5. Bubble mixture
6. M: Homemade learn-to-make-pompoms kit/F: Money box (Finn McMissile)
7. Sheriff badges
8. 5x 10c coins to put in money boxes

9. Activity: Go out for ice cream ($2 taped to pic of ice cream)












10. Chocolate coin
11. Balloons
12. Farm animals
13. Candy cane
14. Stickers
15. Farm animals
16. Activity: Pic of goose - off to feed the ducks/geese/swans.
17: M: Paint a Santa ornament/F: bubble mixture

18: Activity: Bake Christmas biscuits (Christmas cookie cutter)












19: Chocolate coins
20: Glowsticks
21: Police badge

22: Activity: Visit to Transport Museum












23: Stickers
24: Candy cane

All wrapped up they look like this:

All that's left to do is make the calendar!

Fabric Star Ornaments

Pretty fabric Christmas stars - tutorial by Betz White.

Christmas goose

Because we are going away this Christmas, we didn't think there was much point getting a real tree. So we bought a little artificial one and Max and I had fun decorating it all the same. His favourite decoration was the "goose" at the top! Nevermind that the tree didn't smell like Christmas.

Dec 1st = Christmas Calendar

In our house when we were little, we always eagerly awaited December 1st, as that was when our Christmas Calendars were hung up next to our beds - advent calendars with presents not just little window or door flaps to open or even worse those with icky cheap chocolates. Now that I am having to make them, I can actually appreciate how much time goes into selecting appropriate little gifts and assembling it. 

Here is Max's for this year (so what if I reused last year's board? - He's not old enough to realise yet!)