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):

To Halloween or not to Halloween

Halloween. Growing up in New Zealand, this was never a big deal. In my neighbourhood it was viewed as a foreign (American) celebration. We never learned the history behind it and we never went trick-or-treating or did anything at all to mark it.

These days, however, as soon as Father's Day has passed, The Warehouse, the numerous Two Dollar shops and even the supermarkets push a plethora of plastic orange junk, hideous and often inappropriate costumes and "candy" (they're "lollies", for goodness sake!). We are bombarded with images of Halloween for almost two months, so that every little kid begins to pester their parents for costumes and to go trick-or-treating. Call me uptight, but I don't really like the idea at all. We teach our kids not to take stuff from strangers, but it's ok for them to knock on people's doors and ask for it? I'm also not a fan of the bucketfull of lollies that the kidlets end up with. Sugar, or worse, aspartame, food colouring galore, budget lollies made god knows where with god knows what. I just don't like it.

So this year, as the wee lads were so set on doing something for Halloween, we had a Halloween party with our friends from across the road. Freaky food and ghoulish games. It was fun.

We had fingers in buns, Jack-o-Lanterns (mandarins), apple and almond teeth, banana and white chocolate ghosts, choc dipped strawberries and spider mini pizzas. 

Donut Munch Game (a good replacement for Apple Bobbing) was hilarious!

And of course, a Jack-o-Lantern! The kids were busy for ages doing designs on paper, before getting their hands on the pumpkin.

Of Wings, pt ii

So we finally had occasion to wear The Wings out for the first time. Finney had a party to go to where he had to dress as his favourite animal. So we made a mask to go with them.

 

Bags On, Let's Go!

Every morning in this house is a rush. I'm sure I've talked about this before, but it doesn't seem to matter how much time we have, how early we get up, we are always rushing to get out the door. This has actually been described as Parkinson's Law - that is "work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion".

It's getting easier as the boys get older and can take some more responsibility for themselves and their own stuff, but it has been a long road getting there. I've tried all manner of charts, timers and rewards, but the latest incarnation on a baking tray has been the most successful. Both boys have their own before and after school job chart; there is also a star chart rewarding good behaviour, which is changed, depending on what needs to be addressed. It is super easy to customise as seasons change, jobs change, sports start etc.

And to make it more fun, I made Lego magnets for them to use to mark off jobs done.

A Wooden Anniversary Present

I like traditions. I think. Sometimes, at least. Quaint traditions. Not inflexible traditions that attempt to define who we are, what we are allowed to do or like, but traditions that add meaning or history. We have a few family ones: anniversary couple selfies, homemade advent calendars, we visit the Enchanted Forest, take kids' birthday photos by the blackboard with current likes, height and weight, and eat homemade cinnamon scrolls on Christmas morning.

We are fast approaching March 5th. 5 years already! The 5th Wedding Anniversary traditional present is wood. Wood! I spent hours trawling shops for a wooden something that wasn't a pen or bowl or something equally trite. I was unsuccessful. So I made something.

We got married on Bethells Beach on 5/3/10 (KBZ!).

'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)

KoboGloKoboGloKoboGlo

Oh how I love my Kobo Glo. Not because it's a Kobo, in particular, but because it enables my reading addiction. I read all the time. I don't need to turn on the light. I don't need to find or bookmark a page. I don't need to get up and get another book from the bookshelf. I read and read and read. In fact, since I bought it 20 months ago I have read more than 800 hours, which is, on average, approximately an hour twenty a day. Every day. For approximately 600 days. Which is quite a lot. I have devoured books, series, all genres. I have read genres I used to scoff at: historical fiction and fantasy, for example. I have read 58 books on it. Which doesn't really sound as much as it is, when you consider that the majority of those books were longer than 900 pages (Diana Gabaldon, I'm looking at you).

I really enjoyed so many of the books and series I read - books I didn't necessarily expect to enjoy so much: The Goldfinch, The Luminaries, The Miniaturist, The Other Boelyn Girl, Outlander series, Kvothe series, Magician series, Eragon series. Some were re-reads from teenage years (LOTR, Clan of the Cave Bear), others were just refreshing reads, after a particularly long and somewhat arduous (in a good way) book (Diana Gabaldon, again, looking at you). In fact there has been only one book I didn't enjoy and didn't actually finish - the cringe-worthy and extremely poorly-written 50 Shades. Yeuuck.

So, I sewed my Kobo Glo a cover. And then I sewed one for my sister's. They have magnets in them, making them turn on and off automatically upon opening/closing. They worked out pretty well. Mine used a cover from an old hardback, which was better than the stiff card I used for my sister's.