Christmas has quickly come and gone and with the new year starting we are back into the swing of our educational studies. I thought I would share what some of our Christmas looked like. Unfortunately I can't share some of my favourite photos as I endeavour to keep away from posting photos that have a clear shot of my children. But hopefully you will enjoy the shots I have chosen.
Our Christmas started early in December with the annual tree decoration extravaganza. Enjoyed by all the boys the tree is trimmed with old and new decorations and then later in the day retrimmed by me as I have seem to inherited my mother's neurotic tendencies where the tree is concerned and prefer the evenly spaced look to the I got a box of decorations and threw them at the tree look.
A week later after tree trimming we visited a live nativity and was treated to a delightful adventure into a reimagined Bethlehem. People were dressed in rich coloured fabrics, rooms were decorated to resemble inns and refreshments were placed on low lying tables with cushioned seating for us visitors to enjoy. Outside Roman centurions paced the floors, huts were decorated to look like market stalls selling food, pots, spices and gifts. Animals were kept in makeshift stables and one special stable housed the baby of the moment: Mary, Joseph and Jesus (a very real new born baby). It was a lovely nativity and my children were in silent awe with all that they saw.
A giant LEGO train came puffing into our city centre and we had to go and see it. So I battled the crowds and the busy shoppers and we were delighted with the carefully built piece of artwork strung with lights. The picture is of the carriages as the train itself has my children onboard as they pretend to be drivers of the colourful Christmas LEGO train but I can assure you it was stunning.
What is Christmas without a chance to build and decorate some gingerbread houses. It became a lesson in construction as we carefully cut out pieces to build the houses and then piece them together. The larger fancy house was done by myself, the smaller house was created by Mr Social and Mr Cheeky and Mr Smiley took on the rest of the gingerbread and made and decorated lots of stars. This gingerbread extravaganza ended up feeding lots of family members as we visited them.
Christmas day was spent at Church, opening gifts and then the long awaited dinner. The food was planned by Mr Social, cooked by myself whilst the boys were outside testing out their new archery sets and eaten and enjoyed by everbody except the newest member who very kindly chose to sleep through this part of the day so I could enjoy my food without having to juggle a baby. The crackers were home made and filled with a few chocolates and party hats.
With only Mr Faithful keen on Christmas pudding the dessert of choice was a Christmas log which was decorated with holly from our garden.
Post Christmas day was an opportunity to play with toys, enjoy a cinema trip, spend time with family and have a trip to the sales to find some bargain clothes. The two eldest boys were treated to a session of wall climbing by their uncle and so I spent some time with Mr Smiley painting and building his new boat.
Into the new year we came and as tree and trimmings came down, toys tidied back into bedrooms their was one more celebration to come...my birthday. I was a little more excited about this one than I normally am because my gift of choice was to be a sewing machine. Now that is exciting and I can't wait to put it to good use.
The first week of January found my husband to be a little more romantic than usual as I received not just one but two lovely bouquets from him.
And my final picture is a little more educational...the night sky. One evening last week I climbed the stairs to put my littles to bed and as I reached the top of the stairs out of nursery bedroom window I saw some bright lights in the sky that were fascinating. The photo doesn't do it justice but I think you can just about make out all 3. The moon stands out strongest being the largest in the picture, to it's right and down a bit is Venus shining brightly and to the left of the moon and up a bit (roughly in the middle of the picture...trust me it's there) is mars. It was such an impressive display of moon and planets that I had to take a picture.
Whew! That was my Christmas round up. Bring on 2017!
