The final days of the Christmas Advent calendar were taken up by Christmas baking and preparations for a family Christmas lunch.
Julia (Miss Four) enjoyed some more Christmas cooking this week and a few simple crafts. We made lemon shortbread stars (recipe from Huggies), choc-coconut Christmas balls and mini chocolate puddings. An easy craft was lolly baubles (from Spotlight), we made Christmas crackers (inspired by All Things Kids) and Julia helped with wrapping the presents by making colourful handmade gift tags.
Christmas Day with the family was wonderful - my brother and his family travelled to Canberra from Sydney and Julia had such a lovely time with her cousins. My Mum made the best pavlova ever and the cheesecake was awesome too :)
I would like to share a few Christmas quotes from Miss Four:
- Listening to Christmas music - "Mum, is this song Away in the Danger?"
- Talking about the people in the nativity scene - "I know a song about Mary - Mary had a Little Lamb".
- Singing Jingle Bells - "Bells on cod-tails ring".
- "Mum, do you think that Wee Willie Winkie could be a helper for Santa? He could tell Santa when all the kids are in bed."
Getting ready for the new year now!
Santa
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Incredibly the enthusiasm for the Christmas Advent calendar hasn't waned although the chocolates are mostly being left for me to eat - it seems that when you are four years old there is such a thing as too much chocolate!
Julia (Miss Four) has been having lots of fun with some easy crafts and more Christmas cooking this week. She did some ornament decorating - a Santa plaster ornament and some wooden frame ornaments (all from Spotlight). I think Santa looks like he's been down one too many chimneys! Then she had some friends over to play so we made some more Christmas angels.
Christmas cooking included marshmallow puddings which we wrapped up for gifts, shortbread, gingerbread shapes and some more Vanilla Kipferl.
Now we're on the home stretch for Christmas!
Santa
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$21.50 each with free shipping for delivery within Australia only.
Available now from Jelly Bean Books.
The Christmas Advent calendar is still in motion - Santa's elves haven't yet forgotten to load up the stocking each night and I have somehow managed to fit in a Christmas activity each day.
Julia (Miss Four) has been bouncing out of bed to find her activity card and chocolate each morning and this week we have done some craft and some Christmas cooking.
We started the week making a Christmas bauble, then some decorations for the tree using Crayola Model Magic (it's really wonderful - not messy and it airdries). We decorated some boxes to be used for gifts, and made some decorations from beads and bells.
Some Christmas cooking finished the week - traditional Austrian Vanilla Kipferl and my favourite White Christmas - with marshmallows, mini M&Ms and chopped up jelly snakes. I'm not sure how much of this will make it to Christmas!
I wonder what the elves will have in store for us next week?
Santa
Deluxe Personalised Children's Book
$21.50 each with free shipping for delivery within Australia only.
Available now from Jelly Bean Books.
We are having fun with a Christmas Advent calendar this year using a long row of little stockings I got from Avon last year.
One of Santa's elves brings a surprise each night and leaves it in the stocking - a chocolate (which must be eaten after breakfast!) and a card with a Christmas activity printed on it. Julia (Miss Four) can't wait to check the stockings each morning and counts on them to work out how many sleeps until Christmas Day.
So far we have made a Christmas wreath and Christmas Angels (both of these ideas were from Rhyme Time) a Christmas Tree Sticker Poster and Santa door hanger (crafts from Spotlight) and some stained glass pictures (images from Kaboose).
After my mega shopping trip to Spotlight I have heaps of craft materials, and I love browsing through cooking mags for new recipes, so there's lots more craft and cooking activities to come!
Santa
Deluxe Personalised Children's Book
$21.50 each with free shipping for delivery within Australia only.
Available now from Jelly Bean Books.
