GEORGICA POND: Christmas at Home Part 2 and Family Update

Now for the second part to the Christmas around our Home. Here's a little peak into the kids' rooms.

First is Charlie's room. I give them each a small tree, so that they can decorate it themselves. They have complete creative control, and get to hang all the cute little decorations they make at school and kindy. This has a much to do with the fact that I'm a control freak and want the grown-ups tree to look perfect, as much as anything else!

Charlie is very skilled at trimming the tree. He makes sure there are decorations all the way around, and they are all beautifully spaced and evenly hung. I added the strips of ribbon just to pad it out a bit.

His cute little decorations made at school take pride of place. I think system works for everyone. They get to lie in bed watching the little lights twinkling on their tree as they drift off to sleep thinking of Santa, and admiring their handiwork and creations, which don't just get shoved in a drawer with all the other stuff brought home through the year!

This ornament was made by my Grandmother for Charlie when he was born. She has been making these for our family for about 40 years, and every time another baby is born, she adds the photo to the new ball and the tree. These little plastic balls that open in two for a photo or treats are getting harder to find, but I think we're probably all done for babies now anyway.

I do love The White Company in the UK, it's the most wonderful store and they do the most beautiful children's Christmas decorations and accessories, not to mention the best pyjamas ever. I bought sacks and stockings for the kids when we had Christmas in England a few years back.

The kids love a countdown. This ghastly thing I bought at a $2 shop about 5 years ago, but they love it.

They each have a little winter doll hanging on their door and a silver bell. We love the movie "The Polar Express" in our family, and I gave them both a silver bell last year as a reminder of the message "Believe" from the movie. It's a simple message, but in the movie. at the north pole Santa gives the little boy a bell from a reindeer's harness and if you truly "believe" you can hear the bell ringing, if you don't it will not sound. We can all hear the bell in our family!

Love this DIY snow dome from Kikki K. You add your own photo. The one below is a beautiful Christmas dome I bought when he was born. They each have one in their rooms, that only comes out for Christmas and plays a carol as they go to sleep. I love them.

This Santa on his Sleigh light box is made of balsa wood and was given to them by their aunt when we had Christmas in England. It is so pretty, and simple and they love looking at it at night. It's a sweet reminder of who's about to visit!

I just love this decoration and the colours are one of my favourite Christmas combos. I bought her a few years ago, and although she is made from china and fragile I think they are so cute for a little girl's tree.

Some of Poppy's handiwork from Kindy. I love that Kindy's do that kind of thing. The kids have come home with the most wonderful decorations and Christmas artwork. As I'm a bit of a Scrooge and don't like messy craft at home ie finger painting, play-doh, gluing, glitter or anything which is fun to make and a nightmare to clean up, I'm glad they get to exercise their creativity in a safe space! ie not my white kitchen!

Poppy had her end of year concert at Kindy on the weekend. She had to dress as a star. We can't call it a Christmas concert, because there is nothing Christmassy about it. For some reason, which I've yet to get to the bottom of, they don't sing Christmas songs or carols at her kindy concert, nobody mentions Jesus, there isn't a Christmas tree, an elf, Santa or a reindeer, no three wise men or donkeys. I heard it's something to do with being politically correct or some other nonsense which infuriates me. It's a kindy for goodness sake!

Nevertheless she was a cute as could be, and did very well, remembering all the words to the songs and all her actions. I was thrilled with her little costume from Cotton On! One stop shopping!

She also had her graduation from daycare where she has been for about 18 months. She will miss the lovely ladies who look after her. It's been a wonderful experience. She moves to big girl's Kindy next year.

Charlie has his graduation from Kindergarten and his first year of school - I can't believe how quickly it has gone and he is moving into Year 1. I'm feeling very sad and sentimental about it all and was very teary at yesterday's pickup when we gave his gorgeous teacher Miss Daley the Christmas present from the class.?

You can only dream of your child having a teacher as wonderful, kind, imaginative and inspiring as Miss Daley. Charlie will be devastated to lose her and has been counting the days since term started. But she has given him the best start to his school career he could possibly have and we are extremely grateful for the positive impact and guidance she has shown him.

I took this snap on Sunday morning about 7am when they were all watching kids' TV. Only allowed on the weekends, so we get a bit of a lie in! But I plonked Amelia on Charlie's lap and she happily sat with them watching. He is such a delightful big brother.

I made these reindeer noses for the kids' friends. Was quite easy using 8 x Maltesers and 1 x Jaffa. I made up the little cards by picking free clip art online, and then just fiddled around in Word document until it worked. Just put all the chocolates into cellophane bags from Spotlight and stapled the card. There's lots of templates and tutes online about how to do this if you're interested. I stayed up until 1am doing these for Charlie, then he told me in the morning they weren't very interesting! So he added each child's name to the back!

Amelia is growing up so quickly. She is now on solids and is big enough to sit up with the others at the bench. She can't sit upright by herself yet, so after about five minutes tends to flop to the side and I find her sucking on the seat, but she likes being up with all the action.

Finally, we had some beautiful family portraits taken a few weeks ago. The same gorgeous girl who took ours last year - Jessica Ross Photography. Jess is fabulous at photographing kids, in fact we found her because she does the kindy photos which are always the best photo of the kids we get all year. If you live in Sydney and would like some family photos or wedding photography, whatever, she's amazing. We have to order them now for friends and family for Christmas, but they are all so lovely I just don't know which to pick. Here are a few of the best. On another note, I haven't made mention of the unspeakably tragic events of Sandy Hook school in the US yet, although it has been weighing heavily on my heart and mind. I look at these photos and I am so grateful I get to hugs my babies tonight and share Christmas with them. But in acknowledgment I wrote a post yesterday on my Facebook page here, which I hope expresses my deep sorrow and hope for change.

Source: http://georgicapond.blogspot.com/2012/12/christmas-at-home-part-2-and-family.html

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