Day 13 - In the morning we had a nice time at home and when Aaron napped, Caleb and i made some Christmas cakes (which were basically just fairy cakes but we'll call them Christmas cakes for the purpose of advent blogging).
In the afternoon, Caleb's nursery class were shepherds in the whole school show. They sang a really cute song and all looked adorable. I was proud of my boy. He's on the left nearest the camera with the brown tshirt (back to me though).
Day 14 - We made our good old salt dough ornaments to hang on the tree! Flour, salt and water, easy peasey.
Day 15 - We went to the toy store 'Hamleys' in Glasgow to have brunch with Santa! We went with friends from the nursery and it was lovely. The kids all had something to eat, Santa arrived and read them a story, they coloured in some activity sheets and decorated cookies. The elves were there to help, Caleb's favourite being 'crazy' elf. They all then got to go up and speak to Santa individually and got a wonderful goody bag of Hamleys toys. Despite all this Christmas loveliness, Caleb's favourite part of the day was the train ride up to Glasgow. I could have saved myself some money and just rode the train all day with him ;-)
Day 16 - today, we will paint the salt dough ornaments.
Day 8 - Caleb didnt make it to his friend's party as he wasnt feeling well. Aaron was super cranky. Saturday was a crappy day.We got the main tree up anyway and started decorating.
Day 9 - we continued decorating! Not a great picture but theres a small tree in the top left window and my hubby did a great job on the living room lights in the front right. Plus my blue and white snowflakes outside.
Day 10 - yet more decorating! I have a stitching tree this year! yay! That tree is in my kitchen and has my small collection of christmas stitching on it. I need to get a picture.
Also on day 10, Caleb had his wee friend round to make up for missing her party on day 8. He loves Isla. He told me. lol.
Day 11 - Fail. I forgot what the activity was and simply ran out of time to even look it up. After the nursery run i had to go and open up the church hall for toddlers, then rush back to pick up Caleb again. We had an hour to grab lunch at home and get sorted before heading back out for Caleb's Kinder Gym (gymnastics class). By the time we got home, after running around Largs looking for Aaron's lost shoe (which showed up eventually in the car) and dropping in at my sisters to wish her a happy birthday, it was after 4pm and my food shopping delivery arrived and i had dinner to prepare, then the kids to bath and get ready for bed. So no, i had no time to make paper snowflakes. We will, another day.
Day 12 - Do something for charity. Every year i plan to do one of those fill-a-shoe-box appeal things. Operation Christmas or whatever its called. However, every year, by the time i look it up, ive missed the deadlines which all tend to be in November. This morning however, Caleb and i had a good wee chat about Kenya. I cant even remember how the opportunity came up but it just happened and i got out my newsletter from Footsteps International (the wonderful charity some good friends of mine run) and we looked at the pictures and talked about how hard other kids have it and how Christmas is not all about 'getting toys.' Footsteps works in Kenya with street kids. Caleb was particularly drawn to a picture of a wee boy with scraps of material for shoes. Whats happened to his shoes mummy? Anyway, my little almost-4 year old agreed to donate the contents of his piggy bank (£14) to Footsteps International. Good on him. It wasn't really what i'd intended for this day, id originally planned to have them pick out some stuff we could take to a charity shop but the little chat was impromptu and felt right.
So thats my update. I work on a Wednesday and i am blissfully enjoying peace and quiet and computer time without little hands grabbing at me or trying to bash the keypad.
Well i knew i'd be bad at this advent blogging but was expecting to be this bad! I have managed not to blog at all in December yet, haha. We have been doing our advent activities though!
Day 1 - we put up the advent calendar. Easy one! I did not, however, get the wooden one out the garage. We are decorating this weekend so it will appear then, one week late ;)
Day 2 - The Jingle Bell fun run. I took Aaron to take part in his first race haha We ran 1K. Or more precisely mummy ran 1K whilst pushing a pram dressed as Santa and it was not easy!
Day 3 - If you've not heard of the Portable North Pole console, google it and do one for any kids you know! Its amazing. Caleb and Aaron love their personalised message from Santa videos.
Day 4 - We did our 'Elf yourself' video, which Caleb loves and watches over and over. It does make me laugh.
Day 5 - I was at work and the boys spent the day with their Canadian grandparents before they returned home to Canada. Caleb adores his Grandma and Grandpa. It was nice to get a bit of a break by having some live in babysitters for a week!
Day 6 - Letter to Santa written and posted. Royalmail have an 'address' to send letters to Santa to and he even writes back!
Dear Santa,
My name is Caleb and i am 3 years old, nearly 4. I have a brother called Aaron and he is 1 year old. We live at.......... For Christmas, if im a good boy, i would like a didicar for playing outside, a new dvd and a new toy please. Thank-you Santa.
Love Caleb
Day 6 - It was the nursery/p1 Christmas show 'Snowman at Sunset' and it was adorable.
We went to the Christmas carnival at the garden centre afterwards as a treat for such a good performance :-)
I had my first Christmas night out last night with my mummy friends from the nursery. It was a great night and it felt good to get all glammed up for once!
We'll be taking it easy today before i take Caleb to his friends party this afternoon. Fancy dress costume to sort out for that (boo), halloween's enough fancy dress stress for me to contend with lol
