Tinkles the elf finds our Christmas books
It took a while to find Tinkles this morning – yet she was in an obvious place as we found her sitting on some of our Christmas books!
Eleventh of December, counting down!
Exactly two weeks to Christmas Day and we’re opening the flaps on day eleven in our advent calendars. Have you managed to open each flap on the correct day so far? We have, but it has been close a couple of times when we’ve been out.
Ornament calendar
Well, we’ve had a Lego City snowman and a Lego Friends snowman, so who is surprised to find a press out ornament snowman? Snow and snowmen have become so entrenched in Christmas imagery, but it still feels irrelevant as we don’t have a snowman at Christmas in Australia!
Lego City
Today my son got to make a small train for his advent calendar…
Lego Friends
Again, this ornament feels over sized, but it is a cute lantern that took a little work to put together. The single leaf on top is unusual, but my daughter took a spare flower from day six to make it complete.
Christmas book
Snowman, skiing, throwing snow – they are seem to go together so reading The Angry Birds Christmas book by lantern near a snowman seems appropriate!
Quick & easy class party treats
Wouldn’t it be lovely to put together an amazing platter of Christmas treats or a beautifully decorated gingerbread sleigh (or a chocolate igloo, lol!) for each Christmas function you attend?
Back in the real world, I just don’t have the time for that yet we needed something else for my daughter’s class party ‘bring a plate’. So we made some Christmassy – perhaps not as polished but a treat nonetheless, my daughter had a lovely time making them, and we got to do something together so probably a better plate anyway.
And these biscuits are also a great Christmas Eve activity to keep excited children busy and then leave out for Santa’s snack.
Ingredients for 30 biscuits
Packet of Marie (or similar) biscuits
icing (we used some from a tub but you can make your own!)
100s and 1000s plus whatever Christmassy decorations you have in the pantry
coloured writing icing gel
Method
Lay out the biscuits upside on a tray or platter
Spread icing across each biscuit. You could make the icing red or green, but we stayed with white.
Add decorations to each biscuit and add some details to each decorated biscuit with the writing gel.
Take the platter to your party and enjoy!
Front door elf welcome!
Being warm, we had the front door open overnight. Tinkles must have been curious about our front yard or perhaps she just wanted to greet the friends who arrived this morning to walk to school with us – whatever her reason, Tinkles formed he welcome by sitting on the front door handle.
Advent countdown reaches double digits!
Day ten – reaching double digits is important for kids so why not for a Christmas countdown!
Ornament calendar
As a white cat looks at the wreath on a door, we created our own Christmas wreath to hang on the tree. The bow is large so the wreath felt a little unbalanced, and like it is facing the wrong way, but it hangs nicely and adds more colour to the tree.
Lego City
I can’t say we’re sure what we found behind today’s calendar flap – a ball with two stands or two goal posts perhaps? What do you think it is meant to be?
Lego Friends
In the Friends ornament collection, we added a candle tonight. It felt very large as we made it – especially with the scale of Lego things we’re used to – but it was simple to create and would look ok on a Christmas tree.
Christmas book
We are looking forward to some fun with he rhymes and pictures as we read A very pirate Christmas tonight. Let’s hope someone can rescue Santa in time to save Christmas!
Tinkles playing Monopoly!
We were amused to find Tinkles playing Monopoly this morning! She was sitting under the Christmas tree with Santa and my daughter’s two inherited porcelain dolls.
They were playing Junior Monopoly – I’m not sure if it’s because it is a new game for them all or if it was just easier to grab from my son’s room – what a pity we don’t have Christmas Monopoly here for them.
If you look closely, you ca also see that the tokens being used in this game are actually Lego pieces from the Lego City advent calendar my son is progressing through this month! Tinkles has grabbed the woman with a shovel, the boy (I called him a thief, my kids call him a boy!), the huskie and the snowman.
Day nine of advent calendars
The weekend is drawing to a close but the advent calendars are still going strong!
Ornament calendar
The calendar added an angel to our tree today, and revealed a picture of an angel atop a snow covered tree.
Lego City
Getting into the Christmas theme today, the Lego City calendar produced a light stand with mistletoe. Putting the mistletoe together was a little different – the leaves sit in a small hole in the flowers’stalk, and the the stalk can be fitted into other Lego pieces as usual.
Lego Friends
My daughter loved the rocking reindeer that she found behind flap number nine of the her Friends calendar tonight.
Christmas book
And tonight, we are going to be reading Bubbay – the first book we reviewed on Love Santa and very Australian. We can look at the pictures, think about the Dreamtime and talk about appreciating what we have.
Tinkles the elf helping with the dishes
Having moved from my daughter’s room, we found that Tinkles got herself into the dishwasher with the clean dishes! Not sure where her mobile phone has gone though 🙂
Day eight of Christmas countdowns…
Being Saturday, it has been harder for my kids to wait for evening to do their advent calendars! They’d love to open them each morning but I figure finding Tinkles is enough to fit in before school, so advent calendars are for counting the end of each day and see how many more days there are to go…
When do you open advent calendars in your house?
Ornament calendar
Our press out ornament calendar was themed on presents tonight – two gift boxes piled as an ornament, and a picture of two elves wrapping presents.
Lego City
A picture paints a thousand words they say – just as well I can add a picture of today’s Lego City advent item as I have no idea what to call it! It certainly isn’t a Christmas item – what do you think it is? I should add that my son believes it is a drone, and I can kind of see that…
Lego Friends
Our newest Lego ornament is a candy cane – bigger than a Lego character or the common candy canes, and harder to put together than you may think (three different types of connector meant you have to concentrate to get it working). There are little vents in the long straight pieces – I’m not sure what they are for…
Christmas Book
Tonight we have a party to attend so we deliberately read a short Christmas book – Dear Santa. It is a lovely story, aimed more at babies than school aged kids but still a lovely book to look at together before we head out! Enjoy your Saturday night!
Tinkles calling Santa?
My daughter was very excited to find Tinkles in her bedroom this morning, and we think we have discovered how she reports back to Santa as she was holding a mobile phone…
Christmas wreaths
Growing up, we didn’t have a wreath at home and I didn’t see many, except sometimes in repeated street decorations.
But I now have wreaths around my house, and like seeing them around – especially seeing the variety of wreaths around!
A variety of wreaths…
Here are just a few wreaths that I have seen and like… which is your favourite?
A poinsettia wreath
Bec’s gum leaf and stick wreath
I love the simplicity and natural Aussie look of this wreath that Bec made.
Jen’s food themed wreath
A cheese wreath
Some gum leaf wreaths
Some gumnut wreaths made by kinder children (Excuse the background as they dried on a cars mat!)
A golden bauble wreath from Erica
Erica made this beautiful wreath “$40 worth of baubles, $7 hot glue and a pool noodle, plus 15 hours and multiple hot glue burns – Bauble wreath is complete! ”
Tracy’s natural wreath
Tracy Davison attended a workshop and made this gorgeous wreath (her first ever), saying ” I used about 8 or more different elements to it and I was thrilled with how it turned out. It is all natural, so has that lovely smell of evergreen, very Christmasy?”
Sophie’s floral wreath
Last year, interior designer Sophie Kost shared with us her tips for Christmas decorating and an image of her lovely floral wreath.
Fir tree and lights wreath
A gingerbread wreath
A red berry wreath
I spotted this pretty wreath Westminster Christmas shop when we visited last year.
A large wreath
This wreath (and a few matching ones) was hanging on the Melbourne Town Hall in 2015 – it was larger than most Christmas wreaths!
So what wreaths do you have at home? Are there other wreaths you love? Either way, share your wreath photos in the comments so we can all enjoy them!
Seventh day of advent calendars
Friday night and opening advent calendar flaps is a nice way to star the weekend so we opened the flaps a little earlier this evening just for fun!
Ornament calendar
Today’s ornament is some holly – this one doesn’t work quite as well with the perpendicular pieces but it is certainly part of Christmas traditions. The image behind the holly was a fox looking at a snow covered bush.
Lego City
The Lego City calendar had a woman behind flap seven; she is rugged up in a scarf and comes with a shovel (for moving snow perhaps, or just for a general work site?)
Lego Friends
In the past, Lego characters have had a little camera to hold so this one felt really big and cumbersome in my hands once it was made by my daughter tonight.
Christmas book
Tonight, we are going back to the Aussie theme and reading Emily’s Bush Christmas followed by the Christmas Wombat (it’s Friday so we’ve added a second book!)
