Christmas Eve Eve!!

Well it's nearly here, just two more sleeps to go! I think I am pretty much on track, I have two Pots of Gold to finish off after I realised I didn't have enough scratch cards. That I will do tomorrow it won't take long.

I have just made cheese straws and Dampers. The Damper recipe is here, I can't find the exact one I use online, I think I copied it from a library book. I use chedder cheese, cooked onions & chives in mine and make them into small balls. We have them with our soup. Cheese straws are something my Mum always made for us at Christmas and I can't not have them!

So if I don't get chance to post tomorrow I shall wish everyone a Merry Christmas and hope you have a happy holiday wherever you are celebrating.

First Snow of the Winter

We had our first snow today - not a lot but there it's still coming down out there right now. The odds for a white Christmas here in the UK have been slashed and my fingers are crossed!

Pots of Gold

Just a quick post on these gifts i've put together for a few of my friends and family. I made 7 in total all bar one with Christmas scratchcards in. The other one we spend a little more on so I put in a Next Gift Card. Thats what I like about these you can make them up in so many ways.

I used pots from Ikea and various sweets in gold wrappers - coins, large Quality Street caramels, Werthers Original's, fun size Twix's. I had plenty with those but could have used mini Crunchies or Wispa Golds.
I bought some cellophane with gold swirls from ebay and various gold ribbons from Poundland. They were easy to put together I think (even though I say so myself) they look quite good!

Everythings Coming Together

I've have been wrapping some of my presents by tree light the past couple of nights. I've also made up my 'pots of gold' which i'll post more on later. We are swapping presents with some of my friends this weekend, then we just have family left. I've made three different lots of cookies today, some for the weekend and some for the freezer. My Squash soup is made and also in the freezer. I have my final list written for the grocery shopping and will be getting a lot of it tomorrow. My cards are posted though I do still have some to deliver by hand too.

India keeps bringing home cards by the bagful, it's my first time having to think about cards for her classmates. Unfortunately she doesn't know all the names so its a bit hit and miss making sure she doesn't miss anyone out. She has her school party next Wednesday and on Thursday I get to see her nativity concert. She tells me she has been singing in the big hall but I don't think she quite realises what it's for yet. I can't wait for that.

On Saturday i've organised a craft day for India and some of her friends. I'm letting them loose with the glue and glitter! I have quite a few simple ideas for them to do and plenty of Christmas stickers and sparkles for them.

I feel pretty much on top of things right now though I'm sure there will be something glaringly obvious that i've missed!

Here are a few more photos of my décor. The little snowmen in the corner light up pink and purple - I do like my lights!

These guys are hanging from the keyrack in the kitchen.

These India was very excited to help with, dropping baubles in glass is obviously very entertaining for a three year old!

So much so she went and got this vase out of the cupboard to do, causing me to have a 'slight' panic as she appeared with it in her arms - it's half the size she is!

My Tree is Up!

I made an early start yesterday and got out all my decorations. We bought a new 7ft tree last year as we realised our 5ft was no good in this home - looking like a pea on a drum! I didn't realise at the time that all the branches came separate from the tree and you have to build it from scratch, hence starting early this year.

At first once I'd got everything down I really didn't know where to start.

But once I dug out the tree I soon got in the flow, India kept occupied by watching lots of new Christmas episodes of her favourite shows on Playhouse Disney - it wasn't such bad background noise for me to work to either!

This is the tree with some of the branches in.

Finally an hour later is was all put together - India had been begging to put the first decoration on so she did that. Then I realised that I needed to put the lights on - we have 150 white lights and 80 twinkling coloured lights. They took some doing - could have done with an extra pair of hands.

I have a very large collection of Disney tree ornaments which I have collected over a number of years. Unfortunately Grolier no longer issue any new ornaments so now I make sure I visit the Disney Store every year for new ones. We got a new range of 'forest' coloured ornaments last year as we needed more for the bigger tree, these are in shades of browns and greens. I have to say though I don't really have a theme as such and my tree is filled with ornaments I love including one India has made and her first Christmas ones.

These are some of the ornaments we put on - India was eager to help and put a lot of them on, she did really well at handling them carefully though not so hot on the placement :-). The lights still need a bit of work too.

This is our tree topper (Disney really is a passion of mine - can you tell!).

Finally with the tree done I could put our train underneath, this was a new addition last year and It takes me a while to figure out the track - in the end hubby came home from work and did it for me! It runs right around the bottom of the tree.

Finally finished and started on the other decorations but I'll leave that for another post.

Mistletoe Update

Mistletoe has been a big hit this week, India just loves him. When she got up on Wednesday he was having a tea party with her teddies.

The next night he was tired out after his party and was snuggled up in bed. He did have a video to watch so India could see his home.

He also brought India some nice cosy Christmas socks but had to try them out first.

We caught Mistletoe making a crumby mess finishing off his breakfast.


Whilst Mistletoe wasn't looking Christmas Mickey had a snooze in sleeping bag!

This morning India discovered he had put a small pink tree in her room and decorated in himself. He also left a book for us to read - Mr Willoughby's Christmas Tree (I saw it recommended on another blog I read!) - he must have know we were decorating our tree today!

Mistletoe Merryweather Jingles

Our little Elf arrived overnight and was found by India snuggled up in his sleeping bag on the sofa this morning when she got up!

She was very excited to see him and after i'd read her his letter she tried to read it too but mostly just said 'I love you' a lot :-) Of course as it's the 1st December he also brought an Advent Calendar too and India was pretty happy to be having chocolate before we even had breakfast.

Sat next to MMJ was a little doggy in a Santa suit that has gone to the childminders with her today. Of course she wanted to take the elf but I said he probably needed some extra sleep after travelling all night!

We can't wait to see what he will be getting up to over the next few weeks.