We Wish You A Merry Christmas

Christmas morning started much the same in getting up, dressed, breakfast and then out the door. We headed to the Christmas Day service at church. Daniel and Eliza both did very well with staying in church for the whole service (normally Daniel goes to creche). It was nice to think about Jesus' birthday. The children's talk was the story of Christmas in chocolate - similar to the one found here: 
https://freedomborn.wordpress.com/2013/12/25/the-christmas-story-for-the-sweet-tooth/

Daniel and Oscar went down the front for the talk but after Mitch fell up the stairs at the start of the talk, Daniel freaked out and wanted to go home, and then back to our seats. I'm not too sure what freaked him out - the sound, worried Mitch hurt himself, don't know really. Fortunately he calmed down when we got back to our seats. It is nice to go to church to remember that Christmas is about Jesus. Happy birthday Jesus!
 
After church we headed back home to spend some time as a family of 4 and open Christmas presents. Happy first Christmas Eliza. It was nice to have her 1st Christmas ornament on the tree, next to Daniel's one and James and my Christmas baubles.

The kids were pretty excited about present time!

Happy Christmas!

 Eliza did very well with knowing what to do with the wrapping paper, pulling it once I made a rip to open up the present.

A towel with her name on it!

Daniel was pretty excited to open his sandwich making set - hopefully it will be well used!

They then had their group present which they opened together...

It was a little kitchen in a box! Nice, small but useable. Hopefully this will be well loved (and has already been fortunately).

James thought Eliza would like to sit in the box... he clearly thought wrong.

She was much happier to have cuddles and then have a nap.

Happy 1st Christmas baby girl!

After Eliza went down we did the last little bit of setting up for Christmas lunch. Pretty cool having it at our place.

The table set up - gingerbread house centerpiece, bonbons ready

Just as people started to arrive we Facetimed Nana J and Boompa. It was nice to be able to see them. We later Facetimed again when Eliza was awake after lunch so they could see her as well.

Happy Christmas Nana J and Boompa!

It is always nice to spend Christmas with the Howies. Such fun, lots of laughs, good times.

Once everyone arrived it was present time. Oscar was Santa and did a very good job at reading the different names on the cards and giving the gift to the correct person. Daniel was very excited to get his first gift - play fruit from the Howies - he wasn't interested in opening any other presents. I guess it's a good quality to have but tricky when trying to convince him to finish opening the presents and then you can play.

Santa Oscar

Eliza woke up and decided to join the party.

She got some very cute hair clips from Great Grandma which I just love putting in her hair!

And she enjoyed reading one of her books with Auntie Jenny. I do hope she enjoys reading like Daniel does.

Once the turkey was cooked it was lunch time! The table set up worked well.

And then Oscar decided that it was bonbon time so went around enjoying popping them open and seeing what the prizes were inside.

Daniel decided to join in on the action too. I just loved his 'I'm pulling really hard' face.

Then it was Christmas hats all around.

Eliza wearing her hat, just before she broke it.

Daniel enjoyed his hat

Happy Christmas hubby. Good job with the turkey!

Christmas cheese :-)

 After lunch we had pudding and then we were so full, we could hardly fit anything else in! This included my gingerbread house. We cracked it open still and Mum and Dad took some home. We took the rest up to Hervey Bay. It was very tasty - extra good being good quality gingerbread!

After naptime Daniel and Eliza had fun playing with their kitchen. Daniel was giving Eliza some more rice cereal and she was obediently opening her mouth to 'eat' it.

We then Facetimed Nana J and Boompa again and were able to chat with Aunty Jen and Maddie and Grannie as well.

All in all it was a lovely day spent with family, yummy food and good times. I have been thinking a lot about how to make Christmas be more focussed on it being Jesus' birthday. I want Daniel and Eliza to know that's the real meaning of Christmas as they grow up. I haven't really worked out a solution. We will go to church in the morning each year, that is very important to me, but after the morning I want to keep reminding them that the day is about Jesus. Some friends do a cake for Jesus and sing happy birthday - I like the idea but we have eaten so much food, I struggle to think of eating more/making more for the day. Anyway, I guess it's something that I will continue to think about and hopefully I will work out some solutions that can celebrate the real meaning of Christmas.

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas...

2014 was to be our first Christmas at home with the kids - Daniel's 1st Christmas at home after being in Hervey Bay and Tamworth for previous ones and Eliza's 1st Christmas ever. This meant that James and I were keen to have a real Christmas tree in our house! We were also going to have Christmas day here so we wanted a real tree for that too.
On the weekend on the 16th James headed to our local Scouts tree sale and brought home our very first Christmas tree! James was just a little bit excited :-)

Daniel was excited about holding a little Christmas tree

Works perfectly next to the TV

Daniel helping water it

The kids and their first Christmas tree

Daniel wouldn't stay for a photo so I took on of Eliza on her own

When the kids went to bed I pulled out all the decorations I had accumulated over the years and James got the lights that he bought on his way to get the tree that morning. We then had fun decorating it (sorry kids. You can get involved when you're older).

Daniel admiring our tree and enjoyed watching the lights change colour too

Pretty

I also put up the other decorations that I have in the house. Daniel enjoyed riding the reindeer (which isn't made for riding but is just the right size for him.

I also was inspired to do some Christmas craft with Daniel after a Mothers' Group mum showed that she did some craft with her son. I loved doing Christmas craft with my kids at school so decided to do a couple of things.
The first craft that we did was to make hand and foot reindeers. We even have Eliza join in the fun. I think her reindeer is so cute!

Daniel tracing around my foot to make my reindeer

My reindeer, Daniel's reindeer and Eliza's reindeer

Daniel has shown an interest in using glue at creche so I decided to let him use some at home to decorate a Christmas tree. He loved it but it took so so so so so long for him to decorate the tree as he would wind it up, use the glue, wind it back down, put the lid on, choose a piece to stick down and then repeat. He also got distracted at times. But it was pretty cute to watch him make his own Christmas tree - no help from myself.

Concentration tongue

A tradition that the Westleigh Rural Fire Brigade do is to drive around the streets as a convoy with Santa on the back of the fire engine. We haven't seen this before, however, have heard about it. As we were home on Sunday 21st December we decided to sit out on the front lawn as they were coming down our street. It was pretty cool to see all the neighbours and kids in the street waiting for the trucks. We could hear them coming from streets away as they would sound their sirens to let you know they were near. Daniel was pretty excited to see them and enjoyed running around on the lawn while we waited. Eliza happily sat on the rug in a cute Christmassy outfit.

 As they came down our street Daniel was excited but also a bit nervous as the sirens were so very loud. He also doesn't know who Santa is as we haven't decided if we'll do Santa with him so he didn't understand it when we were saying 'Can you see Santa on the back?'. But he was happy to walk down the grass and wave to Santa and the firemen. They are such a lovely bunch of people. 

One of the firemen was also dressed as an elf costume and he was throwing out lollies and Christmas baubles. Daniel was so excited to go and collect the baubles. He didn't even pay any attention to the lollies (that's my boy!!). They were very generous with the amount of baubles they were throwing out! Daniel was pretty happy with his collection. We came back inside to put them on the tree.

I think in future years we will definitely be sitting on our lawn waiting for the firetrucks to come visit as it was such a lovely time, exciting and a good chance to chat with our neighbours.

Here is Daniel's recount of the experience.

  In the lead up to Christmas I also did some Christmas food activities. One was to make reindeers as gifts for Daniel's swimming teacher, Robina, and as so many were made, we also gave them to Ursh, our chiro. They turned out pretty cute but sure did take a long time to make! Not too sure if I'll make them again.

Our church also holds a gingerbread house making night. I haven't been to one before but as Christmas day was going to be at our place, I decided to make one for the table and also invited some of my Mothers' Group mums to join in the fun. It was a really lovely night hanging out with each other, chatting and being creative. Tamara and I felt the pressure to be creative but it was nice that Nat and Anne had done houses before so had some helpful tips to pass on. I was happy with the outcome so decided to claim the house as my own, prior to creating it I was thinking I'd say the kids helped me as it might be a disaster. The bonus was that the gingerbread that was used was real gingerbread!!! So tasty!

My house. Very happy with my tree and the wreath on the door

My mummy buddies and our creations

On Christmas Eve, we headed to church for the Christmas nativity service. James was on band and Sue, our children's pastor, asked if Eliza would be baby Jesus and Daniel would be little boy Jesus when the three wisemen came to give him gifts. I told her that I was happy to give it a go, as long as she was prepared for it to be a disaster. The service started at 5:30, around the time Eliza is getting tired and ready for bed so she would possibly crack it. She is also past the being rocked stage so would possibly crack it when I cradled her. To try and distract her I put on a necklace so she could play with it. I also wasn't sure how Daniel would go needing to sit on my knee as he loves running around on the stage after church. But both were awesome! Eliza was happy to be in my arms, playing with my necklace and then she was pretty good when I put her into the manger. After a couple of minutes in there I picked her up and held her just incase.

Eliza being baby Jesus in the manger

Eliza in my arms during 'Away in a Manger'

Eliza as 'baby Jesus' when the shepherds came to visit

At the start of the service we sang 'Bethlehem Bop' and the kids were able to go up the front and play percussion instruments. Daniel went up and just stood there holding a tambourine. I think he was a bit shocked by all the people and the music.

While Mitch gave a talk, the kids were given Christmas activity packs. Daniel enjoyed decorating his star which we then put on our Christmas tree. A great idea to help the kids be quiet during the talk!

Then it was Daniel's time to be little boy Jesus. He was so good at sitting on my knee, watching the three wisemen walk around the isles and then come up onto the stage to sit in front of him. 

Excited to be little boy Jesus

Sitting on my knee as the 3 wisemen came up

Unfortunately Eliza bumped my camera and the lens was broken so we couldn't take more photos (fortunately Malcolm could fix it for me!! Thank you!) but you get the gist of the night. It was really nice to be asked to be Mary and have the kids be baby Jesus for the nativity. A special moment for me and hopefully something that will be special for them when they're older.