Its nearly December!!!!

Christmas is just round the corner and as usual that makes it such a busy busy time, but also a fun time! There is so much excitement in the Ellison house right now, Fred in particular is soo excited, i can't even describe it, you would have to see it, his little face is so expressive, his eyes go wide and he shakes when he is talking about Christmas, and he sings all day, the songs they are learning in nursery, ready for the Christmas show. He only does two morning a week there and never wants to go since he went to the open evening at school as he thinks he should be going to school now and has volunteered Alex for nursery! but he really enjoys it when he is there. I have been ordering presents online and some of the company's have sent toy catologues which all the kids have been studying for hours at a time ( shame they don't do that with homework!) most of the toys in the books have been circles and discussed, listed and relisted! the pages are torn and well thumbed! Its lovely to see them so excited and i really am glad that they treasure the things that have become tradition to our family over the last few years and i have to say i am just as bad, not for the present list, i am not bothered about those, i just love Christmas, and feed of the kids excitement and joy. I am probably very guilty of going over the top and spoiling them at Christmas, but i pay the price afterwards when i have piles more toys to tidy away and find homes for. Our house is already bursting at the seems with toys as it is! So one of my goals this year is to just to stick to the toys on the list and a few other bits, as i usually go out and buy piles of bits and bobs (so called stocking fillers) that never get played with, but just give them piles of pressies to open on the day, which is great, but ultimately is an expensive waste of money. I know this year i said that the trips away are part of the older ones presents and Molly had loads when we went away and Ewan will to on our trip after Christmas, but i have already spent more than i said i was going to, so instead of all the "crap" basically, i am booking us all tickets to the panto, which we will all enjoy.

One of the traditions i have done for the kids for the last few years is an advent calendar..well its more like a santa sack each with a present for each day of December. I spend all year looking for bits and bobs in sales, so last week i got the big bag out and sorted them out into four piles, as little Ali is old enough for one this year, so i needed 96 presents, i had all sorts from little wooden instruments that Oxfam were selling at 59p each and squidgy animals that i got last January in the sales at Wilko for 50p each, various books from the works 50p each, model aircraft kits 50p each, make up and nail kits 20p each, notebooks, pencil kits and so many other things, plus some mini chocolate bars to complete the sacks. It took i couple of hours for us to wrap them all up. I had bought some new hessian sacks from Aldi at £3.99 each only to see them in poundland for £1 each!!!! never mind!!

At school each year the kids have to decorate a hanger and a jar. The hangars are hung up in the hall and the jars need to be filled with sweets and are made into a sweet jar tombola at the school Christmas fair. The hangers are still under construction as we are doing papier mache snowmen and a globe. The jars were done, Molly a reindeer and Ewan a Santa also Fred made a Christmas tree jar, but he didn't want to give it to the school and i caught him later that day eating the sweets out of the jar.

We made our first batch of mince pies

I also put our xmas bedding on!

Then on the 25th November my dad called me that he had seen real Christmas trees ( we always have a real tree) at Homebargains for £12 each!! bargain as we normally pay about £40, so he treated us to one and Paul picked it up from my parents on his way home, a bit early but we couldn't wait to decorate it!!!!

Once Paul had set it up and i had sorted all the lights, we just sat back and watched them decorate it even though it was 9.30pm by the time they were finished! It was so worth it, they loved it and it was nice to see them so happy, we videoed a lot of it, Fred seemed to be the one organizing it! 

Next morning i came down and put the lights on ready for Paul bringing Alex down, who was mesmerized, as he was in bed when it was put up.

Later on that morning Alex seemed to think it was a conker tree, picking a big bauble and bashing it into all the others, was funny!

Thursday was the School Fair and i helped out doing the face painting

Now i am sat planning several events over the next few weeks, in fact i have just pointed out to Paul we only have two free days in December!!

Its all fun bring it on!!!!

xxx