French Knots

Merry in Melrose

We had a few days away just before Christmas in Melrose visiting family and friends after carefully trekking through the snow.

We took the sledge and hadn't even got the car unhitched before the children were trying it out!  More snow than we ever get here, a magical start to Christmas. Luckily the site was just of the A7 so we could get there and home again safely. We were having so much snowy fun that we stayed an extra night, the evening was wonderful with the children playing snowballing by moonlight as the snow continued to fall. Very special.

It was wonderful to see people that we rarely get together with, chatting, eating, catching up. We had a trip into Edinburgh, such a visual city with so much interesting architecture and the castle standing guard on the hill watching over everyone.

 Mr FK and The Big Sister braved the ferris wheeeeel! Me, no I had to look after The Baby Brother of course!!

 We made our way home through the winter wonderland just in time for Christmas. Lots of present giving, mince pie making, cooking and feasting. We had friends and family over both Christmas Day and Boxing Day which was wonderful, lots of chatting and tale telling, baby cuddling and lego making. A festive family celebration. Hope yours was all you hoped for too.xx

Festive Whirl

Goodness aren't the days flying by!? We have ramped up the activites with a Guide carol concert, choir singing at the Salvation Army toy service, school carol service, trip to the theatre and that's just The Big Sister!

We have been enjoying the advent calendar activites and I'm glad I planned the 'big' things well so we had time to enjoy them. Ice skating was a huge success with much squealing when the envelope was opened.

  It was such fun, much harder than I remembered - or maybe I'm just more nervous about falling over!

We made a flurry of flakes to brighten up the window and once all the lights were working decorated the tree.

Teachers' presents were made and delivered and in a little over an hour the children finish school, hurrah!

With the house decorated and Christmas music playing all we need is a little more snow. We had a mini snowstorm for half an hour yesterday but that was all, not enough for snowman building or sledging.

We made some more of those magazine trees that were all over blogland last year, a great way of using up all those brochures that come through the door.

Right, cards to write or they wont arrive till 2010!!   

Christmas Inspiration

What to  do on a grey Monday morning when your to do list is lengthy but you're not in the mood?

Ah ha what is this?

Many years of collecting, I fished out as many of the Christmas editions as I could see, but there could be more as quite a few boxes were piled up in front of them. Surprising I know for a minimalist non hoarder such as myself!

So many Christmas ideas, things to cook, make, sew and do. Lots of lovely pictures, the perfect antidote to a murky Monday morning.

And here's one I made earlier......

 

Mmm delicious Caramel Crunch biscuits, no there's not many left!

 

I found I needed to cook them for a bit longer than suggested and mine aren't quite such tidy shapes. But who cares they are very tasty!

Right I wonder what else I make from my hoarded Country Living magazines?

Thank you for all the Advent Calendar love, it's going down well and all the activites have been popular so far!

Simple Advent Calendar

Cutting it fine, I finished making my simple advent calendar this morning so the children could open the first envelope this afternoon after school. Phew!

I wanted something straightforward to make so chose to decorate a money envelope for each day of advent, with a slip of paper inside each. Activities, crafts, cooking and adventures for all the family. Yes of course they have a chocolate one too, there's be a revolt otherwise!

 
Some years ago The Big Sister was given a box of advent chocolates and I saved the wrappers as they had such jolly festive pictures. They were perfect for decorating each envelope, but if you are not an obsessive hoarder of stuff you could stamp the numbers on each envelope instead. Pegged to some ribbon they look super strung across the window.

 Here is the list of activities, carefully planned so the more time consuming things are on days when we will have the time to enjoy them

find the Christmas CDs and have a Christmas dance
Christmas crafting! Make paper chains

Make gift tags with old Christmas cards

Put the wreath on the front door

visit Father Christmas

Write our Christmas cards

Make paper snowflakes and decorate the window

Make place cards and napkin holders for the Christmas dinner table

Read Christmas books & drink hot chocolate

 Have a Chocolate fondue

Go ice skating

Decorate the Christmas tree

 Wrap a present for your brother or sister

games in front of the tree

stories in front of the tree

Give Presents to teachers

Make a giant mural by gluing on pictures of toys from flyers and magazines.

Bake a cake

Print & color winter or Christmas themed coloring pages

Print & do a winter maze

Make Christmas bookmarks

Stay up late and watch a Christmas film

Snowman Soup in front of the Christmas tree

Go to Christingle

Feeling very festive now, is it too early for mulled wine?!