Christmas

Our Christmas starts on the evening of the 24th with our traditional christmas eve celebrations, and this year was just as magical as it is every year, with a special dinner and a late night waiting until it is dark so we can light the candles on the tree. Then singing and present swapping, Kurt and Rebecca made some great gifts, necklaces, massage lotion and a headband, Kurt had craved Anton a wooden rifle and Anton had made Kurt a target for his bow and arrow, and I found time to do a bit of sewing for them all too. And I made my first batch of goats milk soap which I suprised Rob with.
The tree this year is truly magnificant and absolutely HUGE , and when lit up with candles it really is spectacular, and if I hadn't been stupid enough to delete my photo's (don't ask .....I am still fustrated with myself three days later) then this spot would have some amazing images of that night..... however it doesn't ... so ... anyway..... christmas day was great for us too... we didn't go anywhere or even have extended family with us, so it was just us and it was really relaxing... the kids had a glorious time opening their presents from 'santa', and they did pretty well this year.
Becca got her nail polish she so desperating pleaded for and I (or rather santa) managed to find an acceptable form of barbie doll for her , a young girl version, with more suitable clothing and a grandparent set. Anton got his starwars lego set (he just wanted a small certain type of aircraft, which I (santa) eventually found on trademe) and Kurt a remote control car (he asked for a helicopter, but we convinced him a car would be more fun) and Arwen, well she asked for nothing, but was given a great dolls buggy.
Actually we did pretty well this year managing to stick with our no wrapping policy (we use material bags , with ties which I made up a couple of years ago) and pretty much everything we made or brought secondhand, so vitually no wrapping !!!! It was great..

Waiting in the hallway for Mama and Papa to say it's OK to come into the living room

'new' (to her) dress

Very excited about a 'horse' book

The pure joy from the 'suprise' that lies within the bag

A 'new' doll

Trying out the remote control car (you can imagine the smiles on the faces of these two)

Our only paper wrapped present

Serious lego constructing

The proud completion "all by myself, without anybody helping"

 

 

 

Trying out Arwen;s kaleidoscope

We gave in to the nail polish request

Serious doll play

A bit of fix it work for the car

A bit of help with the next lego construction

Happiness in amongst doll mania

With the temperatures in the mid thirties, even a mellow day started to get unbearably hot.... there was just one thing for it.... an afternoon at the river !!! ( with the new body boards)