The excitement of Christmas Eve

I love watching the excitement in the kids Christmas Eve, the anticipation of Santa visiting and leaving them special presents.

The kids have loved changing the 'days til Christmas' calendar tree every morning this week, and have learnt all the numbers! They were so excited yesterday morning when there was only 1 day til Christmas.

The kids and I have been having heaps of fun baking Christmas treats and the kids especially loved icing and decorating the star & reindeer shaped cookies for the neighbours. I used Sandy's (now famous) Cookie recipe and iced them with strawberry and butterscotch glace icing. I made some little tags with the cuttlebug and tied them up with ribbon. They looked so cute! I'll definitely be making them again, as there were a big hit with everyone.

Since it was raining, the kids were a bit worried the reindeers wouldn't be able to see their reindeer food, so we got busy decorating this cute little egg carton reindeer food container to put out on the front doorstep. I knew I was keeping all those egg cartons for a reason!

I spent most of yesterday cooking some traditional Polish dishes for our mini Christmas Eve at home, since it's our year to stay home. We do the full Christmas Eve thing every second year at Mum and Dad's, and every other year here with our little family, so the kids can do the whole night before Christmas (Aussie) thing. The kids and Al still aren't fussed on the Polish Bigos (cabbage stew), but Erin devoured the entire Entree (smoked salmon stacks & stuffed eggs). Something I remember from our Polish Christmases with Grandma T is the sparkling apple juice in little glasses she put out for us. I bought some and put it in little glasses for the kids. Erin loved it, Aiden wasn't too keen.

Al's Mum painted this gorgeous plate for the kids to put Santa's supper on. Isn't it just gorgeous! The kids were so excited to put out the cookies they'd made & decorated especially for Santa!

 

Wishing everyone the most gorgeous Christmas and a fresh and bright New Year in 2011! 

Warm wishes,

Leah xx

A few Christmas goodies

A few of the goodies the kids and I made yesterday.

Yummy fondant filled chocolates, which Al reckons taste like snack (pineapple, strawberry, peppermint & caramel). None of us were fussed on the caramel though. A new version of White Christmas with mini marshmallows and Sugar cookies (from Sandy's recipe), which are so delicious.

Today we have plans to make Bigos (a Polish stew with pork & mushrooms, based on sauerkraut) and ice the cute sugar cookies we made yesterday. The kids are dying to decorate them.

Totally blessed!

I am totally blessed to have been able to spend the last few weeks at home with the kids, just being a Mum for a change, dragging the kids along to do the last of the Christmas shopping, taking them to see Santa and just spending time at home baking Christmas goodies together. I've really enjoyed myself, and wondering if this working gig (especially working for myself) is totally the wrong thing for me. Anyway, that's another story!


To all my gorgeous scrappy friends, I hope you have a magical Christmas and an awesome New Year!

Teacher's gifts

I was looking for a gift that was a little unique, so of course, I start scouring the net for ideas. I found this cute idea of a potted plant with a little sign, "Thanks for helping me grow!"

I made some cute little tags up on the computer with the kids names & photos on them, laminated them, and the kids and I picked up some plants the next morning on the way to Kindy. They both really loved the venus fly traps, not at all what I had in mind, but it does reflect on their love of nature. The teachers absolutely loved getting their little growing gifts.