No More Christmas

While we watched the retro children's weekend on CITV today (Super Gran!), we finally took all the Christmas decorations down.  Everything looks very bare now (not bare by normal people's standards, obviously, there's still two layers of furniture round the walls) and it all seems to have gone by too quickly.  J was none too impressed by our retro viewing - he evidently has more sophisticated tastes than we do did (and when we were quite old too, a lot of this stuff was from the early nineties).  We managed to avoid Peppa Pig long enough to watch:

• Super Gran (Super Gran!)
• Raggy Dolls
• The Tomorrow People
• Rainbow
• Fraggle Rock
• Knightmare (haven't watched this yet, I'm very excited)
• Huxley Pig
• Puddle Lane

A while ago, we found a load of Puddle Lane books in a charity shop and bought about 10 as I remembered them from my childhood and was feeling all nostalgic.  J loved them, read them over and over, and insisted we carried a few with us wherever we went.  A couple of week's later, we found hundreds more at a Scout Fete and I bought as many as I could carry.  They're still firm favourites, and it was the only time today that he paid any attention to what we were watching.  The opening sequence started, and he said incredulously, "I think this is my Puddle Lane books on the telly!  What's it doing on the telly?" and was very excited to see Toby Spelldragon ("What's Toby doing there!") but wasn't too keen on the magician.

The rest of the time we were de-decorating and watching, he heartbreakingly took the opportunity to draw the following picture.  I don't know how well you can make it out, but he wrote "No More Christmas" (or No=MCisMs, as he puts it) above a picture of a Christmas tree.  He wasn't sad about it, just very matter of fact.  He was mostly excited by the present he found concealed amongst the branches which my Mum had hidden last time she was here - a tradition from my childhood of a present from the 'tree fairy' to be opened when the tree is taken down.  It was a knock-off Schleich penguin which he loved and played crazy flying games with until dinner time.

In other news, my body has decided that I am officially Doing Too Much and it doesn't want to do quite as much, thank you very much (I'll leave the details to your imagination, delicate flower that I am), so the only exercise I got today was undecorating and sleeping.  And feeding.  And dancing to the Super Gran theme tune.  Seriously, Super Gran.  Youtube it.

Happy Christmas.

Advent Activities

Last year, I regretted having packed the advent calendar in with the Christmas decorations, as it wasn't to hand when December started and I didn't want all the boxes of decorations out of the loft and cluttering the place up during November.  So we missed the start of advent, but as bigger J was 2, it wasn't really the end of the world.

I knew he'd be much more on the ball this year, so I cunningly made a 'November Box', which I filled with all our Christmas arts and crafts materials (bought up super-cheap in the January sales), the leftover blank Christmas cards (in case I fancied getting a head start) and the advent calendars.

Then I went and got myself knocked up, found myself due to do a baby on November 9th, and managed to delay that for a further 12 days, so that suddenly, it was the end of November and I had done NOTHING in preparation for Christmas, let alone retrieve my November box from the loft.

So this evening (yes, I know it's already December 1st) I have ignored the tiredness screaming from every pore of my body, cut out 24 squares from old Christmas cards (if they don't fit the pockets on the fabric advent calendar, I will scream) and racked my brains for 24 Christmassy activities.

J also has a special Lego City advent calendar from the inlaws, so his 'activity' for today was to open Day One of his Lego advent calendar (he may be more on the ball than last year, but it's still fairly easy to pull the wool over his eyes when required).

Tomorrow, I can have a little look at my list, decide which one we're going to do, write it on the card in the number 2 pocket, and away we go.

Am I going to regret doing this with a new baby?  I hope not, I think J needs a whole lot of attention and he's so excited about Christmas, so it seems an ideal time to do it.  And after all, December 1st is an excellent time to start new projects ;)

Christmas!

When Santa got stuck up the chimney...

I know that technically, Christmas is over, but it's very difficult to convey that to a toddler.  Jacob's favourite topics of conversation are still mainly centred around Santa and Christmas, and he sings Christmas songs all the time.  He's developed a delightful habit of using the first line of a song to kick off a conversation, and to say each line of the song as though it were a question, while you prompt and question him about it.  It is hilarious.  And hasn't got old, even after the eleventy-millionth run through.

Prepare to melt at the utter adorableness:




For those of you who don't speak fluent Jacob, here's a translation:

"When Santa stuck up the chimney...
He began to shout...
The girls and boys won't have any toys...
No. My sack is... my beard is black, there's soot in my sack, yes, my nose is tickling too...
When Santa stuck up a chimney, he began to shout, achoo, achoo, achoo, and Santa's happy."

Holy comfort, Batman!

A friend referred to the week between Christmas and New Year as 'Chrimbo Limbo' - hitting the nail right on the head (although I had my sister to stay, so it wasn't all bad).  The week since New Year has been more of the same.  Working right up until Christmas was a nightmare, and now having these two empty weeks with little to do has left us being too lazy for words - sitting around in our pyjamas all day playing with Jacob's new toys (not that that's a bad thing).

The daft thing is that I've got a million jobs that need doing around the house - I feel like the weight of all the clutter and mess everywhere is going to topple down on me at any moment.  And yet, being a perfectionist (and a perfectionist who doesn't like to expend any energy to achieve perfection, at that), I can't actually start any jobs, because then the reality of how much there is left to do will crush me.  At just the critical moment, I read this post on the lovely Whozat's blog, which suggested that you should pick the one most annoying/in-need-of-addressing thing in your house, and Just Do It.

Easy.  The springs on our sofa went about 3 years ago.  With a creak and a ping, poor Jamie was sitting in a hole.  The rest of it was saggy and stained and uncomfortable, and we slowly built up the cushions with more cushions to try and ease the pain in our aching backs, until we were essentially sitting on a pile of cushions.  (I'd like to emphasise that Jamie fell head-over-heels-top-to-bottom down the stairs during this time, and I'm sure the lack of seated support contributed to how long it took his back to heal.

For Christmas 2010, my parents gave us a contribution towards a new sofa, but over the last 12 months we haven't been able to scrape together the remaining funds to buy a new one, however cheap it was.  On Thursday this week, we went to visit Jacob's girlfriend in Cardiff, and stopped off at Ikea on our way to Jamie's hospital appointment.  For the first time, Jacob cottoned on to the concept of 'trying out sofas', and he merrily ran this way and that, clambering into chairs and onto sofas, sitting still for half a second, before shrieking "Now that one!" and running off to the next.  This meant that we could actually try some sofas properly, and have a chat about finance and colours etc.  And, we chose one.  But being the indecisive people we are, we had to go home first to talk about it ... until we passed the clearance corner on our way out and spied the very sofa we'd just decided on, reduced by £150.  Better still, they would deliver it and remove the old one, for the same price our council would charge to collect the old one, and they donate the used sofas to charity.  Sold.

We then had a day to clear enough space to get the old sofa out, and the new sofa in.  Did I mention that we hadn't put away any Christmas presents, and the decorations were still up?  In one day we: 

- took all the Christmas decorations down and packed them away.

- made a 'November Box' of things to get out of the loft pre-Christmas time - things like Advent calendars and Christmas crafts.

- dragged all of Jacob's toys out of their boxes, got rid of all the ones he doesn't play with, reorganised the ones he does and added in the new Christmas presents.

- labelled all his toy boxes (we have Trofast, and found that using the tray sized ones for things like Playmobil, animals etc with stickers on the side to denote what's in there means Jacob can tidy by himself - woop!).

- culled half his jigsaws to live in his bedroom, then they can rotate down here and we won't end up with 21 open boxes of jigsaws at the end of each day.

- cut open the back of the old sofa and found loads of hairbands and phones and disgusting tissues   

- emptied the hallway of everything, to aid the moving men, and actually cleaned the carpets and skirting boards.

And just 36 hours after we paid for the sofa, we had a sparkling clean living room and hallway, and a beautiful, comfortable, supportive new sofa.  Which Jacob has given his seal of approval to...

Thanks, Whozat, for the inspiration (I know you wrote an additional post decrying your organisational skills, but take the kudos, because you kicked our arses into gear and we're very thankful).

A Happy Christmas

My two loves

Jacob loved his main present from us - a robot which was a last minute cheap purchase from ebay, when I realised I wasn't going to be able to finish the blanket I had been making for him

Skyping with family.  Technical issues meant we had to use the landline for audio ;)

My second head

Watching The Snowman before bed.  My favourite time of the day - Jacob loved it

Christmas dinner (eaten on Boxing Day) - Jacob carefully inspecting the components

Midweek - staving off the cabin fever (the weather here is terrible) at soft play with my sister

Quiet, peaceful, happy - Christmas 2011

Nadolig Llawen i bawb

I picked up these wooden reindeer thingies in the hobbycraft sale (yes, already), and wanted to do something with them quickly.  I had a sheet of midnight blue felt and a load of star buttons, so I shoved them all on together, blanket stitched the edge, and embroidered 'Nadolig Llawen' (Merry Christmas in Welsh).  I suck at embroidery, and this is just backstitched over paper (I used a scrap of wrapping paper, as it's so thin) which is then carefully torn away.  I was really pleased with it.

Nadolig Llawen i bawb ;) xxxx

The stockings were hung...

Today, Christmas took on a whole new meaning.  We spent the morning playing elaborate train tracks and ransacking the entire house in a search for the remote control for the train (which I eventually found in the one toybox I deemed it wouldn't be in, so had left til last), only to realise that actually, it's far more fun to just push the trains around with your hands.

After a nap, Jacob and I burnt gingerbread (hey, at least he won't be hyped up on sugar all day...) and made a yule log in lieu of a proper Christmas cake, which only I would eat.

Jacob was so excited about the presents under the tree, and kept asking to give us one ("Just one for you Mummy").  After dinner, we wrote a letter to Santa, rolled it up and stuffed it in his stocking, which he hung by himself from the mantel [no chimney] with care.  So different from last year, when he really had no idea what was going on, and was a bit overwhelmed by it all (a feeling I seem to be sharing this year); and the year before, when he was a baby of 9 months and we were all struggling through a horrendous gastric bug.

We're going through some tough challenges at the moment, behaviour-wise, which seems especially hard at this time of year.  But when he's nice, he is such a wonderful person.  "I luff yew Mummy", he says, grabbing my face with both hands and pulling me in for a kiss.  He's so utterly charming, and cheeky, and wonderful, and I'm so blessed to have him.  He went to bed late, but I'm wagering he'll be up at the crack of dawn tomorrow to tell us that he heard Santa "Doing STOMP, STOMP, STOMP on the roof Mummy".  He's been talking about it all day.

 My heart.

Felt and blanket stitch

Hobbycraft recently opened a store less than 3 miles from my house.  This was obviously a bad move on their part, as it will no doubt bring about my eventual financial ruin, which they will then have on their conscious for the rest of their existence.  Their Christmas crafting materials are amazing - usually I spend hours scouring ebay for buttons and ribbon and things, the postal costs of which usually exceeds their cost, so I end up not buying anything.  So being able to drive to the store, chuck a load of stuff in my basket, and get back home in less than half an hour is blissful.

That is, apart from the cost.  It is fairly-to-very expensive.  A multi-pack of felt squares was £6.49, and I ummed and ahhed over it for ages, before leaving it on the shelf.  I found a half-size pack in Tesco later on for just a couple of pounds, and since then I've been going felt-crazy.  I love felt Christmas decorations.  I love blanket stitch.  But I've never tried to make any myself, until Pinterest popped into my life, with all its inspiration-providing goodness.

One of my wonderful Mummy-friends moved house recently, and as we were going over there today for our present-swap, I decided to knock up a lovely Christmas decoration as a housewarming present.  3 and a half short hours later, I'd produced this:

Blanket stitch is fun, but for a novice, it isn't quick.  I was so pleased with the final product, that this evening I made this for myself.  Holly buttons from Hobbycraft, ribbon from stash.  And there's more to come.  I need more days before Christmas!

Christmas crafts

Ooooh, this new blogger template is a bit scary.  I have no idea what I'm doing, forgive me if this post is filled with weird formatting.

I've been crafting pretty much constantly for the past few months.  It's one of the main reasons my posts have been so sporadic recently as I've had no time for both, but it's frustrating as I did tons of autumn activities and crafts which I wanted to share, but felt like I should do so in a timely fashion, and that time has now passed.  Still, there's always next year.

I came home unexpectedly early from work today, and had a leisurely catch-up with the blogs on my blogroll with my after-school cup of coffee, where I found this post about making paper lanterns.  I'd forgotten how easy they were to make, and I had a whole stack of lovely Christmassy paper just crying out to be cut and pasted.

Fold, embellish edges, cut slits, double-sided tape one side, roll, and stick.  Job done.

String up on beads, baffle the cats, enjoy the ANTM finale.

5 days to go.

Christmas is confusing

We're waiting until later in the week to put up the decorations, but whilst dragging them out of the loft in readiness, we found this tiny tree which used to perch on top of the freezer (which lived in the lounge, great for easy ice-cream-access) in our first house together. In pulling it out of its bag (I was in the loft, Jacob was attempting to climb the ladder standing waiting patiently at the bottom of the ladder), I knocked a stocking through the loft hatch and onto his head. Jacob shouted "Jeeeeeeesus!". He's not one of these kids who repeats inappropriate things as soon as you say them, he stores them up for freaking months before trotting them out and then waiting angelically for the backlash.

"We don't say Jesus Jacob, that's not nice," (hmm, need to rephrase that really...).

"Yes it is nice", he says, nodding earnestly.

"No, we shouldn't shout that when we do something wrong. We should say 'Whoopsadaisy!'" I say, wanting to actually shoot myself for having got myself into this conversation and for the banality which is now coming out of my mouth.

Luckily, he got distracted by something shiny and trotted off elsewhere. It's a hell of a confusing time, Christmas: mixed messages about Jesus for a boy being brought up in an atheist household, with very-religious grandparents; confusion about who-the-hell-is-Santa-and-why-is-a-strange-man-coming-into-my-house-in-the-middle-of-the-night?; lotsnlotsnlots of shiny things sprouting out of the walls; and random old ladies suddenly asking you what you want for a present but then not giving you anything.

And today was nicely rounded off with trying to explain to Jacob about spaces between words. He was nicely tucked into bed, when he spotted the 'Merry Christmas' banner on his wall, and sat up again, saying "Pick me up Mummy, it's broken". I looked round in confusion, trying to figure out what he was talking about. "The letters Mummy, it's broken". I realised he was pointing to the space between Merry and Christmas, where yes, it looked like a letter had fallen off. I explained about words, and spaces, and sentences. I picked up a book, and showed him the spaces between all the words. I picked him up and held him up to the banner, showing him what sound each letter made, and how none were missing. He said "No Mummy, it's broken".

I agreed, and put him to bed.