It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas ....

... oh, I just love that song!! Always reminds me of the movie Home Alone, which is my favourite Christmas movie ever! My sister and I try to watch it every year on Christmas Eve.

7 sleeps to go ...
A few days ago, Ethan asked me: "how many days until Christmas?" … and I answered "11". Yesterday, he proudly announced to us at the breakfast table that there were only 8 days until Christmas! When he said it, Rob looked at me, thinking I must have already told him. But I hadn't. He had obviously worked it out by himself - I had said 11 days, then he figured out it was 10 the next day, then 9, and then 8! We were SO impressed!

The boys are enjoying opening their advent calendar each day. I got one of those felt ones with the pockets and I filled them with my own things. Some days they get little Santa chocolates, other days they get Christmas stickers, balloons or a little ornament to hang on the tree. Usually we have the generic chocolate advent calendars with Nemo or Bob the Builder on them. When the shops started stocking those calendars in late October, Ethan asked me to buy one. How do you explain to a 4-year-old that if he got a calendar now, he would have to wait almost 6 weeks before he could start opening it?! So I duly waited until the end of November, and when I tried to buy one, they were all sold out. Except for the Barbie ones, but I would NOT have been popular if I had come home with one of those! As I left the store, I noticed the felt ones. I decided it would be more fun (not to mention healthier) if I could fill the pockets myself, making sure that not every pocket contained a teeth-rotting substance. I thought the boys might be unhappy with the non-edible offerings, but they've been great. Having said that, they do like the "chocolate days" best ;-)

I have been working steadily on Janine's 12 Days of Christmas challenge.
I've completed all of them except for #9. I haven't done that one because I foolishly forgot to take photos of the Christmas cards I made and the family newsletter that I wrote before I posted them all out on Thursday! So I need to go round to Mum's and take a photo of her one.
For the challenge, I made a small 7x5 album from an old board book that belonged to the kids. I just ripped off all the shiny paper and covered the pages with Basic Grey papers (Blitzen, Dasher and Fruitcake). I decided to wait until my entire album was done before taking photos and putting them on my blog. So hopefully by the end of this week I will have them all up here for you to see.
Thanks Janine, for such a great challenge! I'm really glad that we now have this little album as a family Christmas heirloom.