Apart from the significance of this time of year for me being a Christian, I also love the presents, the food and the terrible carol music played in every mall and department store!
I love that most people develop a sense of caring for others (except when it comes to car parks!!!). I love seeing and hearing about the donations of food and presents for those that are struggling at this time of year.
We are trying to instill in our children that gift of giving. It is getting slightly easier as they get older. A few weeks back we went through the piles of toys that my children own and culled out those that they are too old for or don't get played with, and donated them to our local Salvation Army. In the coming weeks we will be taking them to donate some food to the local church food bank and we always bake christmas cookies of some type and give them to our friends and neighbours. The aim this year to bake and decorate a Gingerbread house. I actually can't wait - its something I have always wanted to do, but always gets put in the too hard basket. This year I thought it would be a great and fun homeschool lesson. I would say that covers science, maths, chemistry and Art ;)
Because I love christmas so much, we put up our decorations on the 1st December. Partly so we get a whole month of Christmas, and partly because the kids start their advent calendars on the 1st and I have a bad habit of packing them in the very bottom of the decorations box!
Samantha has had her beautiful wooden house advent for a couple of years now. Santa's Elves come each night (if she has been a good girl) and puts a little something in the next days door. (This theory gives me a whole month of leverage for good behaviour). This is Anthony's first year with an advent calendar (which I whipped up on the 29th November) and he has a extra special Mummy made one ;)
Samantha's Calendar..
Anthony's Calendar underneath the window and the Christmas tree.
Close up of Anthony's. This was so fun to make :)
Today, for the first time, we took our children shopping - for each other. We gave them both a limit of $10 and let them choose something special to give the other for Christmas. I know that Samantha tried very hard to sell Daddy on the idea that Anthony really 'wants' a fairy pet shop animal "yeah right!", but ended up choosing him a lovely gift that was both appropriate to his age and his passion of the Toy Story movies. Anthony came with me and visited Samantha's favourite store 'Smiggle'. That child has a serious addiction to stationary! He chose her a set of scented pens and Mummy managed to find some cute Christmas erasers as well. The price tag made me gasp slightly, but it was definitely worth it!
I am very pleased to now be able to say that I don't have a need to enter another shopping mall before Christmas. It was madness already and we are still a few weeks out from the big day.
Yesterday the kids and I shoved ourselves full to the brim with Christmas spirit! We had our annual trip to Smith and Caughey's Department store in Auckland City to see the 'real' Santa and and walk through the Enchanted forest. It was lovely as it is every year. (Last year we went too late in the season and the wait to see Santa was 3+ Hours!! Needless to say we didn't attempt the wait and had a picnic at the museum instead!)
I love that it has become one of our family traditions to do this (apart from last year of course). It is so special and such a thrill for both children. Anthony was especially excited as he was too little to remember the last time we did it.
This is the walk through the Enchanted forest on the way to Santa's house. All the displays are actually moving puppets.
Here is our Santa photo. Excuse the quality as I have photographed the photo. An extra $8 to send the photo to me by email seemed a little steep! Anthony is sitting on the front of Santa's foot stool. It was the closest he would get apart from a Santa high five when we arrived and to accept the gift he was given before we left!
The photo doesn't do it justice as Santa is in his 'house' which is beautifully decorated including a roaring fire and pictures of Mrs Claus and reindeer on the walls. Santa really took the time to talk to both children and it was a very personal and happy experience for both of them :) Thanks Smith and Caughey, we will be back again next year. Oh, and it was very sneaky of you to have the photo pick up smack bang in the centre of the toy department on the second floor! Thanks for that!
We actually went straight from seeing Santa to Christmas Wonderland which was a gorgeous display of decorated christmas trees in Birkenhead. We had won a family pass to go on Facebook so couldn't pass that up!
It was spectacular!!! It would have been nice to browse each tree properly instead of being dragged from the Mickey Mouse tree to the Sesame Street tree. Samantha had to be forcebly removed from the Littlest Pet Shop Fairy tree (you can imagine!).
It was truly a magical day for all of us, and I loved being able to share that with both children. They were as ever, beautifully behaved (even with all the waiting) and I was so proud of them both after what was a very long day!
That's all for now, but watch out for more as we still have the Christmas Eve Carol singing at Church, which Sam is taking part in this year, and we have promised the kids a walk up Franklin Road to see the Christmas lights closer to Christmas. Oh and our foray into Gingerbread house building of course ;)
Sterryn
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