Day 360: Christmas Day

Christmas morning got off to a very civilised start, the kids were curled up together playing with their iPods for an hour or so before we had our traditional champagne and pancakes with fruit for breakfast. We did the presents after brekky and then started preparing for lunch. We feasted on roast Turkey and Potato Bake and by around mid afternoon we started to sample Belinda's Gingerbread House, it was as delicious as it looked. By the time dinner rolled around we were all so full we just snacked on lunch leftovers. This is how Christmas should be done.

Day 359: Christmas Eve Construction

Belinda put her Gingerbread House moulds to good use today and then with some help from Jenna constructed this awesome little Christmas treat. The end result looked like something you'd pay a lot of money for at some fancy little Christmas boutique store. I'm very lucky to have such a talented wife & daughter team.

Day 354: J O Y

I was feeling a little festive while doing some sneaky Christmas shopping so when I stumbled across these tasty little chocolates in cages of Joy I couldn't resist. I'm sure Belinda will be happy to help me liberate these poor, little morsels form their captivity... it will just be a question of whether they will last until the 25th. I guess time will tell.

Day 353: Poppy Pressies

Christmas came early this evening when we visited Dad & Lee. They're not going to be in town for Christmas so we celebrated early with them and the kids. Henry loved ripping the wrapping paper into tiny little pieces and Jenna had almost as much fun helping.

We don't get to see Dad & Lee that often but it's always a good catch up when we do... we should do this more often.

Day 344: Paper Cranes

We tried to be a little organised today by going in to the Canberra Centre to start some Christmas shopping. I'm not sure how much Belinda got done (we went in separate directions for a while) but I came out all but empty handed. Luckily, I've got some stuff already on the way. Have I mentioned how much I like shopping online?

At least we saw this cool paper crane display, which I've highjacked for my daily photo. I didn't have my camera with me so I had to use the iPhone and I have to say that the image quality on my new one is so much better than that of the old 3Gs I had previously.

Day 342: Ho Ho Oh?

These little decorations keep popping up around the house... now don't get me wrong, I like Christmas time as much as the next person but Belinda takes 'like' to a whole new level when it comes to decorations. Actually the same goes for Christmas carols.

This little guy is now hanging on the end of the little dividing wall between our Lounge and dining rooms, it's pretty much the first thing you'll see when you walk in the front door. I do like this one though, even if he is wearing too much eye makeup.

Looking closely at this Santa for today's photo got me thinking about the people who design these decorations. It can't be easy coming up with ways to mount the hanging hook. It just doesn't seem right to screw an eyelet into Santa's head like this one has, but what are the alternatives? Stab one into his back and have him facing the ground? Have one moulded into his hat so he's dangling from a pompom? No, it can't be easy finding a way to hang santa without it being a little morbid.

Day 341: The 'Other' Tree

After Belinda, Jenna and Henry put up and decorated their trees the other day we had a few left over ornaments that didn't really fit with the colour schemes on the other trees. Instead of just putting them away for next year Belinda decided to hang them on her twig decorations. The twigs have made an appearance in my blog before, but last time the were much less festive and much more arty farty.

These decorations were all hand crafted by Belinda... except for the red one with the gold glittery pattern on it, that one's a ring in.

Day 337: It's That Time Of Year

The Christmas Trees went up today, I helped a lot by staying out of the way. In total we had 3 trees decorated at the end of the day. Jenna looked after the 6ft one in the Lounge while Belinda supervised Henry's decoration of the small table tree and then very carefully made the 8ft tree in the family room look amazing. Unfortunately the trees will need to remain present-less until Christmas Eve because Henry seems to think all presents are his, or as he calls it "Mines". This year should be an improvement over last years when he was more interested in the paper and the boxes than the gifts inside.

Day 334: Swimming Selfies

To keep Henry entertained while we were waiting for his swimming lesson to start I got the phone out and put the camera on so he could see himself on the screen. Henry took around 20 photos in a matter of seconds and I decided to use this one for today's photo.

By the way, that is a Santa hat that Henry is wearing, he found it in his toy box this afternoon and insisted on wearing it to the pool. He did get a few funny looks in his little one piece bathers and the Santa hat but he didn't mind. It's nice that Henry's getting in to the Christmas spirit just under a month away from the actual day, I think this Christmas will be a lot of fun with our little man.