advent

Hello :-) I feel I haven't been in this space for a while. We have just had a wonderful visit with my mum for the week.

It was lovely and we spent some real quality time together. Life has been moving at it's usual break neck speed here. Rebe has been working really hard at school. In fact she came home with the 'pupil of the week' trophy last week. She was so proud and I was delighted that she was so proud of herself. It seems we have so many trophies in our house we need a bulldozer to deal with them all lol:

 We have been enjoying advent so far. My mum made this wonderful advent calendar when Rebe was tiny and makes such an effort each year to send us 24 amazing things to fill the pockets. It was especially nice that she was here in time to fill the bags herself this year. The kids take it in turns to open the bag, they have a special order and this year there is a little playmobil toy inside for the child who opened the bag and a little chocolate for each child.

 She also brought them little card sized paper advent calendars to open and Joa in particular loves his and opens each little door with glee.

In the evening before bed we read a special advent story that was given to us by a very lovely friend. The story was specially adapted and features Rebe, Benny, Joa, their friend Tom and Andy's dog Ellie on an adventure to the land of Father Christmas. There is a large calendar  picture depicting the story and behind each door is an essential part of that day's story. It is a truly wonderful gift and the kids are enraptured by it.

 We have also been enjoying our advent candles that we made at Buddies last week and have had the 1st candle lit each night at the dinner table.

I have to admit that I feel somewhat behind with all of my Christmas preparations this year (or maybe I always feel like this). I still have to make the kids presents and finish some gifts for other friends. I have a few dolls to make, cards to make and write not to mention decorations, Christmas parties, get togethers, food and so on to think about. Luckily Rebe and Joa have just developed chicken pox, so I am thanking the chicken pox gods for giving us a few much needed rest days at home when I hope to fit in some crafting and knitting and probably a great deal of baking (and eating).

One thing we have managed to get done on time though is to send on our wonderful Mermaids Tale in time for the winter solstice.

Last year we received one of the sweetest and loveliest gifts ever from someone I have never even met in real life. It was a hand written story about a mermaid who gave her hair to a poor toy-less child to play with. This child kept, loved and played with the hair for a whole year until the next winter solstice when it was passed to another family to play with and look after. Unfortunately I couldn't find the original story, so we did our best to re-write it and sent on the story with the little treasure box and the hair (a white silk in Benny's hand) to another family that we knew would appreciate both the story and the sentiment.

 I welcome the coming few days, some peace and quiet (and probably a fair bit of moaning and scratching) and I will leave you with this letter I found that Rebe wrote to Rudolph to be left with her stocking on Christmas Eve:

Dear Rudolph do you like leading the sleigh at night. If I was a reindeer I would be delighted love from Rebecca (she signed that because her stocking has Rebecca rather than Rebe on it and she didn't want to confuse him)