Advent...Day 5...Part1 St Nicholas

Today, the 6th is St Nicholas Day.

So last night we put our shoes out.  Overnight, St Nicholas visited us...and left us special Christmas Coin Chocolates. The origins of this tradition are St Nicholas left gold in the stockings of three poor girls. He did so in secret during the night. This had led to the tradition of putting out shoes and stockings for him to leave gifts.

Holly with the shoes..ready and waiting for St Nick to arrive.

 The girls put out shows for us all and then went to bed waiting patiently for St Nick to come.  They were most concerned about putting Bain's shoes out.  They didn’t want him to get stinky candies...those were Phoebes words. 

 Pretty priceless seeing them discover their treats.  Hunter was still asleep so Holly rushed off to wake him and give him his lollies.  So cute.

Phoebe counting out her gold coins.

Holly discovering her shoes had been filled up with chocolate coins.

Phoebe discovering the lollies.

Trying to wake Hunter to give him his candy.

Holly counting out her candies.

Advent...Day 4...Emails from Santa

The kids still watch their video messages from Santa that they received last year...so you can imagine how excited they were this morning when they discovered that they each had a new email from Santa!! Even Hunter, who missed out last time.

http://www.portablenorthpole.com/home. This is an awesome website that allows you to personalise, including add photos a message from Santa. The messages are really sweet and the Santa is very authentic.

It's so awesome to see the kids watching their magical messages. They are just in awe. Holly was so excited she held my hand all the way through her message. The girls both automatically waved goodbye to Santa when he ended the message. And it was so funny watching little Hunters numerous expressions as he tried to work out what was actually going on!!

Waving goodbye to Santa

Check out all Hunters expressions as he watches.

Advent...Day 3...Christmas Stockings

When I was a child, a family member knitted me and my cousins Christmas stockings. I always loved mine and really wanted to get the kids the same.  I spent ages looking through websites for stockings that could be personalised for them but never found anything I liked.  After a couple of years, by pure chance, I stumbled across the pattern for the exact same stocking I had!!  It was so exciting that I purchased it straight away! But unfortunately I can't knit.  Which meant I had to call in the services of Lynda, who works with Bain to knit them for me.

So today, for our Advent Activity, we finally picked them up. So exciting to see them in real life and hang them on the mantel.  Phoebe of course, tried to put hers on her leg! Holly was very pleased to see hers, especially her name. Its so great for the kids to finally have these heirlooms!

The children's stockings on the left and my vintage version on the right.

Lynda and Phoebe

Phoebe with her stocking



Holly was pretty excited with her stocking

Advent...Day 2...Christmas Book

Today for the Advent Activities, I gave the kids a new book. "Dear Father Christmas" by Alan Durrant.

Holly had been given another of his books earlier in the year called Dear Tooth Fairy, and she loved it. Essentially the books are about a little girl called Holly who writes, and receive, letters. The books contain actual envelopes with letters and novelties in them.

Holly loved the Dear Tooth Fairy book so much that I ordered the Dear Father Christmas book too. (And Santa is also bringing her the Dear Mermaid book)

The kids were so excited to read all the special letters each taking turns to open the envelopes. These are great books and really help keep the magic of Father Christmas alive!

Advent...Day 1...Wrapping Presents

Last year, instead of doing a traditional Advent Calendar , we had a great time carrying out 25 christmas related activities...one each day!

So we're giving it ago this year!

Today is Day 1.

Would you believe, I have finished all of my christmas shopping! ALL of it! I am so relieved. With three kids I have had to be very organised, make heaps of lists, plan what I wanted to give everyone and do most of it online! And as a result...it was finished by the end of November.

So today's activity...wrapping them all.

We made up, Holly helped by spelling out all the names, labels for each present.

Then we wrapped, and wrapped, and wrapped!

Holly has mastered the scissors...but sticky tape ended up everywhere. But the good news is, we're all done. Great team work!!

Holly, my great help

The presents...high out of reach of prying hands

Mickey Mouse is in the House!

At Kindy today we celebrated Mickey Mouses birthday.

Holly contributed by making these amazing cupcakes! The figures aren't edible but little toys for each of the kids.

She did a grand job making the cupcakes. I helped with the "hard" parts...but it was mostly her work!

What a great day she had celebrating with a party for Mickey, a visit from Mickey himself (photos to follow...yes I was crazy enough to wear the costume) and even a bouncy castle! Great fun for all!!

The Dummy Fairy - The Meeting

We have finally eliminated the dummy!  And its been really successful.  Phoebe is now 3 so we were keen to get rid of it as soon as we could.  With sickness and illness persisting we hadn't made to much of a big deal about it, but it was about time to lose it.

We had talked to her about hanging it in a tree one night for the dummy fairies to come and take away for the baby fairies and leave in return a thank you present for Phoebe.  That was all due to happen by the end of the week.  But by pure chance, a friend gave us free tickets to The Fairy Shop in Ponsonby.  http://www.thefairyshop.co.nz/Index.aspx

What a perfect opportunity to give her dummy to a real fairy!

It was great.  I had pre-warned the fairy who was a great sport. 

Twice since there have been tears when she wanted the dummy...but these soon ended when we talked about giving it to the dummy fairy.

It was hugely successful so I am very pleased.  Now to work on Hunter!

Phoebe getting fairy dust applied

Getting ready to welcome the fairy

Checking out her fairy make up

Handing over the precious dummy

Holly and the Fairy

Phoebe and the Fairy

The magical fairy room.