Category Archives: Christmas

St. Nikolaus & the Shoes

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I have picked up many a customs and traditions along my life as a nomad.  One of these is St. Nikolaus, from my time living in Germany.  On the Eve of December 5th, children put out a boot or shoe outside of their front door.  In the morning the children find that St. Nikolaus has filled it up with gifts and sweets after checking to see if the children were ‘good, polite, and helpful the last  year’.  The boys woke me up as they were opening up their goodies from their shoes.  There were candy canes, lego figures, toy airplanes, and a helicopter.  It is a nice tradition I have enjoyed thus far with my kids.  ‘Morty the Moose’ left some moose paper for the boys to make paper chains with today. They enjoyed the craft and we will have fun growing the chain through out the month.  
Maddox holding the candy and toys left in his shoe.
St. Nicholas came and filled the boys shoes with candy and small toys. 
Crumpets with jam and clotted cream
Ronan and Maddox at school. 
Lamb with sweet potatoes and roasted veggies.
Step One: Folding the wrapping paper in strips.

Step 2: Cut along the fold to create long strips.
Step 3: Cutting into smaller strips

Step 4: Fold strips into loops and tape to secure.  Add another strip into the loop and repeat.
Step 5: Hang up on the wall

Our hanging decoration.

Our Polar Express Christmas bells from  Christmas 2008
Bows, cookie cutters, bells, ornaments, and lights. 

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Candy Canes in London before headed back home on the train. 
Yesterday my partner and I took my boys to London for the day and I posted photos from when we played in the leaves.  Here are the rest of the photos from our adventure out in London to experience the Christmas atmosphere.  We started at the German Christmas market where we enjoyed hot cocoa that tasted like melted chocolate bars, ate yummy goulash soup from a bread bowl, and got to sample one of my favourites, German Rittersport chocolate. The boys were read for a lot of photo ops and so this blog post is quite picture heavy.  I ended with our time at Hamey’s, the toy store in London and some of the beautiful Christmas lights seen around town.  I hope you enjoy, as we had a lot of fun together in London. 

Merry Elfmas from Ronan & Maddox

Ronan and Maddox in the Winter Wonderland, the German Christmas market
The Moose that sings and talks!
My three men!
Love all the Christmas ornaments and crafts. Especially the Owls and Moose.
 Gluhwein anyone?
The Hot Cocoa tasted like melted chocolate bars. 
Maddox loved all the animal puppets. Here he is begging for one, “Puhlease!”
Walking down the street of the German Christmas market in London
Potato Pancakes? Yes please!
Ronan and Maddox with the Ringing Father Christmas
Ronan and Maddox with the skiing Father Christmas
Ronan and Maddox with the Nutcracker
Maddox with his German chocolate
Ronan and Maddox with the Snowman
Ronan and Maddox with the snowman familia
Maddox with Father Christmas
Ronan with Father Christmas

Mummy giving a Shaka with Father Christmas! Aloha! Mele Kalikimaka! 
Hard Rock Cafe has their tree up
The Ritz
The main shopping street where Hamey’s is located.
Boys playing with fake snow at the Hamey’s toy store
Ronan and Maddox really enjoyed all the Harry Potter items at Hamey’s Toy Store
These airbrush pens at Hamey’s Toy Store really won the boys over. They both love crafts and art. 

Ronan and Maddox each got a complimentary blow up ball.  They thought it was magic! 
My favourite store!
My favourite window of Tiffany’s
London at Night

Leaves in London

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All week we have been talking about taking the boys to London.  Originally I was going to take them in the morning and go to the National History Museum to see the dinosaurs. Unfortunately I lost my debit card the night before and was not able to leave for London until my partner returned from work on Sunday.  Despite our late start, the four of us headed on the train into London ready for an adventure.  We started the day with some warm pastys, pizza, and sausage rolls and then headed over to the Buckingham Palace.  Last time we came here they had scaffolding all over the place, so it was really nice to be able to take photographs today.  It was quite cold out and so we were all bundled up in our coats, hats, and gloves. Our next stop was Hyde park where I had wanted to recreate a photograph from my childhood.  Though making plans are fun, today was definitely the day to learn flexibility and to be spontaneous instead.  Upon arriving into Hyde park we noticed a mass amount of fallen leaves and so I will be blogging out Autumn leaves again.  What can I say?  I am still quite excited about experiencing different seasons after so many years of just ‘Summer’.  The four of us made huge piles of leaves and Maddox was first to tunnel inside and be covered up.  Ronan joined in the fun and we started getting a lot of really cute photographs.  I think they had the most fun running and diving into the piles of leaves.  Then again any chance for a spontaneous leaf fight will bring smiles and giggles to young and old.  Afterwards we went to the German Christmas market and Hamley’s Toy Store.  I will blog about these tomorrow and leave you with some of the best photographs from the first part of our trip to London. 
Ronan & Maddox playing in the London leaves. 
Ronan having a meltdown moment in front of Buckingham Palace, because his dad took his pizza out of his hand to hide it from the camera.

Ronan and Maddox diving into the leaves!

Playing in the leaves with my two boys!

Ronan getting ready to aim and fire leaves at his dad while Maddox gets an armful. 

Ronan takes fire from leaves that were thrown by his dad.

Not even the photographer (myself) is free from the leaves. Maddox is ready to throw leaves at me as I point my camera at him. 

Christmas Tree

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 Today was the first day that we started playing Christmas songs at work.  Luckily they are laced in with the regular songs, so I think they will be enjoyable through the Holidays without getting over played.  When I stepped outside of work tonight, I noticed all the Christmas lights were up down the street in Burgess Hill.  It was very beautiful and seeing Christmas lights are one of my favourite elements of the season.  Upon coming home I decided I was in need of some holiday cheer. So the boys and I put up our Christmas tree.  I found this one the other day at a charity shop, originally from Marks & Spencers, for only 5 quid.  The boys and Ryan had gotten decorations from IKEA on their shopping trip today and so we got to decorate the tree together after dinner.  We have a red and silver theme this year, and it looks very Christmas-y in the corner.  I do miss my Blue and Silver ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ tree from Hawai’i.  But I look forward to building up our Christmas decor while we are living here in England.

Burgess Hill is lit up with Christmas lights. 
Ronan and Maddox decorating our tree
Our Christmas Tree 2011

Holiday Make up

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I love sparkle.  It is that special word that makes diamonds so appealing to my eyes. However diamonds are expensive and I do not own one yet.  I do however have glitter, and that is this girl’s next best thing.  Today for work I used Urban Decay’s glitter eyeliner wand in silver above my black maybelline liquid liner and finished my Chanel mascara.  I got a lot of compliments at work from clients about my holiday make up.  I am going to see what other holiday looks I can do for the next month. 

Gingerbread Houses & More

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Tonight’s Christmas craft was this Gingerbread house.  Ronan and Maddox had fun but wished it was edible so it could be eaten later.  Maybe we will have time next month to make a real gingerbread house to fulfill their wish.  I am not sure how easy it will be to find a gingerbread house kit here in England.  So far I have not seen one and that would mean we would have to make one from scratch.  Could be a fun adventure with gingerbread and sweets!  If all else fails and it crumbles, we can eat the evidence. 
Ronan and Maddox with our finished Gingerbread house. 
Gingerbread house has a very glittery roof. 

Decorated with lots of candy and sweets!

Today Maddox brought home a Christmas wreath that he made yesterday with his class.  The parents of his reception class were invited to stay in the morning to help them with the Christmas craft activities they were doing with the kids in Nursery.  Maddox got to hand paint on a Christmas tree, make a decoration for the tree, decorate part of a snowman, fill in the colour on Santa’s sleigh, and make a Christmas wreath.  There was lots of paper, paint, glue, and glitter involved and much fun was had by all.  I really enjoyed getting to spend the special time with Maddox in his class.

Green handprints to decorate the tree at Maddox’s school
Maddox decorated his ornament for the tree. 
Maddox with his decorated ornament…with a quite a lot of glitter!

A sleigh ride decorated with paper and material in different colours.

Decorating a snowman with scrunched up paper. 

Last craft was to make and decorate his own Christmas Wreath which he got to bring home today.
Ready to Deck the Halls with Christmas Cheer! 

Nativity Scene

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We received yet another package from Mimi and Papa in Illinois which contained even more craft supplies for Christmas.  The boys are still wanting to do something every night from what we have so far, but my partner and I have been trying our best to pace the boys.  Tonight we were going through the supplies for the Nativity costumes and so it felt fitting to make our nativity scene.  We did not have any directions to follow, so the boys used the finished photo of the craft to figure out how to put it together.  They enjoyed putting together the three Kings which had the most assembling required.  Ronan finally took down the left over Halloween decorations from the shelf and we put them aside to make room for the Christmas crafts.  Below is a photo of the finished scene, but we will be hiding the Baby Jesus until it is time for him to arrive as to keep with the Nativity story.  With the craft spirits still going strong, Ronan went on to colour photos and made a very nice Batman one.  Perhaps he could visit the Nativity scene to see Baby Jesus too?  
Our Christmas shelf with the Nativity scene that the boys put together. 
The boys ready for the challenge of putting together a Christmas craft. 

What is more Christmas-y than Batman? Ronan’s drawing this evening.