Today will be an odd day. DH is finally home for the holidays, and we are off to the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway for our (now-) Annual Santa Special trip. We’re all very excited about it, since it really marks the start of our family Christmas Celebrations. Sadly, though, it is the first Anniversary of the loss of my Gran. I’m finding it challenging to juggle the range of emotions that these things make me feel.
I have been focussing on the season, and the children, though. Last night we all camped out under the Christmas Tree, an idea I saw via twitter from Dinosaurs and Octopuses which I just knew that The Girls would love. And they did: no doubt they’ll still be talking about it next year (as will my middle-aged bones)!
gratuitous photo of my festive sweater
Today we made a beautiful snowflake wreath, an idea I’d seen on pinterest from a few cupcake liners. I did the cutting and they did the glueing but I think they did a great job.I’ll have to remember the cupcake liner trick for next year: way easier than cutting up squares of paper.
We also made snickerdoodles from a recipe that Me, The Man and The Baby directed me to on Two Become Four, although to be honest it was inspired by Barbie: A Christmas Carol rather than the fabulous red glitter. Barbie movies have become the ‘new big thing’ in our house, and the mere mention of Snickerdoodles being a British girl’s favourite ‘cookie’ in Victorian England, makes me giggle, but heigh-ho. They did taste yummy.
And, after seeing a few shop assistants who were dressed as Elves, and reminding my Girls that Santa is still watching them, we thought we’d offer the Elves a sweetener in the form of Elf Wands.
Just pop a marshmallow onto a lollipop stick (you could use a candy cane but I used all mine up on our Christmas Cake) dip in melted chocolate, then dip again into a bowl of festive sprinkles. Leave to dry and put a couple out each night in case the Elves feel a little peckish. I confess I did give them a potted version of Tara’s heart-breaking post on why Santa won’t be visiting her daughter in the hope that keeps them on the straight and narrow.
And in other news, I finally finished the wrapping presents and the Christmas Cake decorating. Now you know why we had no candy canes left.
Oh wow! Did you make the snickerdoodles with red colouring and glitter too? I loved them… such over-the-top festiveness!
Love the sweater by the way… I was thinking that we should all get fabulous Christmas sweaters that we could wear year after year… and then I realised that would probably mean buying a new one each year for the twins… so the idea was shelved for a while!
Merry Christmas! x