Christmas 2014

Time for a look back at our Christmas for 2014.

This year we were away on vacation over the Christmas break and we spent the big day in Santa Barbara. The idea of staying in a hotel room over Christmas felt a little weird so I organised a house through AirBnB to stay in rather than a hotel. The logistics of Santa visiting us while we all slept in the same hotel room just seemed too tricky plus I wanted to be able to make a traditional Christmas lunch. I found a cute house on AirBnB that was perfect for our family and the owner was even kind enough to leave up their Christmas tree and decorations for us. That certainly made it feel more like Christmas for the kids.

Merry Christmas 2013

Christmas is now over for another year but I'm still a little behind with the Christmas posts - as usual!

So let's start the catch up with a look at our Christmas Day...

As soon as the girls woke up on Christmas morning they knew that they'd made Santa's nice list thanks to the trail of sparkly, snowy footprints he'd left in the hallway overnight. You can find out how Santa left these footprints here. The footprints lead all the way from our Christmas tree in the lounge room, down our entry hallway and out our apartment door. The girls followed the footprints and discovered that, just like previous years, the footprints lead all the way to our nearest fire stairwell which was obviously Santa's point of entry.

Looks like we've had a jolly visitor overnight

Happy Birthday Ava

Today was Ava's 6th birthday. I can't believe that my oldest baby is 6 years old already!

Seeing as today was also Superbowl Sunday we celebrated her birthday yesterday with a party on our roof top. You may remember seeing it here.

Today had we planned to take Ava and Lola to Oakland Zoo as a birthday treat. We ended up having to put those plans off until next week due to track work on BART causing delays. Never mind. After such a busy day on Saturday it was nice to have a quieter day today. Ava unwrapped presents, we went for a bike ride, we played in the playground at Ava's school, we ate pizza from the Cheeseboard for lunch, we posed for some more photo booth shots and went out for Japanese for dinner. A nice day, even without all of the animals!

Photo booth fun for sisters

Here's a look at Ava's birthday...

Christmas 2012

Well, Christmas is over for another year. I hope you all had a lovely day.

We had a nice Christmas shared with friends who were visiting from Australia. The day was pretty grey and rainy so we spent it inside which, being Australian, we're not really accustomed to. I guess cold Christmases spent indoors are the norm in the Northern Hemisphere but I'm still getting the hang of it! What we certainly are accustomed to however, is the copious amount of food that goes hand in hand with Christmas. Roast turkey, mashed potatoes, cauliflower gratin, sweet potato bake, green beans, sparkling apple cider, Christmas pudding and custard. If it wasn't for the Christmas pudding and custard it pretty much would've been a repeat of Thanksgiving! 

And then of course, there were the copious amount of presents! Both girls were spoiled by Santa, friends and family. Oh, and by us! Ava was super excited that Santa brought her Bouncy, the "electric" dog that she has been going on and on about for months. The damn thing yapped and jumped around in circles all day but Ava didn't seem to mind. She cuddled it all day and even took it to bed with her - where she worked out that turning it off might be a good idea!  Lola had asked Santa for "a present and a ball and a bus". She was pretty excited when the first present she opened was a wooden school bus. Two birds with one stone! The ball was also crossed off her list thanks to a gift from our visiting friends. 

Both Ava and Lola received new wheels for Christmas - a scooter for Ava and a balance bike for Lola. The girls were pretty keen to get out in the courtyard and practise riding but the rain made this a little tricky. An incredibly late lunch followed by Lola's afternoon nap and a bout of vomiting (Lola) then kept us inside for the rest of the day. Luckily Lola was feeling much better by evening. Too many grapes and blueberries for breakfast I think. 

All up we had a nice day - if you don't count the girls going a little stir crazy from being cooped up inside all day or Lola projectile vomiting twice :( 

Here's a look at our Christmas day - minus the vomit...

Christmas family photo

Home Grown Pickles

As you would have seen in my last post today was Ava's pre-school graduation day.

Ava's teacher was also "graduating" from pre-school after 26 years of service. All the children and parents contributed to a group present, however Ava really wanted to give her teacher something special just from herself.

Ava's teacher really loves pickles. In the past Ava has given her teacher several pickle related presents; a simple jar of pickles for Valentine's Day and "Pickle Party Beans" (green jelly beans) for her birthday. We needed to come up with a new pickle themed idea for a graduation present.

As Ava's teacher is retiring and plans to spend her time gardening we thought she might like to grow her own pickles.  One jar, a few packs of Pickling Cucumber seeds and a half dozen hand drawn labels later and we had our gift.

Teacher Meri's Home Grown Pickles kit

My Mother's Day 2012

Now that I've shown the cards we made to give out on Mother's Day I thought I'd share what my girls made for me. Ok, what Ava made for me. Lola's still a little young for much creative input :)

Ava decorated a plant pot a grew a petunia from seed for me at pre-school. It had two lovely pink flowers on it when she gave it to me but I didn't get around to taking a photo of it before they fell off. As you can see from the photo she had a little help from her American teachers with the spelling on my card!

Ava also made me another lovely card featuring the girls and I at the park. I love the shape of the dresses we're wearing. Very 1950's party frock!

Another little crafty surprise that Ava made for me is a little treasure box full of pictures and jokes to make me happy when I'm having a bad day. Ava made this at a workshop at the newly opened Family Book Lab here in Berkeley. You can see Ava's little creation there on their webpage :)
One little envelope in the treasure box contained my favourite joke...
Q. What happened to the blind skunk?
A. He fell in love with a pop off!
I hope the teacher got a little giggle out of that one when she wrote it out for Ava!

I was also spoilt by Kim and the girls on Mother's Day with a gift of my favourite luxury splurge item: a Diptyque Baise candle. Our house smells like heaven :)

And then there was the gift to myself, a much overdue cut and colour. Goodbye year old regrowth!

Mother's Day with my girls (and my new hair) in Yerba Buena Gardens

We had quite a quiet Sunday at home for the most part. We did venture into the city for a little iceskating in the afternoon though. Kim entertained Lola while Ava and I skated around and around the rink. Ava tried giving me tips on how to do swizzles, backwards swizzles and one foot glides but I was content with just making it around in one piece! No need for tricks! I need a bit more practise yet before I'm at the same level as my little skater :)

Ava and I on the ice

I hope all the mums (or moms) out there had a lovely day :)