Ballerinas and Gingerbread

The last few days before Christmas saw a flurry of Christmas activities for our family. We visited the Victorian Christmas fair in Nevada City, were dazzled by the Zoo Lights display at Oakland Zoo, were entertained by a production of the Nutcracker and checked out the giant gingerbread house at the Fairmont Hotel. Phew, what a lot of Christmas fun! Of course, on top of all that there was last minute shopping, wrapping and decorating. It's amazing we weren't all Christmased out by the big day.

We've already seen the Victorian Christmas fair and Zoo Lights so let's have a look at the Nutcracker and giant gingerbread house...

Looking very much like Christmas at the Fairmont Hotel

Zoo Lights at Oakland Zoo

Every December Oakland Zoo lights up the night in a festive way with its Zoo Lights display. We haven't made it there in the past but this year it happened to appear as an activity on our advent calendar. So one night last week we headed off to the zoo after dark and took in the spectacle of lights.

Lola loved the colorful lights

That Cheeky Elf: Week 4

Elfie Pokie Nokie has flown back to the North Pole to stay with Santa for another year.

Here's a look at his last few days in our home this Christmas...

On day twenty two we found Elfie playing a game of Uno with one of Ava's teddy bears. From the look of that hand I'd say that Elfie has picked up some of Ava's cheating techniques. The good old "shuffle the cards so that you get all the good ones" trick!

Looks like Elfie has been cheating at Uno

A Victorian Christmas

Last weekend we traveled back in time to the Victorian era.

Ok, night quite, but we did travel to the Victorian Christmas in Nevada City. Despite the name, Nevada City is actually a small town in California - not a city in Nevada! It is located in the Sierra Nevada about a two and a half hour drive north-east of San Francisco. Every December the town plays host to a Victorian Christmas fair. The setting could not be more perfect. Being an old Gold Rush town, Nevada City is full of beautiful Victorian architecture. Broad Street which forms the main thoroughfare of the Christmas fair is particularly pretty with views over the surrounding forest.

At 2,500 feet above sea level Nevada City sees much cooler Winter temperatures than the Bay Area. While it was quite a pleasant day when we visited it was clear from the piles of snow that we spotted around the place that it had recently been much colder. How beautiful would it have been had it snowed lightly while we were there? That would've been amazing.

The Christmas fair attracts huge numbers of visitors as you can see from my photos. The fair features many local vendors and old fashioned entertainment including musicians, carolers, jump rope and ring toss games for the kids, balloon artists and many people dressed in their finest Victorian attire - even Santa and Mrs Claus.

Ava receives a candy cane from some of the Victorian characters strolling the fair

The girls with Victorian Santa and Mrs Claus

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

That Cheeky Elf: Week 3

It has now been three weeks since Elfie Pokie Nokie made his appearance back in our home and it seems he's been having just as much this week as the last two.

Here's a look at what he's been up to...

On the fifteenth day Elfie was pleased to discover that we finally had a Christmas tree. We found him perched up near the top after a night of tree climbing. 

Elves and Christmas trees go hand in hand

Printstagram Calendar Giveaway

This give away is now closed.

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It's no secret. I take a LOT of photos. My trusty camera is almost always by my side and for those moments when it's not, my iPhone is always ready to snap a shot. Those iPhone shots inevitably end up on Instagram, then Facebook, then Twitter, then maybe my blog...

While those iPhone shots tend not to be as high quality as the photos taken with my real camera, they often end up becoming my favourites. They're usually more candid and capture brief moments in time when I wasn't actually planning on taking a photo. Plus the right Instagram filter can make a big difference.

While my photos may be everywhere digitally, I don't really have that many printed photos in my home. The era of digital photography has all but brought an end to that. There's no need for bulky photo albums filling up book shelves or shoe boxes of photos stashed away in cupboards. Whenever I want to see my photos I can just look on my computer, iPad or phone. While I love the convenience of digital photography and the easy, space saving storage I've got to admit that I do miss having printed photos around. Not albums and albums worth mind you, just the special photos that make me smile.

That's where Social Print Studio's Printstagram comes in handy. Printstagram offers various high quality printing options for your Instagram photos including archival quality prints, mini books, stickers, posters and greeting cards. The Social Print Shop has a great range of display options for your printed photos. I quite like the concrete photo block shown below.