Monday 1 December 2008

It's Christmas Time!














It's Christmas time, but it's not Christmas! Explain this to a 2.5 year old who can see wrapped presents under our Christmas tree and can't understand why she can't rip them open. Look at her posing with her pink Lucinda ball! Look at Andrew struggling with the tree! (I was lucky to get this photo as I was laughing so much at him trying to get in the house - reminds me of a very funny mattress incident!)


Andrew went out on Saturday to buy a Christmas tree. His instructions were 'to get the biggest tree that could fit in the car'. As it turns out, that is a very large tree! Especially when the growers use special netting to keep the branches protected. So we ended up with a 10 foot NC-grown fraser fir. Wilmington prides itself on having the world's largest living Christmas tree and I think we are in contention for the largest personal tree at home. It is huge! Thankfully I had stocked up on decorations in January when the sales were on so we had enough to cover the tree.


To take the stress out of Christmas and focus on the real meaning of Christmas we have done a few things to get the stress out of the way!


1. We each get 2 presents only, 1 big and 1 small. All presents were purchased in November, wrapped and are now sitting under the tree. Already I feel a tendency to want to buy more (esp. given the dozen or so catalogues I receive EVERY DAY in the mail) but I am fighting this and will stay firm. We already have more than we need.


2. All Christmas cards have been written and mailed on 1 December.



3. Our calendar is booked. We have locked in various Christmas parties, scheduled the required cookie baking days and now are looking forward to celebrating. (Yes, Australians, it is almost compulsory to bake cookies at Christmas and give them to your friends. This year I am trying out a macademia and milk chocolate cookie from my Lindt cookbook)



Advent calendar


This morning Lucy was very excited to open the first door on the advent calendar! It is a magnetic board that each day reveals a piece of the nativity scene. We read from Luke and then Lucy opened door number 1 to find a star magnet.





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