on the 12th day of Christmas...

On the 12th day of Christmas the crazy lady said "Let's make a gingerbread house" (clearly delusional as that is really not the priority the day before you fly to Qld for Christmas!)

The kids had an absolute ball with this and the gingerbread is sensational!

What you see: one finished gingerbread house (entirely decorated by children), two very happy children!
What you don't see: the mother realising that we don't have pure icing sugar for the royal icing, and that the icing sugar we have is half a cup short for the recipe, the four cans of tomatoes and one can of baked beans holding the house upright, the thin veneer of royal icing coating the kitchen chairs, the couch, and the baby, and the pile of washing that didn't get put away while we were making this instead!

Wishing you and yours a truly blessed Christmas,
I will be back in the New Year with a giveaway!
Keep smiling,
Nell

On the eleventh day of Christmas....

Remember I said I would tell you what to do with an over-active imagination and a Christmas tea towel?  I bought cheesy aussie animal tea towels as part of my expat SIL's present and then realised that they came with a plain striped dobby-look tea-towel too.  They were kind of cute and a bit like what I had imagined the girls' Christmas skirts to look like so I cut them in half, sewed up the side seams (and because they are already hemmed I left a little split at the bottom as a feature) Run an elastic casing around the top - done!  I cut about 10 cm out of the middle part of Maddie's tea towel and used it for the top of Hannah's to give it a bit of extra length.  Even doing that I had two skirts in less than 15 minutes.  I had visions of showing the girls wearing them but I think I said tea towel once too often in Hannah's hearing and now she is refusing to model it!

I also whipped up some more rocky road last night - macadamia and ginger for my Grandfather and a more traditional one for my Dad (although Dad has considerably less now that my poor forgotten husband started moaning that he was being left behind in the house all alone without proper rocky road sustenance!

On the 10th Day of Christmas....

Last night was the last meeting of our "Christmas Club".  We have been meeting once a month at The Patchwork Apple for the last few years; like-minded ladies who stitch and eat and share stories.  I will miss this little group (and heaven knows how I will ever get my Christmas projects done now!)

On the 9th day of Christmas...

Last night it was our turn to participate in the Lobethal Live Nativity.  This has become a cherished tradition that the kids really look forward to.  I was so proud of my two kidlets!  We had such a great night!  Scary to think that this time last year Maddie was a tiny baby Jesus and this time next year she will be old enough to be a sweet little angel!

on the 8th day of Christmas

On the 8th Day of Christmas my true love sent to me ....a really easy rumball recipe!

Throw a packet of milk arrowroot or milk coffee biscuits into the food processor.  Pulse. Add 1 can condensed milk, 3 tablespoons of rum, a big dollop of cocoa, a cup of coconut and a cup of sultanas (you can use less sultanas and some nuts but we know too many little people with nut allergies).  Hit pulse again and mix until very well combined.

Roll mixture into little balls and get the kids to roll in coconut.

These freeze well in a tupperware container so you can start getting festive in October and look super-organised in December!

on the 7th day of Christmas

These are the gifts that the kids gave their teachers this year.  Rumballs or White Rocky Road (recipe courtesy of Retro Mummy) in cello bags with handmade photo ornaments.  The little Christmas trees looked so sweet with glitter and sequins but I am still finding bits of glitter EVERYWHERE all over the house (even in Maddie's nappy LOL!)

This is one of our Christmas corners with lots of Christmas kitsch that has been collected over the years.
The two big kids and I are off to the Lobethal Live Nativity tonight.  My little angel and shepherd love this tradition.  I am hoping we will get to check out the Christmas Tree festival and some of the Lobethal Lights too.

On the 6th Day of Christmas...

I have been busily making up these sweet little gift bags from http://www.modabakeshop.com/  I am trying to reduce the amount of wrapping paper we use this year so these are perfect for my nieces' presents. They have appliqued t-shirts and I have used some of the same fabric from the appliques so they can use the gift bags as an accesory. The girls have also got sweet little hair accesories from a local crafty mum who has a business called "Unicorns and Fairies" on facebook.

Made up in Christmas fabric these bags are perfect for a little bit of Christmas baking - and I'm thinking they could be easily "themed" into a gardener's bag (with seeds and a trowel), a writer's bag (with nice stationery and stamps), a crafter's bag (now what sort of goodies could be put in there!?) ooh, the ideas are endless; maybe I need to make a few more of them?