Day to Day

Handmade gifts for Christmas

Happy January 1st, 2012!

The lovely Janelle and I did a Christmas swap together this year.  We decided to make or buy 4 items for each other, post off and open on Christmas morning.  Oh, the pain of having to wait until Christmas morning to open my gifts from Janelle!! But, I managed (just) and it was very much worth the agony.

Janelle totally spoilt me with a gorgeous Kirbee Lawler brooch that I had nearly bought for myself several times during December - must have been meant to be!  Plus, a pretty white candle holder - I forgot to photograph that with these gifts, but you can see it at the bottom of my Boxing Day blog post.  

There was also a gorgeous Blythe dress and headband for my Kenner Blythe doll, with the sweetest little matching underskirt. 

As if I wasn't totally spoilt enough already, the final gift that I opened made my heart skip a little beat with delight!  A beautiful handmade patchwork pillow, sewn with a happy bundle of vintage fabric.

Here it is with the delightful deer cushion that my mother-in-law made for me earlier in the month:

The back view:

Isn't it gorgeous?!  Thank you so much Janelle, for all of my sweet gifts - I love them dearly.

Boxing day

A day for playing with new toys.

A day for snuggling and lazing around. 

A day for finding new homes for all those Christmas gifts.

A day for eating left overs, hanging out at home and enjoying that last bit of the festive season together.

Christmas day

There's nothing quite as fun as Christmas morning.  Being woken by little people (5.20am - okay, not so fun!) that are dragging stockings full of gifts, from their bedrooms to the lounge room floor.  Making that early morning cup of tea and watching the presents being unwrapped.  Listening to the squeals of delight as paper gets ripped off presents (Bella) and patiently waiting in agony as James carefully tears each piece of sticky tape away from the paper, before finally opening.

Lego. Books. DVDs. Warhammer. Blythe doll clothes. Nerf water pistols. Clothes. Lollies. Other treasures.

Lunch was a traditional roast at Nan and Pop Goodsell's house, with more gift giving and treats.

{My sparkly toes}

Then home to see my side of the family, unwrap more presents and end the night with wood fired pizza for 15 people! There was a crazy thunderstorm in-between, so that was 15 people jammed into my lounge room - fun, noise and happy times.

{The Territory, full of happy people} 

 I miss Christmas already.

Christmas Eve

Christmas eve always brings much anticipation and excitement.  There were last minute gifts to make and wrap, reindeer food to prepare and sprinkle (in the rain), and our traditional gift opening session at 4pm.

As the evening drew near, we played with presents, skyped, watched Christmas carols and waited for Father Christmas to arrive. 

Christmas morning was an early start.  5.20am. Oh, yes!  I'll share photos of our day tomorrow :) 

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas, from me to you.  

May you all have the most wonderful and magical Christmas, stay safe and be good. xo

Florentine Slice recipe

Thursday was Christmas baking today - rum balls, apricot balls, festive cupcakes and florentine slice.  James and Bella have their cousins over for Christmas, so it was the perfect opportunity for them to apron up and spend the morning cooking together.

There was a whole heap of crushing, chopping and mess going on.  James worked independently to bake up his own batch of goodness for Christmas gifts, while the girls all cooked treats to share over the next few days.

A couple of hours passed and the goodies started to pile up on plates and dishes. Yum! 

{Apricot balls + rum balls} 

One of my favourite Christmas recipes is florentine slice - super easy and so good.  I don't think I've blogged this one before, so here we go:

Florentine Slice...

Base:

200 grams chocolate + extra chocolate to drizzle over entire slice.

Middle - mix these together in a bowl.

2 cups cornflakes, lightly crushed

100 grams (1/2 cup) glace cherries, chopped

1/2 cup chopped nuts (hazelnuts, walnuts or whatever tickles your fancy)

6 dried apricots, chopped

1/4 cup plain flour.

Middle - Melt together on a stove top.

90 grams butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup condensed milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Method:

Line a slice tin with baking paper.  

Preheat oven to 180 degrees (moderate).

Base ---> Melt the chocolate, pour into the slice tin & let set.

Middle ---> Pour the melted ingredients into the dry ingredients. Mix & press onto the chocolate base.  Cook for 15 minutes.  Let cool.

Topping ---> Melt a little bit of extra chocolate and drizzle over the top.  Slice up and enjoy.

{Florentine slice}

 

Mini chocolate Christmas puddings

One our favourite family activities for the festive season is Christmas cooking.  A few days ago Bella decided to kick off our baking with some chocolate Christmas puddings for her Scout party.  We made them last year too, but used a different sweet for the holly.

On a side note, I have always melted our chocolate over a double boiler, but Tamar put me on to microwaving it and it's seriously SO much easier.

Marshemellows, melted chocolate and a selection of red and green M&M's.  We split the M&M's in half for the leaves.  Super fun for little people to make on their own!

When I'm home from Kuala Lumpur next week, we have lots of goodies on our Christmas baking list to do.  I just hope that I'm not too jet lagged (and tired) to see it all through.  Fingers crossed.

Handmade ornaments

Here's a peek at some of our handmade ornaments on the Christmas tree, starting with owls that I made this year and a sweet decoration that my mother-in-law stitched last year:

A paper star (with photo) that James made in early primary school and our red pom-poms from last year.  The pom poms cover our tree, there are so many of them.

The doily star that I made last year - there's a tutorial that I put together HERE, if you'd like to make one too.  My Mum knitted the tiny red/white stocking and Bella made the Christmas angel:

This is a calico Christmas angel that James made in Kindergarten.  Bella made the same angel in Prep, with a little bit more colour than her brothers.  We alternate the angel on the tree every year, so they both have a turn.

Mini cross stitch pictures (by my mother-in-law) and more hand made goodies:

Our tree is covered with handmade goodness, plus a couple of special bought ornaments.  I quite like walking past the Christmas decorating aisle in different stores, not being tempted to come home with new baubles or pretties for the tree.  

The only thing I would like to buy soon are some Christmas lights - ours blew up last year!  We always leave them going all night on Christmas eve, so Santa can find our house.  It's a fun little tradition that we like to do.

Our Christmas gift wrapping

Our Christmas gift wrapping this year was going to be brown kraft paper with traditional red pom poms & simple shipping tags, but something came over me when I went shopping for paper, and I ended up bringing home some super bright and fun wrapping instead.

I teamed the paper with aqua yarn and pom poms, green doilies and a couple of the gifts have handmade owls on them.  

They look cheerful under the tree, but my goodness I was super tired of making pom poms by the end of it all.

How are you wrapping your Christmas gifts this year?

Hello December

A little peek into our last few days:

Christmas colouring, cooking, tree putting up, present wrapping and dreaming of warm days.  Yes, we're officially four days into summer here and sitting around with the heater on, cozy blankets on the sofa and wind/rain outside.

How has your December been so far?