Preparation

Preparations for Christmas are very much under way. And despite Rob working away a lot over the past few weeks, we're all feeling pretty festive, and fairly organised for a change! Although I'm sure that'll change!

Today, after a lovely lunch out with people from church, we added to the few decorations we've been putting up piecemeal style over the last week or so, and put up the tree and my beloved mantelpiece swag.

We got out the nativity scene last weekend, and here is a picture of the girls enjoying playing with it. I always think it'd be lovely to add to it bit by bit as advent progresses, but they have so much fun that overrides my desire for a more ceremonious approach to it.

This was a 6am play session shot!

We also took our annual ride on the Santa Special at Chase Water railway, a fantastic vintage site where we're made to feel so welcome, and the staff (including the santa) spend so much time making the visit feel special. This year I was especially grateful to the "elf" who upgraded Izzy to an over 3 age group present because she knew she'd want to be just like her big sister.

We also received colour your own advent calendars in the post from a friend, which the girls love.

Meg did her school play on Friday, which was really lovely. Christmas round the world saw each class do a song/dance and tell interesting facts about the way Christmas is celebrated in different countries. It was brilliant, and Meg learned loads.

And finally gingerbread making as a quiet Sunday afternoon activity, I'm also planning to make a gingerbread house with them at some point in the week leading up to Christmas.

So all in all definitely feeling the preparative part of advent, just need to crack on and start tidying and finish a last few projects and then we'll be ready to really welcome the festive season.