Santa Photos

So it's that time of year when the jolly old man starts appearing in the shops, yep it's Santa time!

We have run the gauntlet so to speak with my daughter and Santa photos. I remember very clearly her first Santa photo, she was not at all keen. We basically backed her into Santa's lap, ran for it and let them click. The photo is priceless! The next year she was again not at all keen and Mummy had to be in the photo too (oh joy!) The next year we started early and took her to see Santa every time we were at the local shops. By the end of the season this added up to about 20 times and by the end of the season she was very familiar with Santa. Infact the Santa we had most of the time (cause he has to have a break sometime!) remembers my daughter and from that year on they were on a first name basis.

Santa arrived at our local shops just this last weekend and even though it had been a whole year he didnt forget our Ella, he addressed her by name and they then had a photo. Our Santa is just a lovely old man and I am so glad he puts that little extra effort in to make the kids feel extra special.

Every year we get a Santa photo for us and one for the grandparents. I used to frame them and then would acquire a new frame every year. This worked well in the beginning but we were running out of space so it was just not going to work long term.

So what I decided to do was to showcase the latest Santa photo in a nice Christmas frame and then I scrapbooked the previous years in a little scrapbook just for Santa photos.

Here is a pic of the frame for the current year

And this is my Christmas scrapbook album

We are lucky that now my daughter adores Santa and we must visit him at every opportunity. I am dreading the day that she feels she is too old for a Santa photo.

How do those of you at home handle Santa photos is it a drama or a delight?

Christmas For Classmates

I got to thinking the other day what were we going to do in regards to classmates and Christmas.

When my daughter was in prep there was a few Christmas cards here and there but no real precedent on what to do. Now that she is in Kindergarten it is much the same and I am left wondering what, if anything, to do. I am personally a big believer in that it is better to give than to receive. I think it is nice to do something small for the people you have spent the last year learning with and becoming friends with.

However when you have 16 other kids in your class it is not something that i want to go overboard with. I decided to take a look at our local shops to see what type of items were avaliable and I found these cute little erasers in The Reject Shop of all places. They were only $2 a pack and are the perfect little gift.

We will be putting them inside a cute little Christmas card which ill have my daughter sign her name to. She has also decided that she will be picking which eraser goes to which classmate which I think is great as it involves her more in the process. We will probably do them over the weekend and they will then go into school to be handed out. Nice and simple but still something to show our appreciation and Christmas spirit.

Speaking of presents, I am racking my brain on what to get my daughters teacher for a Christmas present...but more on my ideas and thoughts on the subject tomorrow.

Next up is to decide on a teachers present, that's the hard one

The Art Of Storing Art

So it is on its way whether we like it or not, the end of the school year. This means many things in our household including Christmas Pageant, Ballet Concert, Dress Rehearsals and the inundation of Artwork.

My daughter is in Kindergarten this year and their teacher has done a beautiful job of decorating their classroom with all their lovely artwork, it is plastered from wall to ceiling...literally. So I know that when this starts to filter home there is going to be alot of it. The artwork is beautiful and I am very excited to get it all home and store it. I guess you are wondering how I do that?

Before I start let me say that this is just what works for me, there are a myriad of ways in which to do it. I like to sort my daughters artwork by age. So I have albums for each age, and in some years multiple albums. My daughter is a little artist so I have lots. I am lucky that my daughter is a December baby so I can really do it by calendar year which is great.

I like to use the A3 albums, I usually buy them from Officeworks, but I have found them in my local Hot Dollar store for an even better price. I then stick the artwork in the album and label it. The label usually just states what the artwork is. Because I have to print off labels for every piece I tend to do it once a term as it is just easier. Until I am ready to do this I file all the pending art away in a folder.

This is the type of album I use

I label the front with my daughters age at the time and the number art album it is (for years that have multiple albums)

Here is some examples of inside

 

This is my folder which I keep artwork in until I am ready to sit down and collate the album

* Please excuse the quality of the pics, my mum has our digital camera with her on her trip to Thailand so my phone was the best i could do

Some people might find something better to work for them, but this works for me. I personally like that I can keep the artwork together and that we can view it whenever we like. Some people do not like the idea of having the artwork stuck in a book and may use plastic sleeves to slip the artwork in instead, which is fine. This way is what I like. To me it's a keepsake for the future and I am sure my daughter will love it one day.

But the inevitable ends up happening. They scribble on a piece of paper and its just not quite worth keeping if that doesn't make me sound like a bad parent. I am all for keeping my daughters artwork but some pieces are just not album quality. I tend to put all the artwork we are not albuming in a pile and I then put this in a cupboard. After a few weeks if it is not asked about I will gift onto the grandparents and some pieces well.... they are just "recycled". I am all for keeping the important stuff but you just cant keep everything.

So this is what works for us. I am a real album person, I have scrapbook albums, photo book albums and artwork albums so this system works great.

Take this as some inspiration and find something that works for you and your kids. My advice, which coincidently is the same as my advice for someone wanting to scrapbook, start now!. It so hard to catch up so it is so much easier to start when they are young. As playing catch up is hard.

So that's my system, hope it helps someone.

Tis The Season For DVD's

Ok so now that it's November I don't feel bad about inundating you all with blog posts about Christmas!

One of my favourite things about Christmas is the time that we get to spend as a family (as my hubby has time off from work) and the things that we get to do together. One of the things that I really like to do as Christmas gets closer is to have movie nights where we watch a Christmas movie and eat popcorn or some other yummy treat.

Because of this ritual we have amassed quite a large collection of Christmas movies and I must admit there are some really fantastic ones and some that I could do without. My daughter is almost 6 and I think that these movies are suitable for most kids around this age and above. Some are suitable for younger audiences too.

This is a list of the Christmas movies, in my opinion, which are fabulous and are a must for any families collection

* The Santa Claus Trilogy - These movies star Tim Allen and wonderfully demonstrate the true meaning of Christmas

* Elf - Buddy is just adorable in this movie and it has such a good story and a wonderful message

* Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer - A classic!

* Frosty The Snow Man - Another classic. I remember watching both these movies as a kid

* Muppets Christmas Carol - Love the Muppets and they tell this story beautifully

* Mickeys Once Upon A Christmas - Gorgeous Christmas movie for kids

* Barbie Perfect Christmas - A great Christmas story for any Barbie fan, has some great songs too

Christmas movies I have gotten or plan on getting this year are
* Christmas With The Kranks

* National Lampoons Christmas Vacation (this one might not be suitable for the kids)

* Miracle on 34th Street

* Disneys A Christmas Carol (I have seen this on Austar and it is really good, perhaps a little too scary for some sensitive or young kids)

Christmas movies we have that are questionable
* The Smurfs Christmas Carol - We bought this last year and I have to say not the best investment. The dvd cost $30 and it runs for about 30 mins. It is cute but one you could do without, epecially at that price! $1 a minute, no thanks

* Nightmare Before Christmas - I thought that this one was not too bad but proved just too scary for my daughter so we couldnt enjoy it. Perhaps when she's older

We try and do a Christmas Movie in our house every Saturday night once December hits, but because we have so many good ones we usually find time to fit in another one on Sunday night!

I'm a big kid so I think i enjoy them as much as my daughter does.

Hope this list gives some of you some great movie ideas to watch and enjoy with your loved ones.

Christmas Shopping!

It is just over 8 weeks till Christmas! How'd that happen? It all seemed to come around so fast, I remember just yesterday I was posting on Facebook that there was 19 weeks till Christmas and well here we are.

I love shopping and shopping for Christmas presents is no exception. Some people have a list a mile long of people to buy for and others only have a small family..either way how do you tackle it? I figure like all good things you need a plan.

I personally like to make a list of who I need to buy for and what I think might be good for them.
This then seems to give me some sort of direction when I hit the local shops and am easily distracted by the all the pretty things. By having a plan I figure you have a focus.

I generally plan to hit the shops and get all the presents I need in one go. I have been finding though that it is beneficial to be open to it all year round. Quite often something will pop up and it is perfect and you just know if you leave it and come back it will be gone. So I guess in this regard my plans tend to evolve with how productive the year has been.

If you are lucky sometimes things just fall into your lap. This has been the case with my mother in laws gift. My mother in law is obsessed with pelicans, I mean they are beautiful creatures but she is truly in love with them. My 5 year old daughter will even point one out if she sees one and tells me "there is a pelican for nan". In the beginning it was easy, I mean we bought ceramic pelicans, wood pelicans, material pelicans, steel pelicans, pelican magnets, pelican windchimes, pelican ornaments and even pelican bags but it is now becoming slim pickings, try it, trust me it is not easy!  Then I ran into a lady at a local market that handmakes sculptures - 1 pelican please and we are done.

I like to have all my shopping done by 1 December so I can feel all organised. I find my daughter the easiest to buy for and often pop things in the cupboard as I go through the year. I think it is kinda hard with kids though because there interest changes as often as their clothes.

So my method is a list of good ideas and the flexibility of abandoning it if something better comes along. Plus embracing the possibilty of buying things through the year and storing them away till the jolly man makes his entarance!

How do you organise your Christmas shopping? and is it done, in progress, not started?

Halloween Time

Well it's almost that time of year again! Halloween. I really think it doesn't matter whether you love it or you don't, whether you think it's an American thing or you imbrace it here, one thing is for sure kids love it!

We had the wonderful pleasure of seeing Halloween in full swing about 3 years ago. We went to Disneyland when my daughter was 2 (and twice more since then, including just this August) and we were totally immersed in it. I think this is where my love of Halloween began. Just seeing how much fun people were having, how they whole heartedly imbraced it and how magical it really was.

We don't do Halloween in the traditional sense, my daughter does not go trick - or- treating, but she does dress up, hand out lollies if people so happen to come by and we decorate somewhat. It's just fun.

I love to decorate for every holiday and Halloween is no exception! I tend to try and buy something new each season. It is generally just something small and only costing a few dollars but it's fun none the less.

These are my recent purchases to get you in the Halloween mood

Our Pumpkin Bucket

Halloween Plates

Halloween Ice Cube/Chocolate Moulds

Here is a pic of my daughter during her Halloween at Disneyland. The look on her face says it all really.

Happy Halloween!

That's What Friends Are For

I remember back to when I was at school and how it was so important just how many friends you had. It seemed that the more friends you had the better of a person you were. Now i'm all old and grown (I'm 32... just) with some life experience behind me I see friendships a little differently. I also know that you don't need to be surrounded by people to be happy. Sometimes you can feel alone in a crowded room, it's the people who are in the room that make it. Just like its the friends in your life that make those friendships so special.

Almost a year ago now I had a hard time in my personal life and it was this event that showed me who my real friends were. Prior to this I had some idea but this really confirmed it for me.

There were some people at that time who were very obviously just trying to get the latest gossip or information on the situation. These are the people who I no longer have time for. But there were some who were very wonderful, my 2 best friends in particular really showed support of me in that time and I thank them alot.

This experience has made me see that it is the quality of friends not the quantity that is important and that's a lesson i'll always keep for the rest of my life.

I just wanted to take this time to thank my real friends :)