Our Christmas Day so far....

I was awake at 5am - I'm getting used to this lol!  I was soooo tired after 4 hours sleep, but couldn't get back to sleep, so I got up and took Rosie downstairs - let her out and made a cup of coffee.  Then curled up in my armchair by the Christmas Tree and checked Facebook - unlike most days, FB was busy with all the Moms up and awake early with their excited kids - and some of us Moms, like me, Ki and Brandy, awake BEFORE our kids and wishing they'd wake up lol!!

I had hazelnut coffee with hazelnut Baileys in it :)  yum...in fact I got through rather too many of these this morning :)  

I also got through far too many liqueur chocolates - that Kevin and his Mom sent over from Germany.  

Yum.  Thats all - just YUM!!  :)  

Kevin also sent over the most gorgeous keepsake tin filled with German Christmas goodies:

And a stollen!!  Which is funy because I didn't buy one this year -decided it was too expensive just for me and I wouldn't be able to eat the whole thing - so now I get to have one of my favourite Christmas foods anyway:

One of my gifts was a new craft/ hobby - sculpey clay and tools:

And all the hints paid off - Laurence got me a copy of Ian Sheldons book 'Storm Chaser' :)  Yay!  I love his artwork and am thrilled with this - can't wait to sit down and look through it later:

Our advent calendars are done for the year :(  

Our 'turkey' was not very attractive or appetizing before it went in the oven:

But it tasted AMAZING and the cranberry stuffing inside was soooo good!  I served it with roasties, honeyed and mashed carrot and swede and gravy :)  

This is a charm that I made for my guitar-playing daughter, Susannah:

And two other charms I made this week:

Mmmm Scottish shortbread:

A canvas I painted last week:

My sculpey tools:

I had this on the table for dinner:

Christmas Eve

Today was a bitterly cold day.  -23c but felt closer to -30c.

It was however, a very sunny day with gorgeous blue skies.  

Blinding to drive.  

I started my day off, as always, around 7:30 am with coffee :)

We spent the morning making gingerbread cookies and decorating them. 

 Laurence got home at 11:30 and joined us:

Laurence and I went out to the mall to get a last few things we needed - and we picked up some logs for the fire.  Once home we watched some tv...Laurence slept after wrapping his gifts.

Susannah and I made orange and clove pomanders - which smell lovely :)

We had the fire going and toasted crumpets over it - which reminded us of camping this summer :)

I LOVE having a real fire.  I thought it would be a hassle, but it's just lovely and so cozy :)  

Have a Merry Christmas everyone!!

xxx

A day at the mall...

Susannah and I set off mid morning for West Edmonton Mall.  I love being in the malls right before Christmas - when I have nothing I HAVE to get or HAVE to do :)  We can just stroll around, soak in the atmosphere, enjoy the lights, decorations and music...have coffee...

I was really surprised at how empty the roads were - and the mall was very quiet until about 4pm - but by that time we were leaving anyway.

We went to the World Vision 'One Life' exhibition - you are given and MP3 player and headphones, and walk round an African village, learning about one child from Africa - ours was named Beatrice and she was seven.  Her Parents had died and her older sister was having a baby but then died in childbirth - Beatrice ended up raising her Niece - even though she was only seven herself :(  Then Beatrice had to go to the clinic to be tested for HIV - and thankfully we found out that she was negative.

Now we are watching 'The Holiday' and late tonight we are going to get our fresh groceries.

It's been a lovely festive day :)  

On Tuesday I was sat in the armchair with Sam, snuggled up by the Christmas tree - when there was a knock at the door.  It was a man I didn't recognise - and he had a laundry basket filled with 'stuff'.  I assumed he was selling dishcloths or something hahaha!

He told me that an 'Elf' had left the basket on the wrong doorstep and that it was for me - he handed it to me and it was filled with gifts.  I pushed it back towards him in shock - thinking it couldn't be for me!  But he pushed it towards me again.  I kept saying 'for me'???  'Are you sure'???  'for me'???  haha

He insisted it was for me and from an 'Elf'.

I carried it inside and Sam and Abby started to go through it with me - we were all so puzzled.  The more we looked at, the more we knew it WAS for us - as it was filled with so many of the things we love!  

There was no card or message or anything.

I started crying and was just so overwhelmed...the more we saw the more clues we had as to whom had sent it!  But how?  I didn't even know who the man at the door was!  But a few of the gifts just screamed out that it was a gift from my AMAZING friends.  

It has been such a difficult year for us in so many ways - and I am not with my three of my children for Christmas which is very hard :(  This amazingly thoughtful gift made me feel loved and cared for and accepted for me....and thought of...and just so so VERY grateful for the people in my life.  

Yes 2012 was tough in many ways but I won't look back on it with sadness - the bad times brought so many lessons - but more importantly this year brought me close to the most amazing and wonderful group of friends that I could ever wish for.  

I will never forget this Christmas - not because of bad/ sad moments - but because I will look back on it with love and gratitude - always xxx

This pretty laptop skin was just one of the many things in the basket!! :)

undecided....

I'm growing my hair long but I'm at that stage where I am just SICK of it and want to have it all chopped off!!  I can't get an appt with Amber until January and I really want it done before I head out to celebrate New Year.  Not sure where to go or what to do - Amber would be able to sort it out without chopping it all off but other stylists don't know me.

Mandala art :)

I follow a lady from Edmonton on Instagram and she creates the most stunning art journal pages filled with beautiful mandalas - so tonight while we watched Bad Santa, I sat and doodled :)  

I much prefer these circular mandalas with wavy soft lines as opposed to ones based on stars and straight lines.

This is how it looks so far....I think I will add more to it though :)