Christmas 2011

I feel very spoiled this Christmas! Our whole family was very blessed indeed. A very lovely reminder of God's lavish love for us, particularly in Jesus - praise be to God for his indescribable gift!

Our first Christmas celebration was spent up in Buderim the Tuesday before Christmas with Jon's maternal rellies. It turned into a much later night than planned due to having a jolly good time :) Abigail particularly enjoyed all the excitement, but by 9pm she was asking for bed (thank you Bruce and Karen for the use of your bed for the girls!). Good company and good food (again, thank you B & K!).

We spent Christmas itself up in Bundaberg with my Grandma - a real treat given that it has been years since I last had Christmas with her. We were thoroughly spoilt with presents and food, and in being able to do very little in general! Thank you Grandma!

While in Bundaberg we found a great park nearby with a neat play area and a mini 'zoo' that was open. The kids loved looking at all the animals (birds, emus, ostrich, chickens, geese, goats, sheep.....); and playing - particularly the slides and swings. On Boxing Day Jon and I did some water-blasting (to help work off that Christmas food! Kidding!).

We got home yesterday (and immediately went swimming - our air con decided not to work for the long journey home, for some reason it's not sharing with us!). It was a great Christmas. A big thank you to all our family and friends who gave us such wonderful gifts - love them and love you! :)

Happy Christmas!

Wedding anniversary

It was 3 years ago today that we walked (bounced?) back down that aisle (to the Shrek version of "Then I Saw Her Face") as husband and wife! And it's 10 years on Christmas Eve since we first met and fast became best friends. Much to celebrate!

A new tradition I am starting on our anniversary is to do 12 Days of Christmas for Jonathan (13th-24th December). So starting today, each day up to Christmas I have a little something planned to give or do for Jonathan. I have decided that each year, Day One is going to be a poem I write for him, so this morning he got his poem (I would say I also got him an iced coffee for his lunch with our anniversary date on it, but buying such on clearance because today is it's best before date doesn't sound too romantic!). I have really enjoyed planning the rest of the 11 days and getting the different gifts wrapped and made. It has been hard not sharing my plans with him!

And we finally got our wedding portrait framed and hung (rather, I finally found a frame that was the right dimensions on clearance at Harvey Norman and popped the photo in it; it's not the colour we wanted but it does the job!).

For anyone else interested in the 12 Days of Christmas for your husband idea, I got it from this blog post:

http://www.passionatehomemaking.com/2011/12/on-the-first-day-of-christmas-my-true-love-gave-to-me.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+PassionateHomemaking+%28Passionate+Homemaking%29

It can be as inexpensive as you want it to be; I think it's a great way to deliberately love and honour our husbands. Jonathan has been looking forward to it as much as me!

Sarah's Birthday

A year has passed since Sarah's birth! I still remember the labour and birth well - a positive experience (even if it was intense and painful!); an unexpected home birth! To think it's been a year already!

I have delighted in my chubby happy chappy so much; I wasn't able to do that fully with Abigail as the first 4 months with her were spent struggling to overcome various breastfeeding troubles and then pregnancy sickness, so it has been a joy to be able to do so with Sarah. I love my little cutie!

Sarah means princess, or noble lady. Our prayer is that she would be a noble woman of God; a princess - a  child of the King.

The Cake

 

(Gluten/dairy/refined sugar free cheesecake topped with mango - yum!)

Christmas is Coming!

"Christmas is coming!" says Abigail each day! And it is coming indeed. We put our Christmas tree up at the end of November and have started playing Christmas hymns through the days. I have posted off presents and cards to all our family overseas and out of state (which is nearly all of you!). And now I'm turning my thoughts to making Christmas goodies (Jonathan has requested White Christmas and Chocolate Balls; I'm still picking my gluten and dairy free treats to make).

Christmas feels exciting this year. Now that the girls (Abigail particularly) are able to engage in the celebrations somewhat, the meaning of the season is coming alive again; being able to teach them about the coming of Jesus and the love of God represented in Christmas is exciting! The message feels fresh again. I love the little children's books I've picked up to read to them - simple and colourful, yet so full! I look forward to seeing what Christmas traditions we establish as Abigail and Sarah become older.

And of course, Christmas is about families coming together. This is a little tricky when they're mostly overseas, so it was really exciting to find a bunch of family videos from my family on a flash drive that was sent to us recently. The girls love watching their NZ Grandad and Grandma, and their NZ aunties and uncles talking to them. I enjoy watching them too - so thankful for the technology that helps close the distance. I have made a photo board with all our family on it. Abigail loves to look at it and name everyone (given that she has 9 uncles, that's pretty impressive!).

As for the girls, Abigail currently loves drawing. She spends a lot of time sitting at the desk or table scribbling away - she comes downstairs first thing and draws and asks to draw as I tuck her into bed at night :)

 
Sarah is currently loving her ability to walk - she walks up and down the house all the time. Gone is the spider crawl of hers that I did so love! Crawling is out, walking and climbing is in. Sarah is also into the book stage now; it's very cute watching her snuggle in with a book.

 Jonathan has been working a few gigs the past couple of weekends so we look forward to having time together this weekend. We will be celebrating Sarah's first birthday and our 3rd anniversary - Sizzlers here we come!

I went to a mum's pamper morning on the weekend. It was nice to be able to sit and talk without having to keep an eye on the girls (Jonathan took them Christmas shopping). I got my nails painted (and blinged!) and had a shoulder massage. Never got the coveted facial, but I did get a surprise letter from my husband which made me laugh and feel very special and loved. And he even brought a mango smoothie with extra mango with him when he picked me up - yum! I had forgotten to pack some gluten free food for the morning, oops; had been too focused on making sure I had enough snacks packed for the girls, so the smoothie was much appreciated!

May the joy and delights of the coming season be yours!